Favored Varsity Bows To M.I.T. Soccer Squad

What was supposed to be a warm-up for Saturday's contest with Cornell turned into a nightmare yesterday for the varsity soccer team, as an unregarded squad from M.I.T. outran the Crimson for three and one-half periods and then turned on a tight defense to preserve a 3-2 victory.

The defeat came after two impressive road victories for the Crimson and left the fans at the Business School field wondering if they were watching the same team that had beaten a highly-rated Amherst eleven last Saturday.

Taped for TV

Unfortunately they were, and even more unfortunately a WOBH-TV camera crew was taping the Crimson's humiliating defeat for an October 17 broadcast over channel 2.

M.I.T. captain Robert Mehrabian, who scored all three Engineer goals, rolled the ball by Crimson goaltender Wally Whitney late in the first period for the game's first marker and added a second score just before the half-time gun.

Early in the third period, the Crimson made it 2-1 when a penalty kick by sophomore Bill Kerstetter found its way through a crowd of defenders surrounding the M.I.T. nets and past the Engineer goalie. But the rally was abortive as a strong north-south wind enabled M.I.T. to keep the ball on the Crimson end of the field for most of the remainder of the period.

Ohirl Scores Once

Mehrabian added his third goal midway in the final stanza, but Chris Ohiri countered two minutes later to keep the Crimson within striking distance.

Most of the last ten minutes were spent near the Engineer goal, but the M.I.T. defenders managed to ward off the Crimson forwards, and give Harvard its first defeat of the young season.

The freshman soccer team fared better yesterday, beating Tufts 3-0 in its first game of the season.