Columbia roared back, mounting a 14-play drive to halve the score with a touchdown, but, unfazed, Harvard matched the Lion challenge. After a Columbia pass interference penalty erased a Crimson third-and-ten, Ferrara completed passes of eight, five and 18 yards, consecutively, to march the ball to the Columbia 38. There, Thompson took a screen pass from the big quarterback on the right side of the field and danced 38 yards for the score.

A late Lion field goal put the score at 21-10 going into the half.

"We knew going into the half that we had the momentum going," Murphy said. "We just had to hold on."

Harvard did, but barely.

Receiving the second-half kickoff on its own 33-yards line, the Crimson offense engineered its fourth-straight touchdown drive. Ferrara completed five of six short passes to take the team to the Lion 31, and Hu took over from there. The junior tailback made four consecutive runs, the last of which was a three-yard touchdown run.

Down 28-10, Columbia put its foot down. The Lion perimeter defense toughened up, stuffing the Crimson's deadly short-yardage passing game and allowing only one field goal in the next quarter-and-a half. And its offense broke wide open, using a solid offense line and a corps of husky, fleet-footed running backs to shred a young Crimson defensive front.

Beginning with 4:35 left in the third quarter, Columbia scored on three consecutive possessions. The last tally, an off-tackle one-yard run by Wiley with 4:50 left in the game, gave it the 32-31 lead that the Crimson would erase with its late-game heroics.

"This game was a beginning--nothing more," Murphy said. "It was a game that was very important to win for the sake of confidence, but I don't think we are about to get overconfident. We have a long season ahead of us.