Columbia fumbles and ragged play converted a simple Harvard victory into a near rout at Baker's Field Saturday. The clearly superior Crimson squad gratefully took advantage of a series of Lion mistakes, contributed scoring punch when it was needed, and rolled to a 26-0 triumph over the New Yorkers.
The Crimson offense, plagued by costly penalties and a few fumbles of its own, produced nothing but a few spectacular runs by Charlie Ravenel and Chet Boulris until late in the first half, when Columbia miscues came to its aid.
Guard Terry Lenzner darted into the Lions' backfield to recover a fumble on the home team's 23 yard line, and three plays later another lineman set up the Crimson's first score. An erratic pass by Ravenel bounced off receiver Hank Keohane's shoulder, and was grabbed on the fly by center Pete Eliades, who ran it to the one foot line. Ravenel scored on a sneak in the next play.
Fumbles Set Up Touchdowns
The same pattern continued in the second half, though the pace became brisker. A Ravenel-to-Lawson option play tallied in the third quarter after Columbia fumbled on its 13, and in the final period the Lions again dropped the ball deep in their own territory to set up Albie Cullen's touchdown plunge.
The Crimson's only real scoring drive came late in the game, when quarterback Ron Johanson led the varsity into the end zone with a series of well-thrown passes, the last connecting with Glenn Haughie for the touchdown. But even this march was started when Johanson intercepted a Columbia pass on the Harvard 33.
The victory should be credited mainly to the Crimson de- fense, which held the Lions to 63 yards on the ground (only 11 during the whole second half) and 80 on passes. Columbia was hard put to move out of its own territory during the whole game, and its passing attack was never given a chance to develop. This was all the more fortunate since the Dick Donelli--Harvey Brookins pass combination worked with devastating effect the few times the Lions got a chance to try it.
Boulris' brilliant punting played a key role in this containing effort. Several times when the Crimson attack stalled, he sent the Lions back deep in their own ground with his kicks, and in the third period he prevented a possible disaster. Set to punt from the Harvard 30, he got a pass from center which sailed over his head, but raced down to grab it, eluded a blocker, and sent a hurried, low kick bouncing down to the Columbia 29.
Though the Crimson line held the Columbia offense well, the Lions themselves often seemed to make the defensive job easier. Coach Buff Donelli introduced a few surprise formations in the game--the split-T with a man in motion and a variation of the single wing which he calls the X formation--but they seemed to confuse his own men more than the Crimson. Several big losses and a few of the fumbles were due to missed backfield connections on these plays, flashy as they semed when they worked, and Donelli probably wishes he had given his team more practice before springing them.
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