The idea is a simple one: Put a good team against a not-so-good team and the former should prevail. The Harvard men's soccer team got this idea yesterday, drubbing MIT, $-1, at the Engineer's Steinbrenner Field.

The annual opening-day rout was no surprise for the Crimson: you have to go into the last decade to find MIT's last triumph in the series. But Harvard's latest win was accomplished with impressive style.

Sophomore John Catliffe needed only 11 minutes both to open the Crimson's scoring and notch the game winner. Taking a good pass from fleet-footed senior Frank Alerte, the transfer student from the University of British Columbia blasted a 12-yarder past Engineer goalkeeper Robert Noecker five minutes into the match.

Five minutes later, Catliffe tallied again from 22 yards on a slick pass from senior midfielder Jay Hooper to give the Crimson the only goals it needed.

Other Goals

But sophomore stopper lan Hardington added two goals-one in the first half off a poor MIT corner kick clearance and the next on a second half penalty kick-and sophomore Frank DiFalco tacked on another to complete the Crimson attack.

Solid play in the midfield, which second-year Coach Jape Shattuck predicted would be the squad's preseason strength, clinched the Crimson win. Hooper scrambled all over the field where field where needed, and wing halfbacks Pablo Keller-Sarmiento and Glenn Brack had enough space to make piercing runs from the flank.

Lion Taming

Shattuck said he was pleased by his troops organization on defense and measured attack from its own half. The Crimson will need the same kind of execution when it meets two-time Ivy League champ Columbia Saturday at 11 a.m.

"They're a team composed of people who don't have bad games," said Shattuck. The Lions have added a U.S. junior national team member and an English schoolboy international player to the lineup that edged the booters 2-1 in overtime last season.

THE NOTEBOOK: For the record-shots, Harvard 28, MIT 6; corner kicks, Harvard 12, MIT 3, saves, Harvard 1, MIT 12. Senior Captain Leo Lanzillo missed yesterday's match with a hamstring pull, but said he hopes to play Saturday.