Harvard Gambles, Hits Jackpot at Goal-line

Last season's stunning 9-7 loss of The Game must have really scarred Harvard Coach Tim Murphy.

"I could coach for 40 or 50 years, yet this one will stand out as one of the toughest defeats of my career," he said after that debacle.

Saturday, in an eventual 13-6 Harvard (4-2, 2-1 Ivy) win over Princeton (2-4, 0-3 Ivy), Murphy sent senior placekicker Mike Giampaolo out to kick a potential game winning 18-yard field goal.

With :07 remaining in the game, no timeouts and the score tied 6-6, the call seemed like a no-brainer--kick the chip shot and win the game. There would not be time for another play before overtime.

But Murphy was not that confident, and when Princeton called a timeout to freeze Giampaolo, the coach used the break to reconsider his decision.

And he thought of The Game.

Midway through the third quarter, leading 7-0 against Yale, Giampaolo lined up for a 19-yard field goal attempt. To the surprise of almost everyone in the crowd of 26,787, the kick sailed wide left.

Those lost three points proved decisive when the Elis mounted a fourth quarter comeback. Harvard had utterly dominated for most of The Game until the heartbreaking final minutes.

"Originally, I said let's take a five yard penalty and kick the 'extra point,'" Murphy said. "And I must admit my thoughts went back to the Yale game last year when we were in the exact same position and we missed it. I said nope, let's go down swinging."

When Giampaolo returned to the sideline for the timeout, Murphy opted to keep him there, sending out his regular offense.

Senior quarterback Brad Wilford ran a quarterback sneak and the offensive line moved the pile just enough for Wilford to slip into the end zone.

Murphy's gamble on history paid off, and the Crimson won the game.

"Personally yes, I was surprised he didn't go for the field goal," Princeton Coach Steve Tosches said. "But it worked."

Mike's Big Day

Making Murphy's decision to pullback Giampaolo even more unusual was that the senior placekicker had been having a career game up until that point.

Giampaolo was 2-for-2 on kicks, both coming in the first quarter. His first field goal, though made the game special.

The Crimson had advanced the ball to the Princeton 27-yard line with 8:51 left in the opening period when Giampaolo lined up for his kick. Giampaolo sailed the 44-yarder through the uprights, a career best.

His other field goal was a garden variety 33-yard boot at 3:33.

Giampaolo's previous career high had been 43 yards, which he made twice--last year in a 20-7 win at Dartmouth and in 1997 during a 14-12 win at home against these same Tigers.

The 1997 Princeton game, played in a rainy, muddy muck, was the closest Harvard came to losing in Ivy play that year. Giampaolo went 4-for-4 that day and his 43-yarder, a low line drive that just barely cleared the uprights, proved the difference maker in the game.

The Wind

Of course, Murphy might have just chalked up Giampaolo's long strike to the wind.

A fierce, 25mph gust from the southwest played havoc with the passing offenses. All four field goals came with the wind at the kicker's back, and none was even attempted against the wind.

"Going into the closed end, it was not easy to throw the ball," Murphy said. "It was a hard, swirling wind and going the closed end, the balls tended to die."

While Harvard had difficulty passing all day, regardless of wind conditions, Princeton's aerial attack heavily depended upon having the wind. Throwing against the wind in the first quarter, sophomore quarterback Tommy Crenshaw netted 27 yards, the following quarter the gusts helped him rack up 92 yards.

The place kickers, however, received the most help with the wind. Princeton sophomore Taylor Northrop also connected on a career best, a 52-yard rocket that effortlessly cleared the uprights.

The field goal tied the score at 6-6 with just 3:34 remaining in the game.

"With a 30 mph wind at his back, in terms of distance it was like kicking a 35-yard field goal," Murphy said. "He still had to gauge it from right-to-left, but in terms of distance he could've hit it from 60."

Menick Manhandles Tigers

With the wind flaring, establishing the running game became all the more important for the Crimson. Harvard clearly wanted to win this game on the ground as it came out of the gates and ran on its first seven plays.

Senior running back Chris Menick shouldered most of the offensive load, rushing 27 times for a season-high 165 yards. The Tiger defense, known for its toughness against the rush, consistently needed two or three tacklers to bring Menick down.

Menick averaged 6.1 yards per carry and netted 12 or more yards five times during the game.

"I was just trying to run hard and run low, I like to bring the impact when I run," Menick said. "A couple of times they were on their heels. If I was them I would have tried to hit me a little harder."

He almost singlehandedly setup Wilford's game-winning quarterback sneak by picking up 48 yards on 6 carries during that fateful final drive. Although Wilford's improbable run down the right sideline for 15 on third down received the most attention, Menick picked up 17 yards on second-and-10 from the Harvard 42.

With less than 30 seconds to go, Menick broke two tackles to bring the ball to the one-yard line, stretching his arms out and falling just short of winning the game himself.

Menick now needs just 37 yards to become Harvard's all-time leading rusher, breaking the record of 3,073 held by former teammate Eion Hu '97.

Homecoming

To prove once again that Harvard football is not Notre Dame or Michigan, Saturday was the Crimson's homecoming.

In lieu of parades and extra-festive tailgating, the Harvard community decided to celebrate this sacred occasion by inviting about 20 former members of the band on the field to play at halftime.

The game meant considerably more to the seniors on the Princeton squad who failed to defeat the Crimson during their four years, losing the previous two games by a total of three points.