Football Beats Dartmouth in Final Minute, 24-21

After a would-be game-winning field goal hooked wide left last week, the Harvard football team’s fate was determined by backup kicker Andrew Flesher’s right foot once again.

With 6:31 left in regulation, Flesher attempted a 36-yard field goal. In a kick that looked similar to last week’s 50-yard attempt, Flesher’s attempt strayed just left.

But this time, Flesher was given a second chance. With 51 seconds left in the game, Flesher was called up to kick a 23-yard field goal. His kick sailed through the uprights for the third time that day, giving Harvard a 24-21 lead.

“I felt the kick leave my foot, and it just felt good,” Flesher said. “There was no doubt I was going to miss that.”

Dartmouth, with no timeouts remaining, put in quarterback Alex Park, who overthrew his intended receiver with seconds remaining. Senior cornerback Jaron Wilson picked off the pass to seal the victory.

Back in Harvard Stadium for the final game of its three-game homestand, the Crimson (6-1, 3-1 Ivy) held off Dartmouth (3-4, 2-2 Ivy) in a battle of second-place teams, shutting out the Big Green in the final quarter.

“It’s as tough, courageous, and resilient of a team as I’ve ever been around,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “That’s a really good team we beat. We just made one more play than they did, and we’re just happy to get a win.”

The Crimson defense picked off the Big Green’s starting quarterback and defending Ivy League Rookie of the Year Dalyn Williams once and held him to 156 yards passing and no touchdowns, prompting the change at quarterback midway through the fourth quarter.

Playing without starting tight end Cameron Brate, junior quarterback Conner Hempel targeted seven different receivers and ended the day with 135 yards passing.

Early in the third quarter, Hempel threw to freshman running back Bo Ellis. Ellis dropped the sideways pass and didn’t pounce on the ball. Safety Stephen Dazzo capitalized on the freshman’s mistake, scooping up the ball and returning it for 33 yards to give Dartmouth its first lead of the game, 14-13.

“I was just making an alert play,” Dazzo said. “We never give up on a play. If the ball’s on the ground, pick it up and keep moving.”

But the Big Green’s lead was brief—the Crimson took back the lead on the next drive, when high-school-quarterback-turned-collegiate-receiver Ricky Zorn took a reverse handoff and lobbed up a 32-yard ball to fellow senior receiver Andrew Berg at the back of the end zone. A two-point conversion gave Harvard a touchdown lead, 21-14.

“We’d been practicing it all week, and Berg wasn’t really open when I was getting ready to throw the ball,” Zorn said. “I thought I overthrew him, but Berg came up to me before the game and said, ‘If they call that play and I’m double or triple-covered, you have to throw it.’”

On the ensuing kickoff, Dartmouth kick returner Jon Marc Carrier was carted off the field with a concussion. Two plays later, league-leading rusher Dominick Pierre went down with a knee injury.

But Dartmouth was still able to attack.

Williams hit receiver Bo Patterson for 44 yards before backup running back Kyle Bramble came in for Pierre and barreled into the end zone to tie the game at 21-apiece.

The top rushing defense in the league gave up 167 yards to Dartmouth after limiting Pierre to 22 yards a year ago. The Big Green’s late-game heroics were not enough to complete a Dartmouth comeback.

After trailing Princeton by 13 early last week, the Crimson reversed the trend. Harvard opened the game with a three-and-out drive but tacked points onto the scoreboard on its next three drives.

On the team’s second drive, Hempel found Zorn and junior tight end Tyler Hamblin for consecutive first downs. The QB showed his mobility as well, ending the drive with a nine-yard touchdown scramble to give the Crimson the early 7-0 lead. Hempel ended the game as the Crimson’s second-leading rusher with 70 yards.

Two plays later, the offense found itself back in the red zone when Williams’ pass bounced off of his intended receiver and into senior cornerback DJ Monroe’s hands. But the Crimson was unable to score seven off of the turnover, and Flesher added three points instead.

The Big Green attempted to counter with its own field goal attempt, but Riley Lyons’ 26-yard attempt sailed wide left.

Tailback Paul Stanton, who led the Crimson offense with 146 yards, set Harvard up on the next drive, using a block by Hempel to take the ball 63 yards to the 17-yard line. But the Dartmouth defense came up with another stop, forcing another Harvard field goal.

An out-of-bounds penalty on the ensuing kickoff gave Dartmouth a short field, and the Big Green capitalized, as Pierre notched a 10-yard scoring run.

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at Samantha.Lin@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @LinSamnity.