SOCCER

Coach Tommy Dent (in collaboration with other interested parties) is the proud parent of a new baby, entitled the Eastern Intercollegiate Soccer League. This fledgling organization was founded this fall and consists of (in alphabetic order) Army, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Navy, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale. This move follows a trend already in evidence in other sports, with the conspicuous exception of football. We have commented upon this unhappy omission in the editorial in this issue. All of the traditional Ivy League opponents (except Columbia) are now banded together in soccer for the advancement of the sport and the satisfaction of all concerned.

The championship of the new league will be decided on a percentage basis, with each team required to meet at least five other members of the loop. This fall, Dartmouth plays everybody in the league but Cornell, Navy, and Pennsylvania, and over a three-year period each team will meet every other team at least once. To meet the formidable schedule thus presented, Coach Dent has a handful of veterans from his powerful aggregation of last year, plus a number of last season's reserves, and the perennial crop of aspiring sophomores.

Leading the list of tried performers is Captain Lee Fancher at center halfback, fullback Howie Westney, goalie Luke Soule, and forwards Norm Clark, Rennie Brighton, and Bill Ivins. Bob Dore, last year's freshman captain, Bob Mathys (who hails from Brussels), and Al Estrada (who learned his soccer in Mexico) are some of the more colorful candidates from the sophomore class. Coach Dent had his squad drilling for ten days before the opening of college in order to whip a team into shape before the opening game the day after college opened.

The untested aggregation surmounted this initial hurdle by edging Massachusetts University by the score of 2-0, with veterans Rennie Brighton and Don Scully scoring the two tallies. The shutout was due in considerable part to the alert efforts of goalie Luke Soule, who minded the twines superlatively all afternoon. This win constituted the 14th victory of the last 16 starts for Coach Dent's men over a two-year period, a record that is practically as good as Notre Dame's. The play of the sophomore contingent was especially gratifying to genial Coach Dent.