A LEAGUE OF ITS OWN

Two years ago, it came to an end in a torrential downpour at Harvard Stadium, with a 17-7 defeat.

One year later, it was over at Franklin Field, where four Harvard turnovers gave Penn its second straight title.

But on Saturday, things were different.

After its title dreams were shattered by the Quakers in the year’s penultimate contest for two consecutive seasons, the Crimson was not to be denied this time around.

This time, it was Harvard’s year.

This time, the Crimson were champions.

With a 37-20 thrashing of Penn (5-4, 4-2 Ivy) on its home turf, No. 14 Harvard (8-1, 6-0) remained unscathed in 2011 Ivy play, won its eighth straight game, and, most importantly, clinched the Ivy League title outright with one game—The Game—still to go.

With a little help from Dartmouth—whose 21-16 victory over Brown earlier in the afternoon eliminated the Bears from contention—Harvard won its first title since 2008 and its 14th all-time.

“It never gets old, I guarantee you that,” said Harvard coach Tim Murphy, who won his sixth championship in 18 years at the helm of the Crimson. “When you don’t win one, it honestly feels very hard to get back there. It’s the culmination of so much hard work. ... This is what makes it worthwhile.”

Facing its first real test since Brown seven weeks ago, Harvard looked as dominant as ever, scoring 30-plus points for the seventh straight game—the first time since 1890 a Crimson squad has accomplished that feat—and, most impressively, doing so against the top-ranked defense in the conference.

To win, Harvard did two things—it ran the ball effectively, and it stopped the run even more so.

Freshman Zach Boden and junior Treavor Scales combined for 151 yards on the ground on just 21 carries, good for 7.2 yards per attempt. In comparison, the Crimson averaged just 3.3 yards per carry against the Quakers in their past two meetings.

Both Boden and Scales each also scored touchdowns, the rookie on a 14-yard scamper to put Harvard up, 14-7, with just over a minute left in the first half, and the veteran on a two-yard score to put the Crimson ahead, 30-7, early in the fourth.

Defensively, Harvard limited the Quakers to just 24 yards on the ground on 30 attempts. Last year, Penn rushed for 206 yards against Harvard in its championship-clinching win.

“I think the line of scrimmage was strictly won by their kids,” Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. “We struggled more than any time this year to run the football. We became one-dimensional.”

Defensive tackle Josué Ortiz played a major role in limiting the Quaker offense. The senior was dominant in the first quarter, recording two key sacks—his eighth and ninth of the year.

Early in the second, after Penn had scored to go up, 7-0, and Harvard had gone three-and-out on its ensuing drive, Ortiz singlehandedly swung the momentum of the game when he forced Penn’s Jeff Jack to fumble at his own 24, then recovered the loose ball.

“I was double-teamed by the center and guard, and I tried to push the pile back,” said Ortiz, who finished with 10 tackles on the afternoon. “I just ripped at the ball; I didn’t think it would come out.”

The turnover gave the Crimson great field position, which Winters took immediate advantage of, hitting sophomore tight end Cameron Brate over the middle on the next play for a 24-yard game-tying touchdown. From there, the Crimson offense never looked back, scoring 37 unanswered points on its way to the title.

“It feels great,” Winters said. “This was definitely a game we marked on the schedule, hoping we’d be in this position, being able to play for the championship. It means a lot and personally it means a lot to beat Penn, since they’ve taken it from us the past couple of years.”

“[The best part] is definitely coming back in the locker room and being able to share it with your teammates, who you’ve worked hard for it with the whole year,” captain Alex Gedeon added.

As soon as the public address announcer reported the Dartmouth win, a roar rippled through the 11,000-person crowd Harvard Stadium and the players—with about 10 minutes still remaining in the game—began to celebrate the inevitable.

They knew they had succeeded where their two predecessors had failed. They had toppled the mighty Quakers, who had received 12 first-place preseason votes in August, while Harvard had gotten just two.

“We played the better team today,” Bagnoli said. “They dominated play—they deserved to win.”

For Winters and Ortiz, the victory gave vindication to a decision made months ago to return to Harvard as fifth-year seniors, solely for the purpose of winning another ring.

“You put all the work in, and this makes it worthwhile,” Ortiz said. “This is the pinnacle; this is what you always want to do as a Harvard football player.”

But for Gedeon, Winters, and Ortiz, the championship marked somewhat of a bittersweet moment, as it also marked the last game the trio—as well as 18 of their senior teammates—would play at Harvard Stadium.

“We practice there every day, and we’ve now played 20 games in that stadium,” Gedeon said. “It’s always going to be something special, getting the win in that last one.”

After winning a title as freshmen in 2008, the win brought the seniors’ careers full circle.

“I think it’ll set in a little deeper after the Yale game next week,” Winters said. “But it was a great feeling to be able to run out of the tunnel through the line of guys, knowing it’s your last game. I had a moment to kind of look out and just play through my five years here and really take that second to realize the journey I’ve been on.”

It was the preseason All-American who had the final word.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Ortiz said. “At practice Thursday, that’s when I’ll take our last lap with the lights off—that’s our tradition. Once that’s over with, I’ll look back.”

“It’ll maybe be emotional,” he added. “But I’m not making any promises.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.