NEW HAVEN, Conn--The Harvard football team came out flat and ended flat today, falling 23-13 to Yale.

Four delay-of-game penalties, two blocked punts an anemic 19 yards in the air, shoddy tackling and an erratic offense overshadowed a few shining individual performances.

Sophomore quarterback Mike Giardi scampered for 94 yards and one touchdown, Robb Hirsch a team high 99 yards and Kendrick Joyce pulled off one 46 yard run.

But the Crimson just could not sustain the momentum that put it a top Yale 13-10 going into half time.

As was the case throughout the season, Harvard turned out to be a first half team. It generated only 125 yards of offense in the second half, during which Yale shut out the Crimson.

Harvard could not get the job done when it had to, and a crowd of 40,091 at the Yale Bowl witnessed a heartbreaking end to a heartbreaking season.

"We knew we had to stop [Matt] Johnson and Giardi," said Yale Coach Carmen Cozza. "But we also knew if we stopped them it didn't mean we would stop the whole team."

Penalties

Harvard Coach Joe Restic said that the penalties hurt the teams momentum. But Restic applauded the performance of Giardi and said that the sophomore would be even stronger next year.

"Experience like this in a ball game is only going to help him [Giardi]. It's a pressure situation. Mike did all he could possible do to make it happen."

Had Harvard won it would have taken second place in the Ivies to Dartmouth which clobbered Princeton 31 to 13 earlier today.

The Crimson would have finished its 1991 campaign at 5-1-1 in the Ivies, Harvard's best record since its Ancient Eight championship in 1987. And the Crimson would have taken a one game lead 18-17-1 over the Elis in The Game series.

Instead Harvard finishes the season in third place as the University of Pennsylvania upset Cornell, 14-13.

After a defensively-dominated third quarter, Yale took the offensive initiative in the fourth quarter. The Elis recaptured the lead 17-13 after a 34-yard run by Jim Gouveia brought Yale to Harvard's 28-yard line.

Chris Kouri followed with a 12-yard jaunt to the Harvard 16. Gouveia capped the drive with a six yard run into the left end zone to give Yale the lead.