Closing In

It only took a minute and a half for the Harvard football team to begin erasing the bitter memory of last week’s loss to Lafayette.

In Saturday’s contest against Princeton (1-5, 0-3 Ivy), the Crimson (4-2, 3-0 Ivy) used three plays in its first drive—a pair of one-yard rushes and a 77-yard bomb from junior quarterback Collier Winters to classmate Chris Lorditch—to tack seven points on the board, en route to a 37-3 drubbing of the Tigers.

The funny thing is, according to Harvard coach Tim Murphy, the offense wasn’t even the highlight of Saturday’s game.

“It was overall, just a very solid team effort across the board: special teams, defense, offense—in that order,” Murphy said.

Though Princeton responded on its opening possession with a 58-yard drive—culminating in a field goal from the Harvard two-yard line—that would be the Tigers’ only redzone threat. Princeton crossed into Harvard territory only three more times in the game.

“They came out and moved the ball very well, and I think holding them to three on that drive was a morale builder for us,” Murphy said

And then the special teams unit took over.

On the Tigers’ second possession, a botched snap dribbled down to the Princeton three-yard line, and though the Tigers’ Brad Stetler managed to recover it, Harvard took over on the turnover on downs.

“The best part of our special teams to this point had been our punting,” Princeton coach Phil Hughes said. “And it was disappointing that we didn’t handle the snap, and the snap was not as good as it could have been. And that gave them field position early and easy field position early. And against good teams like Harvard, we can’t do that.”

The Crimson punched in the score on a short completion from Winters to rookie tight end Kyle Juszczyk, who finished the day with three receptions—good for 27 yards.

“He’s 6’3, 245, and he’s another one of those guys that we thought while recruiting, ‘Wow, this kid might be able to help us as a freshman,’” Murphy said of Juszczyk. “Usually when you say that, it’s the kiss of death, but since he’s got here, the transition has been a very smooth one.”

Harvard posted two more scores to close out the first half—a touchdown coming from a rush by Winters and a 23-yard field goal by senior Patrick Long in the waning seconds of the second frame.

Winters finished the day passing 13-of-19 for 190 yards with two picks and two TDs. He also added 26 net rushing yards on the day with a touchdown.

The running back platoon of junior Gino Gordon and freshman Treavor Scales rushed for 84 and 59 yards, respectively.

After Gordon punched in a touchdown from three yards out late in the third quarter to give the Crimson a comfortable 31-3 lead, Harvard brought in some of its third and fouth stringers. Freshman Colton Chapple and junior Matt Simpson both spent time under center in the fourth quarter, and senior Cheng Ho—who is third on the running back depth chart—managed a team-second 73 yards on just 12 carries and a touchdown in his limited play in the fourth quarter.

“I think a lot of the credit today—taking nothing away from the running backs—is that the offensive line played extremely well,” Murphy said. “I mean, we always say it’s what’s up front that counts on both sides of the ball, and if you control the line of scrimmage, you’re going to win a lot of games. And if you don’t—and we didn’t last week—then you’re in trouble.”

Defensively, Harvard contained a Princeton offense that has been struggling all season. The Tigers average 269 total offensive yards per game compared to their opponents’ 388 yards. Saturday was no different, as Princeton mustered only 157 yards compared with the Crimson’s 457.

A large part of the Tigers’ offensive misgivings this season has resulted from Jordan Culbreath’s recent diagnosis of aplastic anemia. Culbreath has 1551 career rushing yards and has been lynchpin of the Princeton offense in recent years.

But with Culbreath out, the Harvard D had little difficulty controlling the pace of the game.

“They prepared well for us last year, they ran all over us, and we made it a point as a defense to get in and make sure we prepare well, make sure we come out and play it well, all out, leave everything on the field,” said senior linebacker Jon Takamura, who led the defense with eight tackles, including four solo and one for a loss.

But as much as the Crimson had everything clicking on Saturday, Murphy still expects more from his team.

“As happy as we are beating a rival, getting a good win, being still in control of our own destiny in the league, we still made too many mistakes,” Murphy said. “We play like a young team sometimes, and we can get away with that maybe in the first couple of games as an alibi, but there’s no excuses for it. We’ve got to tighten things up. We’ve got a long way to go as far as I’m concerned.”

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.