NOTEBOOK: O’Hagan ‘Gives Us a Spark’

Junior quarterback Liam O’Hagan didn’t start in his return from a five-game suspension, but he finished. O’Hagan, who had been suspended for the season’s first five games for an unspecified violation of team rules, was brought in early in the second quarter to take over for junior Chris Pizzotti, who stuggled.

Pizzotti was 4-of-9 passing for 46 yards, a touchdown and an interception. With Pizzotti under center, Harvard had managed just seven points, a touchdown after a blocked punt near the end of the first quarter that allowed the Crimson offense to start at the Princeton 20-yard line.

“I just thought that [O’Hagan’s] combination of enthusiasm, mobility, and improvisational skills could give us a spark,” Murphy said, “and a dimension to our offense that we don’t have right now.”

O’Hagan entered for Harvard’s first drive of the second quarter and finished the game 13-of-27 for 168 yards and a touchdown, along with 10 carries for 89 yards. The Crimson stormed back from a 24-14 halftime deficit to take a 28-24 lead.

“Liam O’Hagan coming in added an added dimension that we hadn’t been able to practice against because he makes so many plays with his feet,” Princeton coach Roger Hughes said.

But three interceptions on the final three fourth-quarter drives proved the Crimson’s undoing. The first was thrown by sophomore wide receiver Chris Sanders on an attempted reverse pass, while the second and third were both thrown by O’Hagan. O’Hagan’s first interception was thrown almost directly at Princeton’s Kevin Kelleher, leading to a drive that put the Tigers in field-goal position already ahead 31-28. The kick was blocked, but an O’Hagan pass on the next drive was tipped at the line of scrimmage, leading to another Kelleher interception and allowing Princeton to kneel out the clock.

FAKING IT

Princeton got a touchdown late in the first quarter after Harvard fumbled an attempted fake punt back to its own 12-yard line. The play, an attempted snap to sophomore defensive tackle and upback Matt Curtis, was one the Crimson had successfully used before in defeating Lehigh in the season’s third game. This time, however, the snap sailed over Curtis’ head and was recovered by Princeton’s Collin McCarthy at the Harvard 12. Three plays later the Tigers took a 17-7 lead on a short touchdown pass.

But it was only one of a series of wild special-teams plays for both teams. The Crimson’s first touchdown came after a blocked punt, the first time Harvard had blocked a punt since a visit to Princeton in 2004.

The Crimson also blocked a Tiger field goal in the fourth quarter, giving the offense one last shot to tie or win the game. The kick was blocked by junior Desmond Bryant, who also had Harvard’s last blocked field goal, against Lafayette in 2004.

Princeton seemed to catch every bounce on special teams, downing four of its seven punts inside the Harvard 20 after opening the game with a block and a 14-yard punt.

All the special teams drama was reminiscent of last season’s matchup, when Princeton’s Jay McCareins erased a late Harvard lead with a kickoff return for a touchdown in a 27-24 Princeton triumph.

CALLING CARD

Princeton’s game-winning drive looked to have stalled out after senior safety Danny Tanner broke up a pass on third and four from the Harvard 39-yard line. But after Tanner leapt up and tapped his chest in celebration, the officials called an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, earning protests from the Harvard sideline.

“They’ve got a tough job, but I haven’t seen that call in college football, in the Ivy League,” Murphy said. “I still don’t know the kid just celebrated. It was a great play.”

The penalty moved the ball to the Harvard 24 and gave the Tigers a first down. Two plays later, Princeton scored to take a 31-28 lead it would not relinquish.

Hughes was pleased with the flag.

“Yes,” he said, when asked if it was the right call in that situation. “We got called on a penalty the same in the first half, so I credit the officials with calling the game equal.”

Hughes was referring to an unsportsmanlike conduct call on Princeton linebacker Luke Steckel, who had received the penalty after a run by senior running back Clifton Dawson on a Harvard touchdown drive in the second quarter. That cost the Tigers half the distance to the goal, as it was called after Dawson ran out of bounds at the Princeton 8-yard line, short of the first down on a third-and-three play.

NOTES

The win was Princeton’s second in a row over the Crimson after losing nine straight from 1996 to 2004. Hughes is now 2-6 career against Harvard....Six different players have now attempted passes for the Crimson this season: Pizzotti, O’Hagan, Sanders, sophomore quarterback Jeff Witt, junior quarterback Richard Irvin, and senior punter Clem McDavid, who attempted a pass on a fake field goal against Lafayette....The game marked the first time since 1946 that the two teams had met as undefeateds, when Harvard was 2-0 and Princeton was 1-0. It was the first time since 1922 that both teams had met as undefeateds with at least five wins, when both teams were 6-0. The Tigers defeated Harvard that season 10-3 en route to a national championship.

—Staff writer Brad Hinshelwood can be reached at bhinshel@fas.harvard.edu.