NEW HAVEN--The game that was supposed to keep the Harvard men's soccer team in the thick of the Ivy League race and a treasured NCAA tournament bid turned into a lesson on the principles of exhaustion.

Playing its third game in six days, the Crimson fell to Ivy rival Yale, 1-0, yesterday afternoon in front of about 200 spectators at the Elis' Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium. The loss dropped Harvard's record to 4-6 overall.

But more importantly, Harvard's Ivy record now stands at 1-2. Columbia is on top of the standings at 3-0. Always-tough Princeton is 2-1, along with Yale (5-3 overall) while Dartmouth is even at 1-1. Brown (0-2) and Penn (1-2-1) are the other squads in the two-loss club. So many records, so many numbers. Harvard must now win all its remaining Ivy games and do a lot of scoreboard-watching.

"Because of Tuesday's game [a 2-0 Crimson victory over Boston University, we just lost our legs at the end of this game," Harvard Coach Mike Getman said. "It's disappointing, our guys played very tough today. We certainly had chances. Sometimes when you're a little bit sharper, a bit fresher, you have things go your way."

Yesterday's game followed a formula Getman has seen too much this year.

The Crimson plays hard. The Crimson gets the scoring chances. The Crimson still comes up on the short end. And to make matters worse, veteran sweeper Nick Gates had to leave the game early in the second half after suffering a leg injury while going for the ball. His status for tomorrow night's game against Cornell is undetermined.

"The injury to Nick was obviously a big loss. He's our leader," Getman said.

Even without the presence of Gates in the second half (freshman Peter Cochrane took over at sweeper and dribbled the Elis into a frenzy), the Crimson pressured the Elis zone for most of the contest.

That Goal

"The difference in the game was the mistake we made on that goal," Getman said.

"That goal" was scored by Yale junior striker Jeff Farmelo at the 31:40 mark of the game. As sweeper Peter Zanobi air-mailed a pass to the right side of the box, Farmelo beat out a trap and controlled the ball.

After heading the ball over Gates, Farmelo dribbled a shot past goalie Jamie Reilly, and the ball crossed the line before John Shue cleared it out.

"It was a wonderful goal," Yale Coach Steve Griggs said. "Farmelo beat the trap and made a great move in front. You have to have guys like that to make those moves."

"I would have liked to see the ball get ripped into the net," Griggs added, "instead of drooling over the line."

Besides Framelo's goal, Griggs had very little to drool over on offense. The Elis were outshot, 17-13, and most of their balls wound up in Hartford. Harvard goalie Jamie Reilly came up with three saves, including a beautiful stop on Peter Marshall's one-on-one blast early in the second half.

The play of the Yale defense, however, was a different story. The Big Stop of the game came at the two-minute mark of the second-half when Harvard forced a corner kick. Derek Mills lined the ball straight to the box. Dave Kramer was there and faked out Yale goalie Bryan Martin. The shot looked like it was going in. In fact, it was going in.

Until freshman defender Rob Bonta, guarding the right post, kicked the ball out of the danger zone. After the Crimson tried to stuff the rebound into the net, Eric Ople followed Bonta's lead and ended the Harvard threat with a clear out of the box.

"That was about the only time that they got anyone free inside the box," Griggs said. "Our guys did their job. They held the line. When Kramer touches the ball there, it's almost a sure goal. But Bonta stayed there and held his line."

Elis, 1-0 at New Haven HARVARD  0-0-0 Yale  1-0-1

Goals--Y. Jeff Farmelo (Peter Zenobi) 31:40.

Saves--H, Jamie Reilly, 3; Y. Bryan Martin, 6.

Shots--H, 17; Y. 13.

Corner Kicks--H. 3; Y. 2.