Men Booters Battle Yale Today

Guess what?

There's more than one Ivy League title game taking place in New Haven, Conn., today.

When the Harvard and Yale football squads take the field at the Yale Bowl this afternoon, the Crimson men's soccer team will already have battled the Elis for the visitors' first Ivy crown in 17 years.

The Crimson (13-0-2 overall, 6-0 Ivy League) is the lone undefeated team in the league, while Yale is 5-1 after suffering a tough setback against Dartmouth late in the season. A Harvard win would give the booters sole possession of the title; a tie would give the Elis a share of the crown.

This version of the The Game falls in the middle of Harvard's road to the NCAA Final Four, but Crimson Coach Mike Getman isn't taking the contest lightly.

"We haven't even talked about [the NCAA quarters] next week," Getman said. "There's one thing in our mind--Yale."

And with an undefeated record and an Ivy title on the line today, the Crimson--though ranked fourth in the nation--can't afford to look past the Elis (9-4-1 overall, 5-1 Ivy).

"All we can do is lose things in this game," Getman said. "We already have a piece of the Ivy title and an NCAA bid, and we're undefeated."

Yale will be looking to play the role of spoiler, and the Elis have the talent to do it. Yale was one of the top-ranked teams in the Northeast until back-to-back losses to Rhode Island and Dartmouth dropped its record to 7-4 overall and knocked it out of the national rankings.

Despite not earning a tourney bid, last year's Ivy champs aren't considering their season over. Last weekend Yale battled to a 3-2 overtime win over Princeton to set up this weekend's title bout. The two goals allowed in that contest were only the second and third tallies Yale has allowed in league contests this season.

"Yale is organized with skillful players all over," Getman said. "They had a few unfortunate breaks late this season, but they're a very good team."

Harvard, meanwhile, will be hampered by the absence of sophomore forward Derek Mills, who turned an ankle in Thursday's practice. Mills hopes to be back in the lineup for the tournament game next weekend. Sophomore Richard Knight, who sat out a good part of the season with an injury, will take over Mills's position as a roving third forward.

"Richard has played extremely well recently," Getman said. "He's aggressive going to goal and is scoring constantly in practice."

Captain Mark Pepper is the central figure in a good news-bad news scenario for the Crimson. The bad news is that Pepper--who has an injured quadricep that has kept him sidelined for all but two of Harvard's games--will not be allowed to redshirt after sitting out almost the entire season.

However, Pepper's relatively painless practice on Thursday bodes well for the remainder of the season. Pepper is probable for today's contest and will aim to be an active part of the Crimson contingent in the rest of the tournament games.