"The defense was very patient and moved the ball around so [Cornell] wouldn't be able to get their shots off," Bailliere said.

"Our defense was really strong," McAnaney agreed. "[Cornell] played so many back on defense that they gave up a lot of their offense. We had like six defense handling five of their attacks, so we didn't have a problem at all."

The Big Red did sneak two goals through, and the defense claims full responsiblity.

"The two goals they did get were from very sloppy defensive mistakes," Bailliere confessed. "They shouldn't have happened."

Mea culpa. Mea culpa.

But the defense more than redeemed themselves by shutting Cornell out in the second half.

After feeling the reins slip from their hands in the past few games, it felt good for Harvard to take their game back unconditionally.

"We were definitely getting back on track," French said. "We played a lot better than we have for the last few games."

The Crimson used the Big Red to practice new tactics that could come in handy against Dartmouth, and against the remaining non-Ivy League teams.

"We probably should have beaten them by more, but we were trying out some things," Bailliere said. "We weren't just trying to build up the score."

THE NOTEBOOK:The win over the Big Red pushes Harvard up another notch on its climb for the Ivy championship. But Princeton, with only one Ivy loss, can share the title if Dartmouth can knock off undefeated Harvard tomorrow at Soldiers Field.