ITHACA, N.Y.--Cornell's reputation as an honest-to-goodness major college football team is on trial after Saturday's 27-10 loss to Harvard. Take the first Big Red scoring drive as Exhibit A.

Harvard owned the game's first quarter, twice marching down the field with long possessions, but had been unable to convert all the offense into anything more than a pair of Jim Villanueva field goals.

Three minutes into the second quarter, the Big Red came up with the kind of big play that has knifed the heart out of the Crimson all year. Harvard punter Jim Villanueva mishandled a snap on his own 36-yard line, and Cornell's Steve Duca finally chased it down on the Harvard six, where the Big Red set up shop first-and-goal, and a probable 7-6 lead twenty feet away.

But the touchdown was not to be. On first down, substitute quarterback Doug Fusco fumbled the snap and lost five yards. On second down he fumbled the snap and lost another. At this point Fusco departed and starter Chris Metz returned. Metz fumbled on third down and lost six. When Ken Rubenstein finally put Cornell on the board with a fourth-down field goal the ball was spotted at the 25, nineteen yard behind the original line of scrimmage. Are you listening, members of the jury?

And then there is Exhibit B--the turnovers. Yeah, you can look at Cornell's seven fumbles and laugh, but what really killed the Big Red was coughing up the ball on its own 10 and 24 with a fumble and an interception on consecutive third-quarter possessions.

The Crimson capitalized--Jim Callinan plunging over for one of his 108 yards at 6:27 and Ron Cuccia hitting a wide-open Steve Bianucci in the end zone less than two minutes later--and what had been a 6-3 game during the halftime show became a 20-3 Harvard runaway five minutes later. The Crimson got the ball back with 4:53 left in the quarter and jitterbugged down the field on its best ball-control drive of the year. Callinan, Cuccia (65 yards rushing on 17 carries) and Jim Acheson (11 for 69) shared the load, rolling 67 yards on 13 consecutive runs before Acheson swept around left end for the score with 1:13 elapsed in the fourth quarter. Villanueva's PAT made it 27-3. Ho-hum, ballgame.

Not Fair

It wasn't fair that a self-destruct ballclub like Cornell, with enough problems of its own, should have to face Cuccia on a good day. The Big Red simply had no idea how to stop the elusive quarterback, who skittered for six first downs and passed for another.

He only went to the air 13 times (five completions for 50 yards) but after four games with Cuccia calling the signals we have learned he is his sharpest when he doesn't have to pass that much. "We controlled the ball on the ground and he didn't need to throw," coach Joe Restic said after the game.

One new weapon in the Harvard arsenal was flanker Bianucci, who carried four times for 26 yards and caught a touchdown pass. Previously, Restic had used Bianucci ineffectively as an inside runner, but in a third-and-four situation early in Harvard's second drive Cuccia pitched to him around left end. The senior scampered 10 yards for the first down; he trotted for nine more to the Cornell one on a similar play in the third quarter.

Bianucci's TD reception came after Scott Murrer picked off a Fusco pass early in the second half and returned to the Cornell 24. Callinan bumped up the middle for two, but Chris Bakowski sacked Cuccia for a five-yard loss to give Harvard a third-and-thirteen. Cuccia faded back, hesitated for a moment, and found Bianucci all alone in the right corner of the end zone for the automatic six points.

For the Crimson, now 2-2 overall and 2-0 in the Ivies, the win snapped a two-game losing streak and kept the squad at the top of the league standings, deadlocked with Yale and a half-game ahead of Dartmouth (1-0 league, 1-3 overall), next Saturday's opponent.

But more important, it showed that after cutting down on mistakes (only three second-half penalties, no second-half fumbles and no interceptions) Harvard has the raw talent to play a superb game. Of course, playing against a team that fumbles three times in four downs is bound to help. at Ithaca, N.Y. Harvard (2-2)  6  0  14  7  -  27 Cornell (0-4)  0  3  0  7  -  10

H--Jim Villanueva 32 FG

H--Villanueva 37 FG

C--Ken Rubenstein 35 FG

H--Jim Callinan 1 run (Villanueva kick)

H--Steve Bianucci 27 pass from Ron Cuccia (Villanueva kick)

H--Jim Acheson 3 run (Villanueva kick)

C--Mark Miller 1 run (Rubenstein kick)

Attendance--12,500