Harvard's injury-ravaged freshman football team took on a similarly depleted squad from Brown yesterday and came away bruised but elated with a 26-8 victory and its undefeated record intact.

Coach Mac Singleton said the game at Soldiers Field was "our best win of the season," and added he was especially pleased with the play of the offensive backfield, which was made up largely of substitutes for injured starters.

Quarterback Ron Cuccia led the Crimson on a 63-yd. rampage late in the first period to open the scoring, capping the drive when he paralyzed the Brown defense with a fake handoff to fullback Jim Callinan and bootlegged untouched 20 yards for a touchdown.

Early in the second quarter, it looked like Cuccia would be sacked behind the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and scooted 48 yards past dumbfounded Bruin defenders to Brown's 28-yd. line. The stand-out Californian was injured on the play, suffering a partially separated shoulder, but he said after the game he "definitely" would be back for the Yale game in two weeks.

Mike Buchanan took over as quarterback and promptly led the gridders to their second score when he threw a screen pass to halfback Matt Aney who bowled over four Brown defenders on a 27-yd. touchdown run. Steve Flach added the point after to give the Crimson a 14-0 halftime lead.

In the second half, Buchanan picked up where he left off when, on Harvard's first possession he led a 57-yd. drive, throwing a 26-yd. strike to Callinan for the six-pointer. The extra point attempt went wide and the Crimson was working on a 20-0 shutout.

Harvard's defenders had handcuffed Brown's offense in the first half, limiting the Bruins to just 55 yards, but Brown quarterback Chris Bryant finally found pay dirt on a nine-yd. roll out early in the fourth quarter.

Crimson halfback Steve Bianucci dove one yard for the final score of the game, securing Harvard's 26-8 win and 4-0-1 record.