The future couldn't save the present.

Junior quarterback Tim Perry came on in relief of injured starter Tom Yohe late in today's Harvard-Yale fight at The Stadium, but could get nothing going. Yale won, 26-17.

Harvard, hoping to redeem a year which began with many experts picking the Crimson to successfully defend its Ivy League championship, ended in further disappointment today.

One season, the regular season, ended in disaster a week ago in Philadelphia, where the University of Pennsylvania trounced Harvard, 52-13. Another season, The Game, ended today in frustration.

Last year, The Game decided the Ivy title. Both Harvard and Yale entered last year's matchup with 5-1 league records. Harvard walked out of the Yale Bowl last year with a 14-10 triumph and its first outright Ivy crown since 1975.

This year, The Game meant nothing in the league championship race, but a great deal to a Harvard team searching for respect. Today the Crimson was hoping to show that it was really not as bad as its 2-7 record.

Yohe, who has beaten Yale the last two years, started for Harvard despite the fact that he was still wobbly from a stress a stress fracture in his right leg that he had suffered three weeks ago against Brown.

The Yohe magic was good for 17 points. Down 13-0, Yohe marched on a 10-play, 47-yd. drive, culminating in Alan Hall's field goal with 13:36 left in the second quarter.

Yohe and company struck again with 7:55 left in the quarter. Facing third down from the seven-yd. line, Yohe pitched to running back Tony Hinz, who raced around right end for a TD.

When wingback Jim Reidy took a counter play from the six-yd. line into the endzone with 2:22 left in the half, Harvard looked well on the way to redeeming its season. After Hall's PAT, it was Harvard 17, Yale 13.

But Yale backup QB Mark Brubaker led the Elis to a touchdown with :29 seconds to go in the half. Facing third-and-nine from the 11-yd. line, Brubaker dumped a screen pass to Kevin Callahan, who raced into the endonze.

From that point on, it was all Yale.

Why did Harvard fail to live up to its advance billing this year? How does a championship team become a dud in one season?

The questions have been asked again and again. Harvard Coach Joe Restic has answered them.

What went wrong?

Harvard had 11 starters returning from its 1987 championship team. There was Hinz, who rushed for 161 yards in last year's Game and won All-Ivy honors. There was Yohe, Harvard's record-breaking quarterback.

There was guard Maurice Frilot. Safety Jim Smith.

Eleven starters. A nice foundation upon which to build another championship team.

What went wrong?

Today was like many other Harvard games this year. Come close, but not close enough. Have problems, but not be able to overcome those problems with a long pass or a tough defensive play.

Yale blocked an Alan Hall punt today and raced with it to the endzone. This kind of disaster would not have happened last year.

The Crimson would have stopped Yale's Richard Huff before he was able to reach out and bat Hall's punt to the ground with four minutes left in the first quarter. Or, at the least, it would have been able to halt Brian Hennen before he raced 35 yards for a touchdown, putting Yale up, 12-0.

Big plays, Restic said last week, hurt Harvard this year. Huff's block and Hennen's return were the sort he was talking about.

The question now is, does Harvard have a future? If it's possible to go from champion to dud, is the reverse true? Will the Crimson rally next year?

Perry started last week against Penn, and Restic praised his performance. "He can be a quarterback in this league," Restic said.

But can he be a championship quarterback? Next year, we'll see.

Today, we saw the stream of happy Yalies who poured out of Harvard Stadium. We saw the bowed heads of the Harvard players walking into the locker room.

Today, like most Saturdays, we saw a championship team go so sadly awry.

Next year seems so far away.