NEW YORK—As The Crimson indicated in Friday’s Around the Ivies column, Harvard football couldn’t rest on its laurels Saturday against Columbia.

NEW YORK—If there has been a theme in the Ivy League this year, it has been that perseverance triumphs over talent.

Harvard football (6-2, 5-0 Ivy) went down to New York on Saturday and scored on its first two possessions on its way to a 34-14 thrashing of Columbia (2-6, 1-4) at Robert K. Kraft Field.

This is the approach that Harvard football needs to employ against Columbia tomorrow. Once an Ivy League sleeper pick, the Lions have regressed after early success and are now fighting to stay out of the Ancient Eight basement. But it would be a mistake for the Crimson to take its trip to New York lightly. With its game against Penn, the Crimson’s dangerous companion atop the Ivy standings, looming in Week 9, Harvard needs to keep the momentum going and trounce Columbia the same way it plowed through Princeton and Dartmouth in its last two contests. The Crimson can beat the Lions without putting forth its best effort tomorrow, but the Quakers won’t be as forgiving.

Coming into the season, Columbia looked like it would a title contender. At the start of the season, senior quarterback M.A. Olawale is a 6’1” and 224 lbs. looked poised to do damage throughout the Ancient Eight. Harvard, on the other hand, looked to the less physically-imposing field general Collier Winters in his first year starting behind center. Entering the eighth week of play, there seems to have been a role reversal.

After a tough mid-season loss to Lafayette two weeks ago, the Crimson crushed another Ivy League opponent on Saturday. Harvard football (5-2, 4-0 Ivy) justifyied its place at the top of the Ancient Eight with a 42-21 victory over Dartmouth (1-6, 1-3) just a week after trouncing Princeton, 37-3.