Firing on All Cylinders

PRINCETON, N.J.—Halloween may be a week away, but the trickery started early at Princeton Stadium.

With the Harvard football team in town Saturday afternoon, the Tigers (1-5, 0-3 Ivy) pulled out all the stops—scoring twice off of trick plays—in an attempt to upset their visitors. But anchored by its strong rushing attack, the Crimson (4-2, 2-1) managed to overpower its opponent, coming away with the 45-28 win.

“We’re not the most beautiful team aesthetically, but we really play hard, and that was the key to victory [Saturday],” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “The effort has been tremendous.”

Senior and sophomore running backs Gino Gordon and Treavor Scales led the Crimson attack, combining for 338 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Gordon finished with a career-high 204 rushing yards on 20 attempts—averaging 10.2 yards per carry—while Scales chipped in with 134 yards.

“Both those running backs are good players,” Princeton coach Bob Surace said. “They make you miss.”

Harvard had less success in the air—passing for just 189 yards—despite the return of senior quarterback Andrew Hatch and junior quarterback Collier Winters.

Hatch—seeing his first action since sustaining a concussion in the second week of the season—started the game under center but was replaced by Winters at the half after throwing two interceptions and completing just nine of 21 attempts.

Winters fared better in his first game since a preseason hip injury, throwing two touchdown passes to help the Crimson to the 17-point victory.

But despite the lopsided outcome, Harvard had to play catch-up early on.

Princeton came out on tear, picking apart the Crimson defense on its opening drive and finding the endzone just 2:04 into the contest.

Using a series of short passes from senior quarterback Andrew Dixon and a 32-yard run from running back Jordan Culbreath, the Tigers advanced deep into their opponent’s territory.

Using the first of two trick plays, Princeton struck on just its sixth play from scrimmage.

On third down at the Harvard 22-yard line, Tiger tight end Harry Flaherty lofted a deep ball to the wide-open Andrew Kerr just in front of the endzone, and Kerr took it to the house to give Princeton the 7-0 lead.

“They schemed up some good plays on us,” said Harvard captain Collin Zych, who finished with a game-high 15 tackles.

The Crimson’s woes continued into its first offensive possession. Hatch and the rest of the Harvard offense got off to a slow start, going three-and-out on their first possession.

Princeton’s second drive got off to nearly as seamless a start as its first. Behind the direction of freshman signal caller Connor Kelley and Princeton’s Wildcat offense, the Tigers drove to the Crimson 31-yard line.

But just when it looked like the home team was poised to strike again, Harvard junior Dan Minamide picked off Kelley’s attempt for the endzone.

With momentum on its side, the Crimson marched down the field. Gordon led the charge, taking off for a 52-yard run on his first rushing attempt. Gordon took the handoff from Hatch, juked past one defender, made his way to the right sideline, and raced to the Princeton 42 before being brought down.

Gordon then capped off the drive three plays later, scoring from 22 yards out on a pitch to knot the score at 7-7 with 6:40 left in the first quarter.

It didn’t take long for Harvard to score again.

After the Harvard defense forced Princeton to punt on its next two possessions, the Crimson continued to rely on its ground game, moving the ball from its own 20 to the Tiger 46 on its first drive of the second quarter. This time, Scales was the Harvard rusher to find the end zone, breaking a tackle near midfield then sprinting down the left sideline for the 46-yard touchdown run, giving his team the 14-7 lead.

“We ran the ball hard,” Murphy said. “Since [week two] we’ve really re-established our mental and physical toughness running the football.”

But the Tigers answered on their next possession. Facing third-and-goal seven yards from the end zone, Princeton called on Kerr again. This time the wide receiver hauled in a pass from Dixon, catching the ball in the back corner of the endzone to even the score at 14 with 9:45 left in the half.

The Crimson regained the lead before the break, relying on third-string sophomore running back Rich Zajeski. After his first two rushes brought the squad to the Princeton nine, Zajeski punched the ball through for the score to put Harvard ahead, 21-14, heading into halftime.

The lead grew from there. Winters, who replaced Hatch to start the third quarter, extended the lead to 14 early in the quarter, connecting with sophomore tight end Kyle Juszczyk for a 26-yard score.

Princeton responded less than six minutes later, when Culbreath found wide receiver Trey Peacock in the endzone off a halfback toss to cut the Crimson’s lead to seven.

But that was as close as the Tigers would get.

After a 21-yard field goal from freshman David Mothander put Harvard up by 10 late in the third quarter, the visitors sealed the victory early in the fourth, blocking a punt deep in Princeton territory and recovering it in the endzone for a touchdown.

“The margin for error is so slim,” Surace said. “We can’t make those mistakes.”

Down 38-21 with 14:37 left on the clock, the Tigers scrambled to get back in the game, getting one last score from Peacock off a one-yard rush with less than five minutes to play. But the Crimson held firm from there, recovering the ensuing onside kick and then padding its lead with a late strike, putting the final score at 45-28.

With the win, Harvard remains one game behind Penn and Brown in the Ivy League standings heading into the heart of conference play.

“This was an important game for us,” Winters said. “It gives us a head of steam heading into these last four games.”

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.