THE SPORTS DOPE

When a football game is decided by missed extra points it is often not clear which is the superior team, and Saturday's 14-12 victory over Cornell left a maximum number of "its" floating around. Crimson quarterback Ric Zimmerman is not the only one who thinks Harvard might have busted the game wide open if it had scored a touchdown in the second period, as it came within two yards of doing. For Ithacans, the "might-have-beens" start with the two missed extra points and then dwell on a bad break which upset Cornell's three fourth-down drives toward a winning touchdown or field goal.

The only clear sparkling performances came on defense. Harvard's intercepted five passes, scored one touchdown, and held off the most potent challenge of the year. Except for the other touchdown play, Cornell's defense gave Harvard nothing--repeat, nothing. The Big Red used a continually stunting defense, a gambling ploy that the Crimson offense almost inevitably catches off guard for several big plays. But never on Saturday.

In nine crucial third-down situations in the second half, when Harvard needed to put a drive together and take some pressure off its defense, the Crimson offense netted a total of seven yards. On the picture's other side, Harvard made more mistakes on offense than it has in the past, and Cornell quarterback Bill Robertson dropped from his 16-for-20 completion mark against Princeton to a 5-for-20 first-half mark against the Crimson.

But Robertson got going in the second half, throwing passes on unstoppable square-out patterns with the assurance of a Unitas or Layne. If he had gotten results on any one of the five key plays he wouldn't have gone down to defeat.

The first two were the conversion attempts. Crimson cornerback Bill Cobb stopped the first with perfect containment of a Big Red sweep. Safety Tom Williamson thwarted the second with blanket coverage of intended receiver Bill Heeps.

Luck helped Harvard on Cornell's next drive. Robertson found end Bob Horn 15 yards inside Crimson territory with a perfect pass. Defender Cobb had been faked deep and Horn was all alone, but he bobbled the ball and couldn't control it as he stepped out of bounds.

On Cornell's next two drives, they stopped themselves with costly personal foul penalties. Both were avoidable, neither was excusable.

On a 17-yard completion to start the second of the three futile drives, Crimson safety John Tyson was hurt and had to be replaced by Tom Wynne. On the very next play three Big Red players, ends Bill Murphy, Sam DiSalvo, and guard Rich Musmanno, went for Wynne. Halfback Bill Huling was stopped four yards behind the line of scrimmage with the ball, but 20 yards upfield the three "blockers" were grinding Wynne into the dirt when the play had finished. The ensuing penalty forced Robertson to throw long, where Williamson and interceptor Cobb were waiting.

Cornell got the ball back and made its final bid. Robertson moved into Harvard territory with two 15-yard passes then his Horn on the Crimson 35. But back at the line of scrimmage one of the game's roughest individual duels had finally exploded. Harvard defensive tackle Joe DeBettencourt, no soft cookie himself, had hit Big Red tackle Tom Dichl with a solid charge, and the 250 Pound Hotel Administration major responded with a forearm shot to DeBettencourt's head. DeBettencourt, the Harvard senior, with unusual politeness, turned the other cheek--and an accusing finger--toward Diehl, and saw the referee drop the reg flag that killed Cornell's last chance for victory.

Bob Hoffman, who had broken up a pass in his flat plays before, blitzed on the next play and dumped the unsuspecting Robertson. Hoffman stormed in from the blind side again on the third-and-32 situation to bury the Big Red passer for good.