Running Wild

After a tough mid-season loss to Lafayette two weeks ago, the Crimson crushed another Ivy League opponent on Saturday. Harvard football (5-2, 4-0 Ivy) justified its place at the top of the Ancient Eight with a 42-21 victory over Dartmouth (1-6, 1-3) just a week after trouncing Princeton, 37-3.

The overwhelming power of the Crimson’s offensive line and key performances from the team’s running backs allowed Harvard to double up on the Big Green at Harvard Stadium.

“We take a lot of pride in our abilities up front,” senior center Alex Spisak said of the offensive line. “We know that we will control the offense, [and] we will make the plays.”

Dartmouth struggled to put up a fight against the veteran lines of the home team, and the mismatch of size and age eventually became the Big Green’s downfall.

“A lot of it came down to physical strength,” Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said. “They’re a stronger football team than we were.”

The Crimson was able to make crucial blocks up front to allow junior running back Gino Gordon and freshman running back Treavor Scales to each record over 100 yards on the ground. Saturday’s game marked the first time in a decade that two Harvard players rushed for triple-digit yards in the same contest.

“My success goes completely to the line,” Gordon said. “They open up a whole lot of opportunities as far as running’s concerned.”

Gordon led the Crimson with an average of 14.1 yards per carry, 216 total yards, and three touchdowns.

“It’s a milestone for any back to accomplish that,” said Harvard head coach Tim Murphy. “He’s a real, real tough guy. You see the skills, you see him be very versatile, but at the heart, he’s just a tough guy.”

Scales contributed two more scores and a total of 120 rushing yards, and junior quarterback Collier Winters threw for one touchdown, 204 yards, and no interceptions against the Big Green’s struggling defense.

Harvard’s defense had a much stronger showing, holding Dartmouth to only 262 total yards, compared to the Crimson’s 521.

“Our kids are really, really committed,” Murphy said. “[They did] a good job block destructing, good job [with] gap control, good job tackling. We never let them get their run game off the ground.”

Unlike its opponent, the Crimson got its running game started early on Saturday. After some back-and-forth play and a missed Harvard field goal, Scales recorded the first touchdown on a 40-yard run 12 minutes into the game.

The Crimson’s successful defensive play started early as well. Harvard shut out the Big Green in the first frame, holding it to only two first downs before the end of the quarter.

“I thought our linebackers especially really did a great job of playing great gap control and attacking the line of scrimmage,” Murphy said of the defense. “That gave us an opportunity to gain some momentum in the game.”

After Dartmouth was forced to punt at the beginning of the second frame, Gordon received and ran for three consecutive first downs to get into Big Green territory.

The Crimson kept the drive going with key plays from Winters and Scales to make it to the red zone, where Gordon stepped up again.

The running back scored his second touchdown on a 15-yard run, thanks to a crucial block by junior fullback Anthony Rotio.

With the score 14-0 in the home team’s favor, Dartmouth finally put together a run to get into scoring position but failed to execute. Big Green quarterback Connor Kempe threw a pass that was intercepted by Harvard senior defensive back Ryan Barnes on the Crimson 18-yard line.

“Offensively we were inconsistent, made some foolish mistakes that cost us—turnovers,” Teevens said. “We didn’t put enough things together.”

Harvard capitalized on its opponent’s mistakes and took advantage of some timely penalties to convert the turnover. After a 62-yard drive, Scales ran in the ball from one yard out to make the score 21-0.

But Dartmouth put together a 63-yard drive of its own and scored its first touchdown on a 12-yard pass to Tanner Scott with 17 seconds left on the clock. This brought the Big Green within two scores of the Crimson before halftime.

Harvard came back from the break with a bang, racking up another touchdown within three minutes of the second half’s start. After Scales ran to get the ball past midfield, Gordon put together a spectacular 48-yard run to score.

The running back also pointed out the contributions made by his teammates.

Dartmouth responded to the Crimson’s big play with a 43-yard pass to Scott and a subsequent touchdown with about ten minutes left in the quarter.

But after a failed onsides kick, Harvard got a quick rebound of its own two minutes later, when Gordon recorded his third touchdown of the game.

With the score 35-14, the Crimson committed a string of penalties.

“We have not had a great time dealing with prosperity as a football team,” Murphy said. “We have to finish better. We have to play for 60 minutes.”

But the team recovered from its miscues and got back to scoring.

Before the end of the third quarter, Winters connected with freshman tight end Kyle Juszczyk for a 31-yard touchdown to bring the score to 42-14.

In the game’s final frame, the teams exchanged drives, but when a Crimson punt was blocked by the Big Green’s Pete Pidermann, receiver Michael Reilly returned the ball 16 yards for a touchdown with 5:06 left on the clock.

It looked like Dartmouth may have had a final push left, but Harvard held the score to 42-21 and secured the victory.

“We were a little bit better team, a little bit more seasoned than the Dartmouth team today,” Murphy said, “but they played with tremendous effort, obviously, right to the end and in a lot of ways gave us all we could handle.”