Harvard Football kicks off on WHRB on Saturday

Harvard football returns to 95.3 FM WHRB, on Saturday, Sept. 19 as the Harvard Crimson (0-0) travel to Worcester to meet the Holy Cross Crusaders (2-0) at 1 p.m. Both teams are favorites to win their leagues and both are nationally ranked - Harvard at #25 and Holy Cross at #23 in the latest TSN FCS weekly poll. Listen live in the Boston area at 95.3 FM or online at whrb.org.

WHRB Sports' 2009 football broadcast coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. with a 30-minute pregame show hosted by Scott Reed '12 and James Yoon '12. The show will feature an in-depth interview with Harvard head coach Tim Murphy as he looks to guide the Crimson to their third straight Ivy League championship. Reed and Yoon will have the latest on lineups, key matchups, and players to watch.

Alasdair Wilkins '10, Tom Brennan '10, and Kara Hollis '11 will take over live from Fitton Field shortly before 1 p.m to begin the broadcast. Wilkins returns for his second season as play-by-play man, while Brennan and Hollis provide analysis and commentary after assisting with football production in previous seasons.

At half-time, WHRB Sports premieres its weekly half-time feature, known this season as "Kicking Touchdowns with Pat Long," featuring All-Ivy placekicker Pat Long '10 and Kara Hollis as hosts. This week's guest is starting linebacker Conor Murphy '10.

On Sunday, don't miss further Harvard football coverage as Crimson Sportstalk airs at 1 p.m. Host Brendan Roche '12 will have highlights of the post-game press conference with head coach Tim Murphy and live analysis from the football broadcasters.

National Recognition for Men's Soccer

Monday's mark the release of the national polls in college sports and this particular Monday was very kind to the men's soccer team.

The team, off to a 4-0 start on the year including win's last week against Boston College, no. 14 Boston University, and Army, is having one of its best starts to the season and now the Crimson are off to a great start in the polls- the team was ranked no. 12 in the nation according to Soccer America and made it to no. 18 in the College Soccer News poll.

In other national recognition, sophomore keeper Austin Harms was named to College Soccer News' National Team of the Week. This recognition comes off a fantastic start for Harms, who has given up only one goal in four games, earning him three straight clean sheets in the process.

Some Ivy League honors were also bestowed on the team. Harms was named the Ivy League player of the week, while freshman Brian Rodgers was named the co-Rookie of the Week for the Ivy League, as he tallied a goal and two assists this week.

Harvard will look to improve on their ranking during their upcoming four game road trip, which includes ACC powerhouse Wake Forest.

Reminder

This afternoon at 1pm is the second episode of Crimson Sportstalk.

Some of the Highlights:
- Alasdair Wilkins and I will delay our discussion of animal mixed martial arts (a reference you'll get only if you listened to last week's episode*) to have the WHRB preview of the 2009 Harvard Crimson football season.

- An interview with sophomore Anne Carroll Ingersoll of the women's volleyball team.

- And of course, we'll have highlights of all the action this week, including the men's team's big week against Boston area opponents with our Harvard headlines.

It's all at 1pm EST on 95.3 FM WHRB on your Boston-area dial, or anywhere in the world at whrb.org and through the WHRB Iphone application.



* And if you missed last week's episode, firstly, shame on you. Joking. But we are working on a way to put up the shows on the Internet after a certain delay so that you can hear any of our interviews over again or you can catch up on a missed episode. We'll blog and twitter about it when we more concrete details.

Harvard Top Boston Soccer Team

Harvard (3-0) defeated the no. 14 ranked Boston University Terriers 1-0 earlier this afternoon to claim the top bragging rights in Boston.

Jamie Rees scored the only goal of the game, and Austin Harms recorded his second straight clean sheet.

Harvard is now 2-0 against local rivals, as they defeated Boston College 2-0 in Newton on Monday.

The only other opponent that Harvard, BC, and BU have in common is in-state rival Holy Cross. Just a point against the Crusaders for Harvard would give the Crimson the equivalent of the soccer Beanpot for 2009.

Since Harvard was already receiving votes in the soccer polls, the win probably also means that the Crimson will enter the next week ranked.

The Crimson look to improve to 4-0 on Sunday at Ohiri Field against Army. We'll have more on the Harvard-BU game this Sunday on Sportstalk.