But with time winding down in the first period, the Quakers put together their first semblance of offense. Behind the strong running of sophomore Rich Comizio--the Red and Blue's leading rusher--Penn moved downfield in a hurry.

On first and goal from the three, Comizio threw the key block, helping reserve fullback Stan Koss throw his weight over the surging Harvard defense.

His final lunge with two seconds left in the opening period put him into the end zone, capping an eight-play, 42-yard Quaker scoring drive.

The point-after left things deadlocked at 7 after one.

Harvard's offense continued to sputter early in the second period, giving the ball back to the hosts in good field position.

On its first possession of the second period, Penn moved from midfield to deep in Harvard territory. A key sack by Harvard's senior tackle Barry Ford, however, pushed the Quakers back to the Crimson 32 From there, Quaker kicker Tom Murphy just missed a 49 yard field goal.

With White on the bench nursing his injured knee, Vecchi took over, but on his first pass from scrimage, the senior signal-caller hit Penn's Peter Gallagher squarels in the numbers.

Lucky for Harvard, though, Penn coughed up the ball on the first play after the interception and the Crimson 's Ken Tarczy recovered.

But Vecchi, a little used quarterback whose only previous varsity experience came in 45 seconds of mop up action at Columbia and Dartmouth, wasted no time giving the Quakers another shot on his second pass of the day, he found Penn's All American safety Tim Chambers.

The senior defender returned Vecchi's errant toss to the 41, but a clipping call put the ball at the 26.

The league's most productive offense then moved down the field with all the power of a steamroller and all the precision of a non Ivy marching band.

The Quaker drive finally stalled at the Harvard 24 after a series of penalties negated a Penn touchdown but from there Murphy connected on a 41 yard field goal with 3:36 left in the first half.

Vecchi did move his club with only seconds remaining, but Steinberg missed two field goal attempts as time ran out. The half ended with Penn up, 10-7.

To compound matters, Penn's Steve Ortman took the opening kickoff 92 yards-after bobbling it, dropping it, and then picking it up-to put the Quakers up by 10 with an entire half still to go.

With his squad's title hopes hanging by a thread, Harvard Coach Joe Restic called on the injured White.