Things That Go Bump

The first one I saw was standing outside Elsie's, his triangular nose thrust firmly in the air. The orange face returned my stare with a hollow, fiery gaze His mouth stayed half-open, and I had trouble telling where face ended and teeth began.

The human jack 'o'lanterns are here, dripping with the toxic waste of their native New Jersey. Forget the last 10 days of October. Halloween, in the form of the Princeton Tigers, has definitely arrived.

For the Harvard football team, it's no treat. No stranger to bad luck, the Crimson is still juggling its lineup and its playbook to cope with the otherworldly number of injuries that struck the team in the first half of the season. At one time or another, 14 starters haven't started for medical reasons.

The Orange and Black clearly has the backing of the kingdom of evil. Take lead imp Doug Butler, the sophomore quarterback with the deadly arm. Last week he set an NCAA record for most pass attempts in a game without an interception (55). The upstart signal caller owns a passing rating higher than that of Columbia superstar John Witkowski. Supernatural? You bet.

Then there's Ralph Ferraro, the Tiger fullback. He's gobblin' up the yards at a 111.6-per-game clip, third best in Division I-AA.

The devilish New Jerseyites have already displayed an abundance of Black Magic. Down by four touchdowns to Bucknell the second game of the year, the Tigers roared back to a 46-28 victory. When an orange and black cat crosses your path, you're not in for good luck.

No luck at all would be better than what the Crimson has had lately. The ball has bounced the wrong way in the last two games: off the hands of Crimson receivers at Cornell and out of the hands of Crimson runners against Dartmouth. The loose ball has eventually been possessed--but rarely by Harvard.

A victory today will keep the Crimson's title hopes alive, but a loss would banish the team from the Ivy race, leaving it to wander vampire-like through the rest of its schedule sucking blood from teams that still have a chance.

I don't believe in ghosts.

HARVARD 48, PRINCETON 46.

* * *

DARTMOUTH 30, CORNELL 9--When the Big colors do battle in Hanover, N. H., it'll be Green over Red. The Cornell secondary is a shambles, and Dartmouth quarterback Frank Polsinello is the tops in the Ivies.

PENN 42, YALE 0--If you turned in your application this week, you booked yourself a view of the worst Eli team in the school's history. No other Yale team has started a season 0-4; this one will be 0-6 before 5 p.m. today.

HOLY CROSS 31, BROWN 17--The Crusaders are the only undefeated team in the ECAC. It isn't a fluke.

COLUMBIA 35, BUCKNELL 28--Neither team has a defense, both are under .500 and both lost to Princeton earlier this year. Give Columbia the game on the basis of home state advantage.

LAST WEEK--1-4. SEASON TO DATE--16-11..593. A journalist's nightmare--I've lost my lead.