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Up-and-Down Season Continues;

Booters Beat Hartwick, 1-0

By Kevin Carter

Maybe Harvard Coach Jape Shattuck might to stick his squad's schedule with nationally ranked opponents.

Because for the second time in two weeks, the Harvard men's soccer team might one of the nation's finest squads.

Its stunning 1-0 victory Saturday over Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. came just several days after its second loss of the year to a relatively weak squad.

There's been neither rhyme nor reason to the Crimson's fortunes this year, except that it's had some amazing success against highly touted squads and some amazingly poor showings against everyone else.

Saturday's shocker was a very important one for all parties involved with Harvard soccer. The victory--which upped the Crimson's record in 2-3 overall--was especially sweet for Shattuck, who began big collegiate coaching career at Hartwick, whose athletic department invests a lot of time and money on the world's game. In addition, Crimson Assistant Coach Robert Cuddy played his collegian soccer in Onsonta.

For the Crimson booters, the victory was arguably the most important of the season. Harvard entered the contest with a record of 1-3, and with its hopes for post-season play growing dimmer with every loss.

Saturday's showdown with the Warriors, played in front of hundreds of warmongers, was chiefly a defensively-oriented and midfield-dominated contest, with the only score coming on a successful penalty kick by Crimson stopper Ian Hardington near the 70th minute.

Harvard keeper Mass Glasburg had relatively little to do throughout the game, at Hardington and the other Crimson defenders effectively parried Hartwick threats.

The victory, however, poses a lot of questions about the booters' performance this season. They usually; win or lose, seem to dominate the statistics.

The Crimson started the season will a 3-2 loss at Branders and then dropped a 3-0 shutout to six-time defending Ivy League champion Columbia.

The Crimson's pattern of toppling top teams began when it soundly defeated New England's number-one ranked team, the University of Connecticut, 2-0.

Then, in keeping with the unpredictable results of most Crimson games this season, the booter dropped a 2-1 decision to Boston College, a team who was 1-5-1 before Harvard crossed its path. This they did despite outcornerkicking them and taking twice as many shots as the Eagles.

But even the most unknowledgeable person about sports will tell you that in order to win, you have to score more points than the opposition. So far this season Harvard, has scored six goals, with its opponents have tallied eight. They shut out their adversaries in bott wins, but were outscored 8-3 in their defeats. In each instance, with the exception of Columbia, the booter dominated the opposition in even statistic except goals.

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