Princeton's ability to control and clear the ball made the difference--and a small one it was--between two havoc-bent lacrosse teams at the Business School field Saturday.

Four goals behind midway in the second period, Harvard twice fought to within one goal of Princeton. With their attack silenced, the Tigers threw up an aggressive defense that blanked the Crimson for the final nine minutes and preserved a 7-6 victory.

Harvard thus dropped its first game in a month and its first in four Ivy League games. The Ivy race is now chaos: Princeton, Dartmouth and Harvard have one loss apiece. Dartmouth plays three more times, the other teams twice.

By its persistent ability to control loose balls the Tigers dominated play and maintained severe pressure on the Crimson. When Harvard did mount an attack, it hardly ever took more than one shot before it was forced to regroup and return to the defense.

After several sensational stops by goalie Graeme Flanders, by far the most valuable Tiger on the field, Princeton's Bobbie Moore and Dick Intersimone scored at 8:08 and 12:30.

Pete Wood, a brilliant performer all day for the Crimson, then scored the first of his three goals on a pass from Dick Ames.

Leading 2-1, Princeton opened the second period with three straight goals, and the Crimson defense looked helpless against the onslaught.

The Crimson got a break on a Princeton penalty, however, and Tink Gunnoe rammed a shot into the upper left corner at 10:45. Wood scored after taking another Ames pass at 13:09, but before the cheering had died Pete Porietis scooped the face-off and passed to Moore for Princeton's sixth goal.

Starting the second half Wood dodged across the goal mouth and shot a left-hander past Flanders at 1:38. Despite some ferocious play the rest of the period was scoreless, but Ted Leary scored at the start of the fourth period to cut the Princeton lead to one goal, 6-5.

Then came a key play. Charlie Kessler, a terror all afternoon, slipped while guarding Jim Okie and the Princeton attackman scored at 2:07. Ames got the goal back four minutes later, but Harvard still trailed by one.

With 1:50 left coach Bruce Muare inserted the first midfield but Amen's errant pass broke up the attack