PRINCETON, N.J--Last year, it was a missed field goal in the final seconds. Two years ago, it was torrential rains. Before that there were other mistakes, other excuses. But one fact remained: The Harvard football team had not beaten Princeton since 1976.

There are no longer any excuses, however as the Crimson played mistake free football against the Tigers for a change and won a big (meaning important) game for the first time since the fall of '79, subbing Princeton 27-15, before 19824 striped and starting fans Saturday at Palmer Stadium.

The win keeps the Crimson (3-1 Ivies, 4-2 overall hot on the tails of those ever-surprising Pennsylvania Quakers, who continued their winning Ivy ways by stopping Yule, 27-14 in Philadelphia Pennn leads the Ivies with 4-0 mark, just a half game shead of Harvard.

A revival of the Crimson offense, resulting from the return of Don Allard at quarter back and the dominating play of the offensive line and the continued stinginess of the defense, especially against the run, won the game for Harvard.

Allard, back after a week's layoff because of a bruised collarbone, accounted for all three Harvard touchdowns, passing for two and running for the other. He executed play action takes so well that by midway through the second quarter, even the Tiger defensive backs were hitting the line, duped into thinking "run." That left the Harvard receives open for most of the afternoon.

In addition, senior fullback Mike Granger constructed a revival of sorts all by himself, helping the Harvard ground game to its first solid performance since opening day against Columbia Grange, working mostly on traps up the middle, ran 20 times for 90 yards, more than he'd gained in the first five games of the season combined.

Junior halfback Steve Ernst coming off the bearish for the first start of his Harvard career, also had an excellent day in the halfback slot, blocking for Granger and running the ball (18 carries for 60 yards).

Abd senior flanker Jin Garvey, who had been running a lot of patterns without seeing the all much so far this year, hauled in four Allard tosses in the first half alone good for 89 yards and one TD.

And then there's the defense

Coming into the game with questions about the pass prevention continuing to be asked, Harvard fully expected Princeton quarterback Brent Woods, the NCAA Division 1-AA leader in total offense, to come out with arm pumping. He did throwing 56 times--a new Ivy record for attempts.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, Woods' second favorite target after flanker Keyin Guthire (12 catches, 166 yards) was a red jersey.

The Harvard secondary came up with six interceptions--trying the all time Ivy mark set by both Harvard (against Penn) and Princeton (against Brown) in 1962. Each quick halted a potential Tiger scoring opportunity.

Then there's the run defense, which in no way deserves to come last on any sort of list of the day's accomplishments. In the game the Harvard defensive front held Princeton ball carriers to a whopping 18 (yes that's a minus) on the ground. Thus Woods was forced to go to the air, which resulted in the interceptions, which resulted in the interceptions, which gave the Harvard offense the ball, which allowed Allard, Granger & Co to go to work.

Actually, Granger had been working right from the very start. He carried the ball on Harvard's first five plays from stemming, gaining 19 yards and the Crimson was off and literally running.

After that first drive, which ended in a 31 yard Jim Villanova field goal 5:29 into the game the Harvard defense stymied Princeton on two straight series and Harvard was driving again.

On third and three at the Princeton 37 Allard worked the play-action to perfection. Seeming to hand off to Granger. Allard instead dropped and found Gravey slunding all alone on the left sideline as the cornerback had fallen for the lake and moved up to stop the run. Allard hit his flanker with an easy spiral, and Garvey walked in with the game's first touchdown giving Harvard a 10-0 lend with 3:39 left in the opening quarter.

After Princeton narrowed the Crimson's margin to three on a one-yard plunge by halfback Road Warren, Allard went back to working a whip and chair over the Tiger defenders.

A 31-yard kickoff return by Crimson sopomore Mark Vignall and a Princeton personal foul tacked on top when Vignali was thrown down after he was out of bounds brought Harvard all the way to the Princeton 37 Allard hit Garvey for a 24-yard gain to the 13 and five plays later the QB found GRAnger alone in the end zone. The four-yard TD pass put Harvard up, 17-7, with about ten minutes to go in the half.

Allard's 10-yard run seven minutes later, capping a 70-yard eight-play drive gave the Crimson a 24-7 lead at halftime and Princeton could never get back in the game as the usually dangerous Woods threw four INTs after intermission.

THE NOTEBOOK The last time Harvard won a game as significant as Saturday's was the 22-7 up Yale in New Haven in 1979. And that game merely restored some pride--Saturday's keeps Ivy title hopes alive for this year's team...The six interceptors, in order of catch: John Dailey, Chris Myers, Myers, Andy Nolan Joe Azelby and Dailey. The last three came in the final quarter, when Princeton was making a last ditch effort to catch up.