ITHACA, N.Y.--It was a marvelously simple football game.

Cornell has scored on its first possession of the day, and now Jim Villanueva had just booted a 39-yard field goal, giving Harvard three points on its final possession of the day. In between, each team had blown one sterling shot at a touchdown. Very simple, except for the yellow flag resting on Schoelkopf Field's artificial turf...

What was Crimson Coach Joe Restic thinking as Villaneusa's game-tying kick with three seconds left was nullified an illegal procedure call.

"Penn."

The situation wasn't an exact parallel to last year's crucial game at Penn, when a roughing-the-kicker call on Harvard gave Quaker placekicker Dave Shulman a second chance, which he used to beat the Crimson with no time showing on the clock. But the lateness of the call--as Restic saw it--gave the visiting coach that deja vu feeling.

"I want to see those calls made before the kick goes through," he said, echoing his complaint from the Penn game. Nonetheless, the side judge still ruled that part of the Crimson line was too far from the line of scrimmage.

So, after a Big Red timeout to let him ponder his second attempt, and despite the best efforts of the Cornell fans to break his concentration, the third-leading scorer in Crimson history (now one point away from becoming number two) sent his 44-yeard rekick even higher through the uprights than his first one.

Grumble, Grumble

After 20 seconds of milling about on the sidelines. Cornell's still-winless gridders finally realized they had lost the lead they had held for 53:59, their only lead of the season thus far. They trudged across the field to shake hands with the much-relieved Crimson, now 1-0-1 in the Ivies, 2-1-1 overall.

"We were lucky to get out of it with a tie." Restic said a few minutes later. "That's like a win at the end [in the Ivy race]."

Having snatched a tie after a full four quarters of frustration. Harvard might have been jubilant--but for the fact that it had been heavily favored to clobber its hosts.

Clearly, one's perspective affected how the visitors felt about their performance. "I don't think we executed well as a team today." said Brian White, the sophomore backup quarterback who struggled for most of the second half before a dramatic drive to reach field goal range in the final minute. "It's a game we should have won. We're really not satisfied with a tie in this situation."

"We played well," said Mark Mead, part of the defensive unit that allowed Cornell inside the Crimson 30 just once all afternoon. Linebacker Kevin Garvin led Harvard with nine tackles: "I can't say enough good things about Kevin." Defensive Coordinator George Clemens said.

Between Peter Baccile's 49-yard field goal 6:01 into the contest and Villanueva's three-pointer at the final gun, it was just not a day for the offense. Five Harvard possessions consisted of three plays and a punt: Cornell did the same three times. "We hardly had time to rest and talk to our kids on the sidelines," said Clemens.

Combined, the teams completed II passes. That may have reflected more of a problem for Harvard than for the Big Red. While Cornell QBs Shawn Maguire and Stuart Mitchell at times badly overthrew their receivers, the Crimson signal callers, Chuck Colombo in the first ball and White in the second saw several line losses dropped.