NEW HAVEN, Conn.--The Penn offensive and defensive lines dominated their Yale counterparts here Saturday to lead the Quakers to a 23-7 victory in front of 23,449 fans at the Yale Bowl.

Penn's win, coupled with Princeton's 11-6 defeat of Harvard, put the Quakers (now 5-1, 4-0 Ivy) in the driver's seat in the Ivy race.

The Red and Blue are now a full game in front of Harvard and Princeton (both 3-1 Ivy) and a game-and-a-half in front of the conquered Bulldogs (2-1).

But Penn's next two Ivy opponents are Harvard and Princeton--the two biggest obstacles in its drive for a third consecutive Ancient Eight title.

"We have Princeton next week," Penn Coach Jerry Berndt said after his team had defeated Yale for the fourth consecutive year. "We don't look beyond anyone. We'll give our kids the night off and start tomorrow preparing for Princeton."

"They [Penn] are going to hit tougher teams than us," Yale Coach Carm Cozza agreed, adding that he felt both Princeton and Harvard "are playing a lot better football than us."

The visiting Quakers played by far the better football Saturday. Dominating the lines of scrimmage, Penn gained 304 yards on the ground while holding the Elis to just 67.

Running back Rich Comizio benefited most from the big boys in the trenches, picking up 203 yards on 27 carries and scoring his team's first touchdown on a four-yd. run. The junior tailback also caught a 39-yd. pass for a score.

"I thought we won the game up front," Berndt said. "I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the field."

"They beat us up front," Cozza added," no doubt about it."

The other key in the first quarter--where Penn took a commanding 10-0 lead--was field position. Penn started its drives at the Yale 43, the Yale 29 and its own 45.

Meanwhile, the hosts were mired deep in their own end of the Bowl, starting from their own 22, 4, 22, and 16 yard lines.

Comizio's first touchdown capped off a 29-yd., five play drive--set up by a 17-yd. punt return by Chris Flynn--and put the visitors ahead to stay.

But it was the Connecticut native's second touchdown which sealed Yale's coffin. Penn quarterback Jim Crocicchia, facing a second-and-10 from the Yale 39 midway through the second quarter, hit Comizio with a little dump pass in the left flat.

Comizio ran behind a wall of blockers for several yards, but then cut sharply to his right, running diagonally through virtually the entire Yale defense and into the endzone. Ray Saunders' extra point made the score 17-0.