Brown Fumbles, Harvard Wins, 41-7

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The Brown football team lost the ball inside its own 30-yard line three times in the first 20 minutes Saturday, and Harvard took advantage of all three turnovers, putting the game away early and routing the Bruins, 41-7.

It didn't matter that Ron Cuccia's passing stats on the afternoon read oh-for-four, zero yards, or that the Crimson's space age, quarterback-in-motion offense blew a couple of third-down conversions before clicking for a Don Allard-to-Paul Scheper touchdown pass late in the first half. There were so many opportunities to score that the Crimson needed only to convert on a few to blow the game open.

The game's biggest disappointment was Bruin quarterback Hank Landers, who entered the game ranked in the top five nationally in passing and total yardage. By the time Landers completed his first pass six minutes into the contest, Harvard led, 14-0. He only connected three times more before leaving in favor of backup Craig Hemond late in the third quarter.

Landers failed because the Harvard defensive line came to life Saturday, effectively pressuring the quarterback for the first time this year.

The beneficiary was the defensive backfield, which gathered in six interceptions on the day (actually, lineman Joe Margolis and linebacker Marc Mills each had one). That accounted for the good field position, and the rushing of Jim Callinan (120 yards on 28 carries) and passing (six-for-13, 64 yards) and running (38 yards on 12 carries) of backup signalcaller Allard did the job from there.

As it has every time this season, the Crimson scored first. Three plays into the contest, captain Peter Coppinger intercepted a Landers pass and ran it back to the Brown 20 yards line. Three plays later Jim Callinan vaulted over left tackle.

Just two plays after that, Mills swiped Landers next offering at the 25. This time it took four plays before Callinan scampered 11 yards off left tackle for the touchdown.

A 62-yard Rod Jones run narrowed the margin to 14-7 later in the first quarter, but after stopping Harvard on three straight possessions, the Bruins coughed the ball up again on a fumble at their own 25, and gave the momentum right back.

It took Cuccia nine plays before he rolled around right end for the two-touchdown lead at 7:22. Allard's nine-yard pass to Scheper with ten seconds left in the half made it 28-7, and Brown never got closer.

"I can't remember getting the ball in such good field position like that before," Crimson coach Joe Restic said after the game. "We got some breaks early, but this time we didn't ease up."

You knew it was all over when Brown tried an onside kickoff to start the second half. It didn't work. Harvard took over near midfield, and any comeback spark the Bruins might have had never materialized.

With Cuccia on the sidelines ("We just wanted to give Allard some playing time; we've been trying to do that all year,"--Restic), the teams traded four punts before Rocky Delgadillo picked off a Hemond pass and shuffled to the Brown 24. Three plays later, Jim Acheson scored and it was 34-7.

A Week's Worth

In the end, Restic found a way to use seven quarterbacks (for posterity, the list is: Cuccia, Allard, Mike Buchanan, Joe Lahti, Mark Marion, Jack Riordan, Chuck Columbo) and innumerable running backs after Scott (Missing in Action) McCabe ended the scoring with a touchdown plunge early in the fourth.

A Breather

So it's with a 3-3-1 record and a 3-1-1 Ivy mark that Harvard looks toward what should be two breather weeks against William and Mary and Penn. With Yale beating Dartmouth, 24-3, Saturday, the Crimson has to hope somebody can knock off the Bulldogs and The Green or the Ivy title will be safely ensconsced in New Haven before The Game. Brown, incidentally, is now 1-6, and out of everything. The loss means coach John Anderson will suffer his first losing season since coming to Providence in 1973.