PRINCETON, N.J.--Princeton University Stadium, constructed last year to replace its decrepit, 84-year-old predecessor, is with good reason the pride and joy of Old Nassau this season.

The 27,800-capacity arena boasts a ring of luxury boxes and lounges, open-air concourses replete with concessionaires, a swank, well-equipped press box and nary a bad seat among the bunch.

Princeton paid $45 million for this model of modern architecture. Judging by the apparent financial state of the boosters and seigneurs of privilege who crammed it Saturday afternoon, that must have been chump change.

The aura clinging to the rafters of the Tigers' digs Saturday afternoon wasn't just new-stadium smell--it was the heady aroma of old money. Or better yet, of old white men with money.

Funny, isn't it, that flush in the middle of the much-maligned round of recruiting currently visiting Cambridge that the Harvard football team should get a preview of what a post-I-banking future might resemble?

Maybe it was the elixir of potential wealth in the air, or maybe it was carryover from the eagerness that characterizes recruiting, but the Crimson snagged a win--the first ever by a visitor--in Princeton Stadium because it was supremely opportunistic.

Looking at the shorthand of the box score, one wonders how Harvard managed to spoil Homecoming Saturday.

Princeton outgained Harvard 460-326, controlled the ball for 38:20 versus the Crimson's 21:40, rushed 48 times for 258 yards and limited junior running back Chris Menick, the Ivy's leading rusher, to an atypically slim 56 yards on 19 carries.

For all that, the Crimson still came up one point ahead because it seized several key chances and turned Princeton miscues into points.

"I tell our kids all the time, there's going to be days you may not have your fastball, you may be up against an opponent that may be physically better than you," said Harvard Coach Tim Murphy. "But you can always outwork people and you can always outhustle people."

For the first week this season, junior quarterback Rich Linden was able to punish defensive lapses in an opposing secondary. He sparked a first-quarter scoring drive with precise, well-placed passes of 22 yards to sophomore wideout Josh Wilske on a play-action and a 38-yard touchdown to junior tight end Chris Eitzmann.

In the second, Linden converted junior flanker Terence Patterson's 46-yard punt return into an eight-play, 44-yard touchdown drive capped by a six-yard lob to Eitzmann again, this time in the back left corner of the endzone.

On the opening drive of the third quarter, junior linebacker Mike Sands forced Tiger senior quarterback John Burnham to fumble on a keeper right, and junior defensive end Chris Nowinski pounced on the loose ball at the Tiger 43-yard line.

When the drive stalled at the 17, junior placekicker Mike Giampaolo, in his first action since the season opener at Columbia, drilled a 30-yard field goal to tie the game at 16-16.

The Crimson started three drives in Princeton territory, and converted on two of them for 10 points, a sharp contrast to last week's 20-14 win over Holy Cross.