Harvard Denies Lions Pride, Gears Up For Penn

This year, the Harvard football team has departed from tradition by using a flourishing passing game to set up the run, instead of the other way around. On Saturday, the Crimson (5-3, 4-1 Ivy) proved that with a sterling effort on defense, the scoring philosophy hardly matters.

Harvard blanked Columbia, 34-0, dominating the Lions despite occasional periods of sloppy play. The game, played in front of 6,721 at Harvard Stadium, was Harvard's first victory at home this year.

With the win over Columbia (3-5, 1-4), the Crimson remains tied with Cornell and Penn atop the Ivy League standings. Yale fell off the pace this weekend with a surprising setback at Brown.

An effective running game complimented Neil Rose's 274-yard outing, but the Crimson did its best work without the ball. Harvard's defense chewed through three Columbia quarterbacks and stifled one of the league's best running offenses en route to its first shutout since 1997.

"Our development as a team, and the fact that we're alive in the title picture, is directly correlated with how our defense has improved," said Harvard Coach Tim Murphy. "We're a balanced team now, and at the point where our defense can more than hold its own."

A secondary that began the season as one of the worst in the nation continued to show signs of improvement, playing an effective man-to-man scheme to limit the Lions to a scant 64 yards in the air. More importantly, the Crimson was able to keep tailback Johnathan Reese, the Ivy League's leading rusher, in check.

Reese entered the contest averaging over 150 yards a game. The Crimson held him to 99 yards, only the second team to hold him under triple digits this year.

For the most part, the left side of the Crimson defensive line kept Reese from wheeling off the flank and collecting yards on the outside, where he feels most comfortable. Except for a 34-yard sideline sprint in the third quarter and a perfectly executed halfback pass before halftime, Reese never substantially factored in the game.

"We had an effective game plan," Murphy said. "If they were going to beat us today, they were gonna have to do it with someone other than Johnathan Reese."

Some question surrounded Rose entering the game. He missed several practices with a sore rotator cuff, but felt fairly comfortable after several reps on Thursday.

Rose silenced any questions about his arm when the junior quarterback used it effectively to drive the Crimson into the red zone on Harvard's first possession. Rose opened the game with six completions and a shovel pass to Palazzo behind the line of scrimmage. Two of Rose's throws were short passes at the line of scrimmage to junior wide receiver Sam Taylor, who turned the tosses into modest gains.

After hitting sophomore wide receiver Carl Morris with a 10-yard strike up the middle to give the Crimson a first down at the Columbia 29-yard line, Rose faked a handoff to sophomore running back Nick Palazzo and rolled into open space. He hit Taylor on a fade to the right corner of the end zone, giving Harvard the lead for good at 12:10 in the first quarter.

"I feel fine," Rose said. "I felt a little nervous earlier in the week, but now, no soreness or anything."

Rose, now only 60 yards shy of Harvard's single-season passing yardage record, sat after the third quarter. Freshman quarterback Conor Black, who has solidified his hold on the backup job, threw for 46 yards in mop-up duty.

Harvard's defensive strategy left an imprint on the game before Columbia quarterback Jeff McCall even stepped on the field. Instead of booting the ensuing kickoff in conventional fashion, freshman placekicker Robbie Wright sent a line drive into the middle of Columbia's kick return formation.

The kick ended up at about the 25-yard line and, more importantly, away from Columbia's dangerous kick-returning duo of Reese and fellow junior Justin Logan.

Logan, the Ivy League's best kick returner, already had a return for touchdown in conference play this year. His potential to break free on the Crimson special teams, combined with the general impotence of the Lions' offense, made the squib play a gamble that Murphy was willing to take repeatedly.

"We were really so impressed with their kickoff return unit that we hedged our bets," Murphy said. "It's such a skilled unit that we were satisfied to try to get the ball to the 35."

Harvard's defensive line set the tone for the day when it killed Columbia's first scoring opportunity. Faced with a third-and-1 at the Harvard 36, McCall attempted a quarterback sneak only to be shut down at the line of scrimmage by junior tackle Ryan Fitzgerald.

Columbia then elected to go for it on fourth down, figuring that it could rely on its dynamic rusher to get the necessary inches.

Columbia was wrong. Senior Michael Green led a flood of linebackers into the backfield immediately after the handoff, and leveled Reese for a loss of five yards.

The Crimson did not establish the run until seven minutes into the game, but when it did, Palazzo delivered. The sophomore tailback outperformed his more celebrated Columbia counterpart, running for a touchdown and putting together his third 100-yard rushing performance of the season.

"I just keep on working as hard as I can in practice," Palazzo said. "I guess if you work hard in practice, good things happen."

Palazzo's speedy dashes powered Harvard's second and third touchdown drives, including one that ended in a 1-yard Palazzo run with 1:11 remaining in the first half.

However, the most electric moment in the Crimson ground game came from Rose. On second-and-goal at the Columbia 10, Rose ran a quarterback draw to the left side.

Rose used a 360-degree spin move to elude the lone Columbia defender pursuing him. Rose finished the play untouched and extended Harvard's lead to 14-0.

The quality of play of both teams disintegrated over the next few minutes. McCall backed out of the pocket at the Columbia 50-yard line only to get nailed by Green again. While being taken down, McCall attempted to salvage the play by flipping a pass to a receiver to his right. Junior linebacker Nick Cataldo broke up the play and fell on the ball.

The officials ruled that McCall's pass was a lateral and, consequently, a fumble rather than an incomplete pass. Harvard took over at the Columbia 45, only to promptly return the favor as Columbia safety Phillip Murray picked off Rose on the very next play.

It was the first of Murray's three interceptions on the day.

Although the Harvard offense seemed to make things interesting, the defense would have none of it. Columbia didn't make its first foray into the red zone until the third quarter, and that was only because Murray returned Rose's third interception to the Harvard 11-yard line.

Two plays later, defensive end Phil Scherrer kept the shutout intact by intercepting a pass from Columbia backup quarterback Scott Hunsberger.

The play set off a sloppy series in which the two teams combined for turnovers on five straight possessions, including a pair of Crimson fumbles.

"The bottom line is that we can win some games that way, but we can't win a championship that way," Murphy said. "It's as simple as that."

Fortunately for Harvard, the defense rose to the occasion after every offensive miscue. After Rose fumbled a snap at Harvard's 37-yard line, Fitzgerald pounced on a

mishandled Columbia exchange on the ensuing possession to return the ball to Rose and the offense.

Later, when Morris slipped and lost the ball after catching a Rose strike up the middle, junior end Mark Laborsky single-handedly killed Columbia's next drive.

Laborsky batted down two passes and combined with Green for a sack in an electrifying sequence late in the third quarter.

If the defense had the greatest impact on the stat sheet, the kicking game provided Harvard with its greatest emotional boost. The Crimson's special teams unit had struggled missing eight straight field goals going into Saturday's game. The kickers' futility had prompted Murphy to adopt a "four down" offense.

Breaking from this philosophy, Murphy sent Wright onto the field in the second quarter for a 32-yard attempt. It was close, but Wright made his first collegiate field goal, and the offensive line erupted in jubilation.

Wright later connected on a 27-yarder and restored Murphy's faith in the kicking game.

"I've said all along that Robbie Wright has a lot of ability," Murphy said. "Factor in that I think he's the only placekicker in the league that has made every extra point, he's going to be a fine player. If we need to win the game with a field goal, whether it's at Pennsylvania or at Yale, he'll do it."

The kicking game could not have resurfaced at a better time for the Crimson. Harvard faces Ivy co-leader Penn at Franklin Field next week in a game in which every point will count.