Sextet May Clinch Ivy Title Tonight Against Princeton in Last Home Game

Tonight at Watson Rink the Crimson sextet will seek to ride the back of a Tiger for sixty minutes without winding up inside. The hunt, which can clinch the Ivy title for the varsity, begins at 8 p.m.

This year's Tiger is a toothless version of the beast that terrorized the bottom of the Ivy League last season, but it wears a foolish grin as a result of its 5-3 record and third place ranking. Despite the loss of the league-leading line of last season--John McBride, John Pell and Pete Cook--Princeton already has posted its best Ivy record since 1955.

The boys at Princeton, who generally measure success in terms of degrees of defeat, are pretty excited about this year's team. They rejoiced when it opened the Ivy season with home-and-home wins over cellar-dwelling Brown, and exulted over twin defeats of fifth-place Cornell. Losses at Hanover and New Haven were more than made up for by a 3-1 upset of the Elis in Princeton, and, all-in-all, a 7-4 defeat by Harvard was a pretty good showing.

The boys will tell you about their high-scorer, Pete Cook's little brother John, who leads the Ivy League with 18 points, and about his line-mates, Jim Hyland and Perry Hall. They will tell you about their starting center, the Great--or as it is sometimes written, Grote--Hugh Scott, whose wings are named Bill Miller and Dave Hersey.

You probably wouldn't hear too much about the defensemen, sophomores Brit Mockridge and Austle Sullivan, who alternate with Chris Gordon and Page Champman, but you would be sure to hear about their big blond idol in the goal, Barry von Gerbig, who was voted runner-up to Dartmouth's Tom Wahman among Ivy goalies last season, despite having the next to worst percentage-of-saves record.

The Tiger goalie, who is also the team captain, courageously climbed into his pads last week despite a broken finger, and shut out Yale for thirty minutes before bowing, 4 to 2, on a goal with fourteen seconds left. His other outstanding feats have included blocking 38 of 42 shots two years ago at Watson Rink, when Princeton managed a 5-5 tie.

Hot Temper

But van Gerbig is notorious for his hot temper and sensitive ears, and his effectiveness is generally not improved by the rooting section that forms behind whichever goal he is defending.

Arrayed against van Gerbig will be one of the most well-balanced scoring attacks in the East. No less than a dozen Crimson skaters are scoring in double figures: Jim Dwinell and his right wing, Dave Morse, have 27 and 25 points, respectively, and Bill Beckett, who will start at left wing, has 13.

The defensive corps, which Welland rates best in the East, consists of pairings of Bob Anderson with Dave Grannis, and Harry Howell with Dave Johnson. Howell, incidentally, just broke the modern record for defensemen by playing hockey only twelve days after an appendectomy. Bob bland will open in the goal.

Individual scoring honors mean very little at Harvard, except to fans, and with the Faculty decision not to accept an NCAA invitation, the sextet's main incentive in its last home appearance will be to clinch its first league title since 1958-59--a long drought for the Crimson. The Tiger, and its dapper, holler-guy coach, R. Norman Wood '54, will probably not have to worry about indigestion from overeating.