The 18,000 spectators who turned out to watch the Harvard-Brown football game Saturday couldn't have asked for more.

On a perfect Indian summer afternoon, the Crimson recorded its first shutout entirely different cast of characters stopped UMass, 10-0, in 1978. In the process, the Harvard defense came up with a league-record-tying six interceptions for the second week in a row and held the Bruins to just 69 yards on the ground.

At the same time, the largest home crowd of the year watched the Multiflex put a season-high 34 points on the board, as placekicker Jim Villanueva split the uprights for two field goals and quarterback Don Al-lard (11 of 20 for 171 yards) tossed two TD passes.

But as the Harvard fans enjoyed the final seconds of the 34-0 shellacking, the most crucial play of the weekend for the Crimson was occurring about 300 miles south in New Jersey. With only 24 seconds left in the Princeton-Penn game, Tiger placekicker Chris Price booted a 42-yard field goal to hand the Quakers their first Ivy loss of the season and allow Harvard (now 4-1 Ivy, 5-2 overall) to move into a tie for the league lead.

The Crimson and the Quakers both face non-conference opponents this Saturday, but on November 13, they will meet at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Whichever team wins that confrontation is guaranteed at least a share of the 1982 Ivy League Championship.

In absorbing the 34-0 loss, Brown lowered its Ivy mark to 2-3 and joined Columbia and Cornell in the out-of-contention ranks.

The Bruins came close to ending the shutout twice in the final quarter, but on both occasions, the Harvard defense stymied them.

On his last play before giving way to sophomore QB Eric Rosso, starter Joe Potter pitched to tailback Ken Jones at the Harvard 31. Jones rolled right and tried to throw to flanker Kelly Brothers in the end zone.

But safety Mike Dixon showed Jones why Potter's 211 yards passing had yielded nothing by coming up with Harvard's fifth interception.

On the final Brown series, Harvard had most of its second-stringers in against Rosso, and they proved that the Harvard defense has as much depth as it does talent.

Rosso managed to take his team from its own 13 to the Harvard 19, but the drive and the game ended there when backup cornerback Mike Cronin broke up a fourth-and-14 pass intended for split end Brad McCauley.

The Bruins' troubles began with Harvard defensive end Joe Margolis and cornerback John Dailey and ended with defensive end Morgan Rector, who came up with interception No. 6.

Margolis pressured Brown quarterback Potter all afternoon and by the end of his team's first possession, Potter was already unloading the ball a little early.

Potter threw his first errant pass of the afternoon only four and a half minutes into the first quarter. On second and 18 from the Harvard 37, Potter went over the middle for speedy flanker Brothers, but Dailey, who had two interceptions on the day and won the Miller High Life Player-of-the-Game award, came up with the ball at his own 30.

At that point, however, Harvard looked no better. The refs had already assessed a pair of 15-yard penalties against the Crimson two minutes into the game. Another error, Al-lard's wild pitch to fullback Mike Granger, gave Brown the possession that ended with the Dailey interception.

The Multiflex continued to falter after Potter's first miscue and following Villanueva's punt on fourth and 10, Brown took over at its own 40.

This time it was linebacker Joe Azelby's turn to pull is a pass from Potter and give the stumbling Harvard offense another chance. On first down at the Harvard 48, Potter rifled a throw over the middle to flanker Ron Mosley. Azelby, who was going for a Bruin player to his left, saw Potter's delivery at the last second, reached to his right and snared the ball one-banded at his own 38.

Revival

And finally, a Crimson defensive effort wasn't wasted. Allard opened the series by completing his first pass of the afternoon, a 39-yarder to tight end Peter Quartararo.

Three plays later, Harvard was four yards from a first down at the Brown 17, and Coach Joe Restic sent out Villanueva, who put the Crimson up 3-0 at 9:41 of the first quarter.

Apparently, the 3-0 advantage made the Harvard offense forget how poorly it had opened the game. On the next Crimson possession, Allard guided his teammates 75 yards in nine plays--the biggest a 31-yard scramble by Allard himself--and fullback Granger took a pitchout and went six yards off left end for the first Harvard touchdown at 14:50 of the first quarter.

Halfway into the second quarter, Allard guided the Crimson deep into Brown territory before his offense stalled. Villanueva's 44-yard field goal attempt, his longest of the season, was good and Harvard was up 13-0 with 59 seconds left before the half.

Harvard picked up its second TD after cornerback Chris Myers picked off Potter's fourth misguided pass. Taking over at the Brown 37, the Crimson went 15 yards on runs by Steve Ernst and Granger. And on the third play of the series, Allard sprinted right, found flanker Jim Garvey heading into the end zone and rifled his first TD pass of the day.

Less than 11 minutes later, the Crimson scored on another three-play drive. On second and six, Allard repeated the option play he had botched in the opening minutes of the game, and again he fumbled the pitchout to Granger. But when Brown recovered, Potter ran the same play and also pitched wide of his intended ball carrier. Harvard adjuster Jeff Howkins fell on the loose ball to recover at the Brown 18.

After two short running plays, Allard ran right and then handed off to split end John O'Brien, who reversed around left end and went 12 yards for the score.

The fourth quarter saw Harvard running back Mark Vignall collect his first varsity TD and Harvard's final one of the game when Allard concluded a 12-play, 80-yard drive with a play-action pass to the sophomore back.