The Quakers were cocky. And deservedly so.

Winners of 13 straight Ivy league contests, including a 38-7 massacre of Harvard last year, the Penn Quakers were looking Saturday to clinch their fourth consecutive Ancient Eight crown.

But an emotional Harvard squad never gave the Quakers a chance. The charged-up Crimson scraped together its formidable guts and heart to thrash the Quakers, 17-6, before more than 18,000 boisterous fans at the Stadium.

With the victory, Harvard (7-2, 5-1 Ivy) caught Penn atop the Ivy League. All that now stands between the Crimson and a share of the Ivy League crown is a victory over Yale next week in The Game.

And if Penn (6-2-1, 5-1 Ivy) loses to lowly Dartmouth next week and the gridders win, the Crimson will take home its first outright Ancient Eight title since 1975.

Harvard fought brutally and relentlessly for the victory Saturday, steamrolling Penn by beating them when it counted most. "The team hasn't changed," Harvard Coach Joe Restic said of his troops. "They're just a great group and they have character and they'll battle you."

Down in the trenches, where the big men were slugging it out, the battle lines were drawn early. And Harvard had Penn on the retreat all day long.

The Crimson earned will over 200 yards on the ground, the lion's share of which was picked up by the Saint--fullback Robert Santiago (108 yards). And the offensive line held the Penn defense to only two sacks of quarterback Brian White (68 yards rushing).

"We played very well," said offensive tackle George Kostakos, the senior member of the inexperienced line.

On the other side of the ball, the Harvard defense held the vaunted Penn rushing attack to a mere 133 yards and forced three key Quaker fumbles.

That was the story of the game early on, as Penn took the ball on its second position and drove 63 yards to the Harvard 25. But highly-touted Penn back Rich Comizio--who iced Penn's victory over Harvard last year with a kickoff return for a touchdown--fumbled, and the Crimson took over.

The Quakers didn't even another first down until midway through the fourth quarter. And while the defense once again shut the opposition down, the Harvard offense began to put points on the scoreboard.

First, kicker Rob Steinberg--who had a marvelous day booting the ball, alternating booming punts with coffin corner placements--split the uprights with a 35-yards field goal midway through the second period.

Seven minutes later, Harvard upped the tally to 10-0 on one of this season's bread-and-butter plays, the split and reverse.

This time, however, the play almost broke before it got started. White pitched the ball to Santiago--who was supposed to hand the ball to wide out Joe Connolly, sprinting across from the far side.