Then again, it wasn't so different from his season. He tossed an interception which was returned to the Ivy League 10 yard line. The Ivy defense held tough, forcing a 34-yard field-goal attempt which the Japanese missed.

"We didn't run it up or anything, we just kept grinding and grinding the ball," Furse says. "We didn't even throw it that much, so we just kept on busting holes wide open."

Against the Japanese linemen, most of whom only weighed around 200 pounds, the Ivy Leguers went hog wild, rolling up 549 yards on the ground to complement a bashful 106 yards in the air.

As the game dragged on and the points piled up, the Ivy Leaguers became more enchanted with the Tokyo Dome scoreboard and its "jumbotron" than with their opponent. "Everyone would look up at the instant replay and check out the play and see how they did," Furse says.

The players had a lot to watch. By the time the day ended, the dazzling scoreboard read 68-3.

On the other side of the ball, the Ivy men limited the Japanese offense to a total of 209 yards, due in part to the efforts of the three Harvard representatives. Furse registered the Ivy League's only sack, Santos snagged his final collegiate interception and Pillsbury contributed his usual stellar performance. "It was neat and all, one last time we're together," Furse says. "I said, 'Pills, how about an "Adjuster!" call one last time?""

For these three football stalwarts, playing together one last time evoked memories of their last game: Harvard's 14-0 triumph over Yale. Pillsbury probably spoke for the three of them when he proudly remarked:

"You can't compare it [the Ivy Bowl] to the Yale game....It's like comparing apples and oranges."

The defeat was a bit of a shock for the Tokyo faithful, who expected an improvement upon last year's 24-7 loss. The Japanese media believed the third time would be the charm. "They thought they would make it really close," Pillsbury says.

But, like the ongoing the Super Bowl debate--will the AFC team make it close, let alone win the game--such hopes are best put away for another year.