Harvard Remains Undefeated With Win Over Lions

NEW YORK—For the third-straight week, Harvard football came up against an easily-beatable Ivy opponent. And for the third straight week, the Crimson made it clear early who the best team on the field was.

Harvard (6-2, 5-0 Ivy) went down to New York on Saturday and scored on its first two possessions on its way to a 34-14 thrashing of Columbia (2-6, 1-4) at Robert K. Kraft Field.

“Our kids play as hard as anybody in the country,” Crimson coach Tim Murphy said. “And that’s our forte more than anything else. We’ve been far from perfect on any unit, but we’re solid all the way around.”

Though Harvard played far from a perfect game, committing four turnovers and 11 penalties, the outcome of the game was never in doubt.

The Crimson received the opening kickoff and marched down the field, needing just 3:37 to get on the scoreboard.

A long series of rushes from juniors Gino Gordon and Collier Winters and freshman Treavor Scales brought the ball to the one-yard line, where Scales punched it in for a touchdown.

The Lions played a quick three-and-out on their first possession, but when the punt unit came on the field, the team ran into trouble.

Rookie punter Michael Williamson couldn’t corral the snap, and coughed up the ball. Harvard senior linebacker Nick Hasselberg fell on it at the Columbia 12, and it only took seven seconds for Winters to find freshman tight end Kyle Juszczyk in the endzone for another score.

“The snap may have been a bit high, but he’s still responsible to catch the snap and to kick the ball,” Lions coach Norries Wilson said. “And at that point I don’t think he played with enough urgency.”

Another Columbia first-quarter turnover—this time, an easy interception from senior Ryan Barnes—led to another Harvard touchdown.

Winters took to the air, with a 33-yard pass to sophomore Adam Chrissis—the highlight of the 79-yard drive. But once inside the 10, it was Gordon who brought the ball into the endzone nearly untouched.

“Gino is one of those guys you can always depend on,” Murphy said. “What you don’t get an appreciation for until you really spend some time around him is how tough he is, how resilient he is, what a great leader he is. He’s exactly what you need at running back.”

Senior Patrick Long’s extra point was good—part of a perfect afternoon for the kicker—and with two minutes still remaining in the first quarter, the Crimson was sitting on a 21-0 lead.

The next four drives ended in turnovers—two fumbles from the Lions, two interceptions for Winters—and it was not until the final drive of the half that Harvard was able to put another trio of points on the board.

A crucial pair of Columbia penalties totaling 20 free yards enabled the Crimson to drive into field goal position in just 1:07, and Long’s 28-yard field goal made the score 24-0 heading into the half.

Harvard would tack on another 10 points—seven on a three-yard Gordon run in the third, and three on a 29-yard Long field goal in the fourth—before allowing the Lions across midfield for the third time.

The strong defensive performance was once again sparked by senior linebacker Jon Takamura, who finished the day with six solo tackles, two sacks, and the interception that led to the Crimson’s second field goal.

But Harvard was quick to appreciate that it wasn’t facing the Lions’ best lineup. Columbia was without its top two quarterbacks, seniors M. A. Olawale and Shane Kelly, as well as its top running back, senior Ray Rangel.

“Columbia’s offense was really banged up,” Takamura said. “We saw on film what they were capable of, we just prepared for it and came out. [It’s] probably not our best game that we’ve played. We made a lot of mistakes, so we’ve got to correct those before going into next week.”

The Lions finally got on the scoreboard with 6:49 left to play in the game. Junior Marco Iannuzzi fumbled a punt return, giving Columbia the ball on the Crimson 12. Sophomore Jerry Bell, who took over for rookie Sean Brackett midway through the game, completed a nine-yard pass to senior Austin Knowlin—who became the all-time Lions leader in career receiving yards earlier in the game—before junior tailback Zack Kourouma found the endzone on a pair of quick rushes.

Harvard, giving many of its second-stringers playing time, had a quick three-and-out before Bell got back in the driver’s seat. The quarterback orchestrated a 79-yard drive and capped it with a 10-yard pass to junior Andrew Kennedy, the first touchdown pass of Bell’s career.

Though the Lions successfully executed an onsides kick, the Crimson defense stopped them short, with junior Anthony Spadafino picking Bell off to effectively end the game.

“[Columbia’s] extremely well-coached, and you have to earn everything,” Murphy said. “We just have a few more guns right now.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.