PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Only two teams remain in serious contention for the Ivy football title. Penn (5-0 Ivy, 6-1 overall) is one and Harvard (4-1, 5-2) is the other.

Harvard's comeback here against Brown to turn a 17-6 deficit into a 25-17 victory over means that Penn will have company atop the Ivy standings as the race enters its final three weeks.

With games at Harvard in two weeks and at home against lowly Dartmouth in three, the Quakers are in a commanding position to grab at least a piece of their fourth straight crown and join the Green as the only Ivy school to cop four straight titles.

Harvard, with Penn after Holy Cross Saturday and The Game in New Haven on the final weekend, can share the title with the Quakers by winning both of its league contests.

The Elis, who suffered a shocking tie at the hands of Dartmouth this weekend, are now 2-1-1 and have to count on Penn to lose to Harvard and tie or fall to winless Cornell at home on the final weekend for a shot at the crown.

But with less than two minutes left in the third quarter Saturday, the Quakers were on the verge of wrapping up their second consecutive outright crown. Brown was leading the Crimson, 17-6, and had just recovered a Harvard fumble at midfield.

The 10,600 fans at Brown Stadium were on their feet cheering the home side defense which had held the Crimson to just 64 yards total offense in the 43 minutes of play. IVY STANDINGS Team  W  L  T Penn  5  0  0 HARVARD  4  1  0 Yale  2  1  1 Princeton  3  2  0 Brown  2  3  0 Dartmouth  1  2  1 Columbia  0  4  0 Cornell  0  4  0

Harvard had opened the game with drives of minus one, plus three and minus three yards and hadn't improved much in the following quarters.

Brown had dominated the contest, racking up 17 points, despite a strong Harvard defensive effort. The Bruins would have been farther ahead, but the Crimson defense held for four downs after the hosts had a first-and-goal from the Harvard four.

Captain Brent Wilkinson made the crucial hit on Brown tailback Jamie Potkul on fourth-and-one at the goal line.

"You come out of there, you don't make the fourth-down gamble," Harvard Coach Joe Restic said. "That's the most devastating thing to you as a football team is when you gamble fourth down deep in that end and you don't make it."

The Bruins had coughed up a pair of costly fumbles inside their own 20, setting up two Rob Steinberg field goals (24 yards--off a great hold by Bill Koehler--and a career best 44).

As the stands roared their approval after Harvard's third quarter fumble, Brown took control at midfield. On the first play, quarterback Steve Kettelberger handed the ball to tailback Jamie Potkul (who was in the midst of a 154-yd. afternoon).

But Potkul fumbled the ball and the stadium fell silent. Three plays later, Harvard quarterback Brian White found tight end Jim Morris streaking across the middle all alone and the visitors trailed, 17-12. After a penalty on a two-point conversion effort, Steinberg missed a long point-after try.

After an exchange of punts, the Bruins fumbled again. Charging defensive end K.C. Smith forced Kettelberger to cough up the ball at his own nine.