Loss of Catliff Cripples Crimson
Story from The Boston Globe
HARVARD FALLS ON
HARD TIMES
LOSS OF CATLIFF CRIPPLES CRIMSON
Date: Thursday, September 26, 1985
Section: SPORTS
Page: 56
By Barry Cadigan, Globe Staff
What happens when you play a Harvard soccer team that is
minus
John Catliff? Lots of different things, including
suddenly having an
extra defender available to you, according to Brandeis
coach Mike
Coven.
Coven's squad was one of the few to beat the Crimson last
year
during a season that saw Harvard become the New England
Division
1 NCAA champion and Brandeis reach the NCAA Division 3
national championship game.
Harvard and Brandeis are in much the same condition they
were a
year ago when Brandeis won, 3-2, at Waltham, except that
Catliff,
the great roving monster who narrowly missed being named
Ivy
Player of the Year in 1984, is forced into a spectator's
role because
of injury.
Catliff is immobilized with a foot in a cast as a result
of ligaments torn
while playing for the Canadian National team. The cast
must remain
until March, he says. The Crimson missed him in their 3-0
loss to
Columbia last Saturday and when they were bombed by
UConn,
5-1, yesterday at Storrs, Conn., giving them a 1-2
record.
"You hate to see anyone get hurt but Catliff being
out of the lineup
changes things completely," says Coven. "He
scored three goals
against us the year before last and the fact we were able
to hold him
to a single goal last year contributed to our win. He is
big and strong
and can strike the ball with any foot as hard as anyone
I've ever
seen."
Coven said the double punch that Harvard had in Catliff
and senior
Lane Kenworthy made the Crimson "a very explosive
side to play.
Last year we had Glen Conlin assigned exclusively to
Catliff and he
did a great job. The single goal Catliff got came on a
direct kick.
"This year it looked as though our stopper back,
John McCully,
would have to handle Catliff throughout the game and that
would
have meant an entirely different style of play for us.
McCully is our
stopper but also quarterbacks our offense. If he is in
strictly a
defensive role you can't expect McCully to help our
offense."