Soccer

After winning four straight games and losing to Penn, Coach Tom Dent's varsity soccer team ran into difficulties and lost to Harvard 3-1, Yale 4-2, Amherst 3-2 and Cornell 1-0, while defeating Williams 2-0 and Brown 7-1. The season record of six wins and five defeats was good for a third place in the first Ivy Soccer League.

The most recent encounter with Cornell, which Dartmouth lost 1-0, marked the first time since mid-1949 that a Dartmouth soccer team has been held scoreless. The Big Red scored on a fluke play when early in the second period Cornell center Pedro Pick booted from midfield and Big Green goalie Clem Malin grabbed the ball but it was booted from his hands as he attempted to clear it and Eliot Goodman kicked it right back into the goal. For five Dartmouth men - Captain Wally Pugh on defense, goalie Clem Malin, forwards Steve Winslow and Egil and Bernt Stigum - this was the final game and a tough one to lose.

Playing against Brown a week earlier on mud-covered Chase Field, the Indians had little trouble winning 7-1 as Egil Stigum collected four goals, Bob Coogins two and sophomore Jim Geier another.

Amherst's 3-2 win over Dartmouth was also played on a muddy field. Egil Stigum scored early in the game but Dave Ford tied it up late in the first period. Then midway in the second period Dartmouth went ahead on a beautiful goal by Coogins, but the Lord Jeffs added two goals in the final period to win.

The Yale game was highlighted by a Dartmouth goal made by Captain Wally Pugh, the first time this season a defenseman has scored. But the Elis dominated the play during most of the game and only Clem Malin's outstanding work at goal plus a strong defense kept Yale from further scoring as they won 4-2.

In earlier games Coogins and Bernt Stigum teamed up to give the Indian booters a 2-0 win over Williams, while Bernt Stigum scored the only goal against Harvard as Dartmouth lost by a 3-1 score.

The loss of some outstanding players from the 1954 team plus a lack of depth and occasional defensive letdowns caught up with Coach Tom Dent at mid-season as was expected. However, all the defeats were by close margins and the record does not show that Dartmouth's 1955 soccer team, while perhaps not individually as brilliant as some of the recent teams, played every bit as well.

The freshman soccer team coached by Dave Conlan, a member of last year's team, and captained by Arthur Quirk of Narragansett, R. 1., won over Brewster Academy and Exeter while losing to Harvard and Nichols Junior College. It was rated as an "average team," but some varsity material will be on hand next fall from this squad.