Late Turnovers Out Of Character for Football

BETHLEHEM, Pa.—Lehigh was in a giving mood for three quarters on Saturday afternoon, committing four turnovers—four big reasons why Harvard had a 35-21 lead late in the game.

The Crimson, though, returned the favor in the fourth quarter. A crucial Harvard turnover led to seven of the Mountain Hawks’ 15 unanswered points in their 36-35 come-from-behind victory.

“I told our guys that we needed to take three turnovers and give away zero if we wanted to beat Lehigh,” said Harvard coach Tim Murphy. “That ‘zero’ part was almost correct.”

The “zero” was correct until midway through the fourth quarter, when Harvard faced a second-and-nine at its own 33. Out of the shotgun, sophomore quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick took a quick drop and looked to his left, where tailback Nick Palazzo was open for a swing pass behind the line of scrimmage.

But Fitzpatrick misfired, and the ball ricocheted off Palazzo’s left shoulder and bounced toward the sideline. Officials ruled the pass a backward lateral—a live ball—and Lehigh’s Kerrie Ford scooped it up at the Harvard 24 and returned it to the 5.

“We did as good of a job as anyone could’ve in taking care of the ball, but our one turnover was absolutely critical,” Murphy said.

Harvard’s mistake stood in stark contrast to the error-free, opportunistic play it exhibited for most of the game. Lehigh fumbled twice inside its own 20-yard line, and both times the Crimson made it pay.

The Crimson’s first break came late in the second quarter, when Lehigh running back Eric Rath fumbled a pitch at his own 4-yard line. Harvard defensive tackle Jon Berrier alertly came off his block and pounced on the ball.

Just one play later, Palazzo scampered in from three yards out for his second TD of the day, giving the Crimson a 21-7 lead with 4:59 to go in the half.

The second big momentum shift came in the third quarter. After Lehigh had scored on its first drive of the second half to cut the Harvard lead to 28-21, the Mountain Hawks held the Crimson on its next possession and had an opportunity to drive for the game-tying score midway through the quarter.

Harvard junior Brian Garcia, however, halted that all by himself. He stripped Lehigh running back Jermaine Pugh and fell on the ball at the Lehigh 11-yard line.

“Those [two plays] were cases where we were being aggressive and forced them to do things that we wanted them to,” Murphy said.

Three plays after Garcia’s recovery, Palazzo scored his third touchdown of the day, giving the Crimson some breathing room at 35-21 with 5:02 to go in the third.

As it turned out, though, that breathing room wasn’t enough.

Big-play problems

First, it was Ari Confesor of Holy Cross. Last weekend, it was Brown dynamo Chas Gessner.

On Saturday, Lehigh junior Michael Sutton became the third player in three games this season to hurt Harvard with his big-play potential.

The shifty Sutton hauled in 11 passes for 204 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown play during which he went through two Crimson defenders to catch a pass from Mountain Hawk quarterback Chad Shwenk.

“We were trying to beat [Sutton] as a secondary unit,” said Harvard junior Mante Dzakuma, who wasn’t even on Harvard’s two-deep roster entering the season but picked off two passes against Lehigh. “He’s quick and he’s tough to cover. He had the hot hand today.”

Sutton was also dangerous in the return game. Early in the second quarter, he fielded an Adam Kingston punt at the Lehigh 34. Four missed tackles and 57 yards later, he put the Mountain Hawks in position for what proved to be their first touchdown of the game.

Not the only ones

Harvard wasn’t the only team at Goodman Stadium with uncertainty surrounding its quarterback situation on Saturday, as the Mountain Hawks had started two different quarterbacks during their first four games.

Junior Matt Shiels got the starting nod against the Crimson, but he completed just three of seven passes for 12 yards and had an interception before Lembo lifted him in favor of Schwenk.

Shwenk responded, hitting on 18 of 29 passes for 256 yards, one touchdown, one interception and—most importantly — a comeback victory that might have ended Lehigh’s quarterback controversy.

“I was pleased with Chad’s play,” Lembo said. “The bottom line is that he got the job done.”

—Staff writer Jon P. Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.