Cornell proved itself the team to beat in the Ivy League this year by soundly downing the Crimson varsity, 8-4, Saturday night at Lynah Rink to up its league record to 4-0, while Harvard dropped to 3-1.

The Big Red wasted no time in taking the lead as Brian Cornell, no relation to Ezra, put in a goal unassisted seven seconds after the opening face-off. Bob McGuinn and Pete Tufford increased the advantage to 3-0 before the end of the first period to further discourage Harvard partisans.

Crimson forward Jack Turco, at 16:01 of the second period, corrected matters somewhat with a tally on a pass from Chip Otness. Any optimism was short-lived, however, as Keven Pettit and Tufford notched goals within 59 second of each other to run the score to 5-1. With assists from Ron Mark and captain Bobby Bauer, the Crimson's George McManama netted a goal before the period ended.

Harvard's strong sophomore line accounted for its first goal early in the final session to bring the Crimson within two goals of the Big Red, when Joe Cavanagh scored on assists from Chris Gurry and Cooch Owen.

But then Cornell's scoring machine went to work again, and netted another two goals before Cavanagh, with an Owen assist, completed the scoring with his second marker of the evening.

Though losing, Harvard deserves credit for getting four shots through goalie Ken Dryden, who has been allowing less than two goals a game, on the average.

This was Cornell's twelfth victory overall as the Big Red, with its usual nucleus of Canadians, has put together another powerful team. They are now firm favorites in the league, but if Harvard can win most of its other Ivy contests, the Feb. 26 game with Cornell could determine the league championship.

The Crimson, now 7-4-1 overall, has two Ivy League games this week, one against Penn and the other against Dartmouth, Both contests will be at home.