HANOVER, N.H.--Vampires, fairy princesses and Monica Lewinskys aside, the award for best Halloween costume goes to the Big Green, which showed up for its meeting with Harvard dressed as a football team. HARVARD  20 DARTMOUTH  7

The Crimson (4-3, 3-1 lvy) bounced Dartmouth (2-5, 1-3 lvy) from the League title race, limiting the Big Green's anemic offense to 225 yards, just 50 of those on the ground. The defense collected seven sacks and three takeaways to pace a 20-7 rout Saturday afternoon at Dartmouth's Memorial Stadium.

Junior running back Chris Menick posted his fourth 100-yard effort in six starts, gaining 104 yards on 31 carries, and scored both Crimson touchdowns as Harvard (4-3, 3-1 lvy) won its fourth straight and remained tied atop the lvy standings with Penn and Princeton.

"We can't relax," said Harvard Coach Tim Murphy. "We're becoming a very, very solid football team. Last year, by comparison though, at times we were a dominant football team. We play very hard and we don't ever have the luxury of relaxing."

Junior quarterback Rich Linden continued to improve, completing 13-of-24 passes for 181 yards, and has not thrown an interception since the 21-17 loss to Lehigh in Week Three.

Linden eschewed the big-play pass but distributed a number of short- and mid-range routes among six different receivers, with wideouts Josh Wilske (six catches, 53 yards) and Jake Heller (three catches, 52 yards) leading the way.

But the real story on this overcast, blustery New Hampshire afternoon was the imposing play of the Crimson defense, in particular the front seven.

Junior tackle Chris Nowinski was in the Dartmouth backfield all afternoon, collecting a career-high four sacks and six tackles, while captain Brendan Bibro added six tackles and a sack of his own.

"They handled us up front," said Dartmouth Coach John Lyons. "Very similar to last year, the defensive line just whipped us up front."

Harvard opened the scoring with a nine-play, 59-yard scoring drive on the game's first series.

Sophomore running back Chuck Nwokocha handled the opening kickoff at the Harvard 5-yard line, turned and faked a reverse handoff, then burned it up the right sideline for a 36-yard pickup.

The reverse handoff was the same trick play freshman cornerback Willie Alford took for a 58-yard kickoff return last week against Princeton.

Linden and Menick then authored a surgically precise drive that culminated in Menick's two-yard touchdown plunge, which gave the Crimson a 7-0 lead with10:45 remaining.

Menick carried six times for 31 yards on thedrive, including a 12-yard gain on third-and-onefrom the Dartmouth 37 off an option-pitch right.

Linden completed passes of nine yards tosophomore fullback Chris Stakich and 11 yards toWilske to move the drive.

"It's pretty much the same thing, we get in ahole early," Lyons said. "They took the firstdrive and went right down the field on us, theywent up on us."