NOTEBOOK: Harvard Football Wins Rare Overtime Game

The last time a Harvard football game extended past regulation, it beat Yale in triple overtime, eight years ago. Saturday, it took just as many extra periods to down Holy Cross, but the Crimson eventually emerged victorious, 41-35.

After captain linebacker Josh Boyd and senior defensive end Nnamdi Obukwelu brought quarterback Peter Pujals down in the backfield in the third overtime period, the Crusaders were forced to settle for a 45-yard field goal. When the field goal missed wide left, Harvard—which had not led the game since early in the 3rd quarter—had a chance to regain the advantage and end the three-hour battle.

“It was just an unbelievable team effort,” Boyd said. “We talk about overcoming adversity all the time, and whoever makes the last big play is going to win the game, so we knew we had to step up.”

It took only three plays for the Crimson to find the end zone after that. Junior quarterback Conner Hempel found sophomore wide receiver Andrew Fischer for a quick pass, and then junior tailback Paul Stanton broke free and scampered 17 yards into the end zone.

After 14 drives produced just 14 offensive points for Harvard, the Crimson converted on every single one of its possessions in overtime.

The Crusaders caught a break in the first overtime when an incomplete pass on third down turned into a first down following a defensive holding call. Three plays later, Holy Cross was the first to score in overtime as Pujals found wideout Mike Fess in the back of the end zone.

Harvard answered, with Hempel gaining yards through the air and on the ground before hitting senior Tyler Ott for a three-yard score.

The second overtime yielded quick scores for both teams. Hempel found Fischer down the sideline for 18 yards, and Stanton punched it into the end zone. The Crusaders responded quickly with a five-yard touchdown run by wideout Kalif Raymond to set up the final extra period.

FRESH START

Holy Cross’s signal-caller may have been in his first year of college and in his second career start, but for the most part on Saturday, he played like a veteran.

By the end of regulation, Pujals had nearly twice the total passing yardage of Hempel and backup quarterback Michael Pruneau—who came into the gamewhen Hempel was out with a hyperextended knee—combined.

“That kid’s going to be great,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “He played his butt off. It’s asking a lot of a freshman in really only his second game starting to play against a good defense like Harvard. I thought he played tremendously.”

Despite sacking Pujals six times, the Harvard defense struggled to slow the freshman, who ended the day with 345 yards and four touchdowns. Pujals also created plays on the ground, electing to keep the ball and rush when none of his receivers were open.

But when Pujals decided to hold onto the ball, it was often costly. The Crimson’s defense, which had a score in both games of the season heading into Saturday, forced four fumbles—all from Pujals, and added to its streak. Junior defensive end Zach Hodges stripped the ball from Pujals and sophomore linebacker Eric Medes fell on top of it in the end zone to give Harvard a 14-7 lead in third quarter.

The Crimson was only able to capitalize on one other fumble—Pujals’s first cough-up gave Harvard the ball at Holy Cross’s 33-yard line. junior running back Andrew Casten found the end zone to put the Crimson on the scoreboard first, 7-0.

STANT-UP GUY

When the team went into the locker room for halftime, Stanton accounted for 71 of Harvard’s 88 offensive yards tallied in the first 30 minutes of play. With Hempel sidelined for much of the first half with an injured knee and second-string quarterback Pruneau unable to produce much offense, the burden fell on Stanton and fellow running back Casten.

Stanton, who became the team’s top tailback with sophomore Zach Boden out with an injury, recorded his first 100-plus yard rushing game, finishing with 103 yards on the ground and another 55 receiving as the quarterbacks’ favorite target of the day.

“He’s unbelievable,” Hempel said. “Especially when Zach Boden gets back, they’re going to be a great, great duo. Paul Stanton has a crazy work ethic and refuses to go down. Our screen game is a force—getting him with the ball in open space, it’s very hard to tackle him.”

The sophomore also scored the final two touchdowns for Harvard to clinch the win for the Crimson, which hadn’t beaten Holy Cross on its home turf in eight years.

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samantha.lin@thecrimson.com.