Road Trip to Redemption

Tomorrow at 12:00 p.m Harvard will attempt to recover from its first loss of the season when it face the Lafayette Leopards in Easton, Penn.

Last Saturday the Crimson (1-1, 0-1 Ivy) lost its Ivy League opener, 29-14, to the Brown Bears (2-0, 1-0 Ivy) during Brown’s first ever under-the-lights game in Providence, R.I. The Crimson struggled to combat the Bear’s defense, finishing the game with -16 net rushing yards, four fumbles, and two interceptions.

“If you look at the number one thing that we didn’t do well, it’s that we put our defense on the field with their back to the wall on the one-yard line, and three times on a very short field,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said.

Another one of the Crimson’s biggest challenges in the team’s game against the Bears was its offensive line. Senior quarterback Andrew Hatch struggled to find open receivers, and Brown’s defense managed to quash the majority of Harvard’s offensive drives.

“If you struggled to run the football, you put yourself in a lot of situations where it makes it harder to throw,” Murphy said. “They did a great job, they’ve got a very aggressive, very athletic defense, and they didn’t make it easy for us at all.”

“First of all we need to get rid of mistakes that are preventable,” captain Collin Zych said. “We didn’t execute that way we wanted to and if we don’t, we can’t win football games. W can’t play like we did in the Brown game where we weren’t able to bounce back quick enough before things got out of hand.”

If Harvard expects to do better this weekend, it must cure its offensive woes and settle a score with the Leopards. Last year the Crimson was defeated by Lafayette (0-3), 35-18. This win was a landmark for the Leopards as their first victory against Harvard in nine years.

“We’ve got to eliminate mistakes in all phases, and it’s as simple as that,” Murphy said. “If we do those things, we’ll be in the hunt right until the end.”

Lafayette has had its own struggles to start the season and heads into the game with three losses behind it. The games have been extremely close with the Leopards losing by less than a touchdown in each. During the squad’s game against University of Pennsylvania, Lafayette held the lead heading into the fourth quarter, but during the sixth minute, Penn scored a touchdown to take the game.

Lafayette dropped its most recent contest in double overtime against Princeton, making tomorrow’s game the Leopards’ third straight against an Ivy League opponent.

“[Princeton and Penn] are clearly two of the top teams in our league right now, so this is a very good football team, so they’re going to be hungry, they’re going to be desperate,” Murphy said.

The game against the Tigers was not only a nail-biter, but also a milestone performance for Lafayette senior place kicker, Davis Rodriguez. Rodriguez made four out of four field goals at Princeton from 27, 21, 35, and 26 yards. His performance earned him the title of the Patriot League’s Special Teams Player of the Week. This is the first time in 20 years that a place kicker on the Leopards’ team has made four field goals.

Both teams have been the victim of recent injuries. Lafayette freshman Pat Mputu was the starting tailback against Princeton because the Leopards’ regular starting tailback, Jerome Rudolph, was sidelined last week. During Harvard’s game against Brown, Crimson starting offensive lineman Brent Osborne was taken off the field with an apparent ankle injury. Murphy seemed confident, though, that Osborne would be ready for tomorrow’s game.

And Harvard will need as many healthy starters as possible against a Lafayette team that presents a tough matchup.

“They give you a lot of challenges,” said Murphy of the Leopards. “They give you a lot of conflicts, they really mesh their run game and their pass game, their play-action pass really well. They’ve got a lot of really good athletes. [Their quarterback] spreads the field, and distributes the ball to a lot of different people.”

With Lafayette’s offense primed for a strong game, its Harvard counterpart must get back on track if the Crimson hopes to leave Easton with a winning record.