ITHACA, N.Y.--With nine seconds remaining, and the pressure of an entire game resting on his right foot, kicker Rob Steinberg wasn't nervous.

"I was trying to think about other things besides football," he said after smacking his first career game-winner. "Like, 'How did the Bee Gees ever get a number one album?'''

So Steinberg created a little Saturday Afternoon Fever of his own, splitting the uprights on a 27-yd. chip shot into the wind to give Harvard (3-1, 2-0 Ivy) a nail-chomping 20-17 decision over Cornell (0-4, 0-2 Ivy) before more than 15,000 fans at Schoellkopf Field.

The Crimson, which led the game for a total of less than nine minutes, never really dominated a contest it was supposed to win handily.

"We were almost to the point of trying too hard," said Captain Brent Wilkinson, "so we were spinning our wheels a lot."

Although Harvard outdistanced the Big Red in almost every statistical category, an unpredictable, circus-like atmosphere allowed the Big Red to mock Harvard's athletic superiority.

During one bizarre stretch, fans witnessed a take-punt pass, a halfback-to-quarterback touchdown pass, a barefoot placekicker, a linebacker attempting an onside kick, an "illegal touching" penalty, and the Cornell mascot using a water bottle to urinate on the Harvard band.

But the Crimson--which topped Cornell for the 30th time in the 50-game series--stopped playing kiddie games late in the third period, scoring two touchdowns in less than two minutes to turn a 10-3 deficit into a 17-10 advantage.

The one-two punch showcased the play of quarterback Brian White (15-for-23, 0 int.), who directed the Crimson on a relentless 12-play, 72-yd. Scoring drive, and safety Cecil Cox, whose second interception of the afternoon set up an easy Harvard touchdown.

Cox, who checked in with five tackles and two assists, was Sunday named ECAC Division I-AA Defensive Player of the Week. And White, whose 179-yd. passing performance (including four completions to split ends, more than in the rest of the season combined) marked his most impressive effort of the season, was named to the ECAC Honor Roll.

Despite gaining only 55 yards on the ground, fullback Robert Santiago was an offensive key for the Crimson, threatening the soft Cornell ends with consistent outside runs.

Santiago was also White's favorite aerial target, hauling in six passes for 63 yards.

The last of those six passes was the game-winner, a 27-yd. streak pattern that set the ball at the Cornell 15, well within field goal range, with less than a minute to play.

"I asked Coach [Joe Restic] if we could run that play," Santiago said after the game, "and he said OK."

Good thing, too. "We saw him going down the field and he was wide open. He got by the linebacker and nobody covered him," Restic said.

That play set up Steinberg's heroics, the pinnacle of an outstanding day for the senior kicker. Steinberg, who received the game ball for his performance, averaged 40 yards on five punts, his best outing of the season. In addition to his game-winning field goal, Steinberg also had a 19-yarder, two extra points, and two kickoffs that sailed out of the end zone, one of which actually split the uprights.

When the game was on the line Harvard got the breaks, but the Big Red--one of the finest 0-4 teams in the land--could easily have upset Harvard with a couple of lucky breaks. For the fourth week in a row, however, those breaks never came.

Before falling to Harvard, the Big Red lost heartbreakers to defending Ivy champion Penn, 10-6, and to powerful Colgate, 21-20.

"We get something out of every game. Every mistake, we learn from it," Cornell Coach Maxie Baughan said. "But I'm tired of learning right now. I'd like to be able to celebrate a little bit."

The frustration of the Big Red was perhaps best symbolized by quarterback Shawn Maguire, a mediocre passer who completed just 12 of 29 attempts with three interceptions. Maguire, who has 28 career interceptions and only four touchdown passes, faced a hostile hometown crowd that repeatedly chanted "We want Chip," second-string quarterback Chip Knapp.

Knapp has replaced Maguire in every game this season. Saturday, Knapp played the final Cornell offensive play after Maguire was banged up by a Bill Ross sack.

The swarming Harvard defense never really let the Big Red explode, as Greg Williams (two sacks), Wilkinson (six tackles) and Frank Ciota (one interception) teamed up with Ross and Cox to stymie the Cornell attack.

The Crimson, which will square off against Dartmouth next Saturday, plays the remainder of its Ivy schedule in ascending order of difficulty.

The quest for the Ivy League crown has barely begun, but for the moment the Crimson is definitely stayin' alive.