PRINCETON, N.J.--Color the day orange for the Harvard soccer team. Saturday's game against Princeton started out on an orange tone at picturesque tree-lined Poe Field; and it ended in a blur of Princeton's orange-colored balls finding their way into the Crimson net. The final tally: Orange 3, Crimson 1.

"We just didn't have it," coach George Ford said Saturday. "I thought it was a pretty good game in the first half," he continued, "and the second half was interesting, but that one goal..."

The thought remained unfinished, but the goal Ford was referring to was one that Princeton freshman Dave Maldonado connected on at 12:00 of the second half. The score gave Princeton a 2-1 lead and deflated the Crimson's hopes for victory.

With the score tied and the play fairly even to that point, a Princeton wing crossed the ball in front of the goal from the right side. When Harvard fullback Kevin Jiggetts failed to clear the ball at the 18-yard line, Maldonado scrambled for it and drilled a low liner to the left of diving goalkeeper Fred Herold.

"I yelled to Kevin to clear it, but he whiffed and the guy was right there," Herold said after the game. 'There have been too many goals like that this year."

The Tigers dominated play for the rest of the half to lock up the 3-1 victory, raising their Ivy record to 2-2 and dropping Harvard's mark to 1-3 in the Ivy, 2-7 overall.

In the first half, though, it looked as if Crimson might be the color of the day at Poe Field. About ten minutes into the game, Harvard began putting pressure on Princeton goalie Guy Cipriano. Halfway through the period, the pressure paid off.

Freshman John Senacore battled two Tiger fullbacks and Cipriano for a long pass from midfield and came up with the ball, knocking it toward the goal. Streaking right wing Eric Zager took over from there, edging a Princeton defender to the ball for the open net goal at 23:21.

For a while, Zager's goal looked awfully important, as Herold repelled a series of offensive surges. In one ten-minute stretch, the Crimson goaltender stopped a penalty shot from Paul Milone, a point-blank blast from Allan Marshall, and two or three other shots.

The team's strong performance, like the glorious autumn foliage surrounding the field, was a beautiful but short-lived phenomenon, however. It lasted only 43 minutes and 56 seconds, when Allan Marshall spoiled the fun with Princeton's first goal of the day. Marshall maneuvered past Matt Bowyer and Boyce Greer with some quick footwork around the 18-yard line, and then sailed a shot across the goal and into the upper left corner of the net.

Sparked by Marshall's goal, the Tigers came out hustling after half time and reaped their reward with Maldonado's goal at the 12-minute mark. They continued their orange blitz throughout most of the period, hitting the post on a couple of shots and generally outhustling Harvard. At on point midway through the half, Ford yelled to his players, "C'mon, white, you're dying on your feet."

Despite George Grassby's determined efforts at sweeper, the Princeton forwards kept the pressure coming. Milone killed any hopes for a Harvard victory when he scored on a scramble in front of the net at 30:35.

After the third goal, everything seemed to go wrong for the Crimson. Chris Saunders was ejected from the game when he charged into Cipriano on an offensive rush.

Even worse, Jiggetts--who played a tough defensive game despite the second goal--broke his leg in a collision with Tiger Scott Addis.

Jiggetts was reported to be resting comfortably in Stillman Infirmary yesterday.

As the players left the field, the orange-leaved maple trees swayed in the wind behind them. In a few weeks, the trees will be barren, the leaves gone. But Saturday was the glory day for the Princeton booters, and the trees wore their colors boldly to mark the occasion.