Harvard Football Shows True Colors in Overtime

It was wacky. It was wild. But in the end, it was another win for the Harvard football team.

Sophomore Paul Stanton finally ended the back-and-forth affair with a 17-yard touchdown run in triple overtime, shedding three would-be tacklers to lift the Crimson, 41-35.

Waiting in the endzone, senior Cam Brate was the first to greet Stanton, lifting him into the Worcester air. It was a fitting image. After all, it was the tight end and back who carried the team to victory after the Harvard defense improbably kept the team in the game.

Eight years had passed since the last time the Crimson won at Holy Cross’ Fitton Field. Stanton was just 11 when Harvard won, 31-21, back in 2005. The Crusaders scored with 19 seconds left to win by three in 2007. In 2009, a Collier Winters fumble sealed a Holy Cross victory, and a Winters interception did Harvard in two years ago.

All of this is to say that you shouldn’t judge the Crusaders based on last year’s 52-3 embarrassment at Harvard Stadium. That was the anomaly, not the norm. Holy Cross proved its worth last week by upsetting Dartmouth, and came ready to play again on Saturday.

It’s hard to say the same thing about the Harvard offense, which started at a snail’s pace. The Crimson accrued fewer than 90 yards in the first half, and junior David Bicknell was called on to punt eight times in the contest. He had punted just four times in the first two weeks.

Junior quarterback Conner Hempel opened the game 0-for-3 with an interception before leaving with a hyperextended knee. Until Hempel returned midway through the third, senior Michael Pruneau struggled similarly, throwing for just 49 yards, though he was 8-for-10 and under center for Harvard’s only offensive score of the first half. The only man that seemed capable of moving the ball on the natural grass was Stanton, who finished the day with 103 rushing yards and 55 receiving yards to go with two touchdowns.

Though the Crimson offense couldn’t find traction, the defense kept Harvard in the game once again. Defenders forced and fell on four Holy Cross fumbles. Early in the third quarter, sophomore Eric Medes corralled one of those loose balls in the endzone, giving Harvard a 14-7 lead and tying the offense and defense, who both had scored a touchdown to that point. Junior Norman Hayes also blocked a field goal, though the Harvard offense couldn’t take advantage of the great field position.

Actually, the Crimson wouldn’t score again until the final minute of regulation. In the meantime, Holy Cross put together two long drives for a combined 160 yards, the second of which put the Crusaders up, 21-14, with just over 3:11 minutes left. Holy Cross had found a crack in the resolute Harvard defense, and now the pressure was on the Crimson offense.

On the ensuing kickoff, sophomore Andrew Fischer slipped at the 16-yard line, meaning Harvard would have to drive 84 yards, nearly as many as it accumulated in the entire first half.

Hempel looked unfazed by the pressure as he took the field. The drive started with two runs as the offense didn’t seem concerned about the ticking clock. On a game-altering third down, Hempel evaded defenders, scrambling for 10 yards and a crucial first down. On the next play, he found senior Andrew Berg streaking down the sideline for a 38-yard gain.

After a six-yard Stanton run, Hempel took a snap from the 10-yard line. Dropping back, he seemed to immediately know where he was going to throw the ball. Brate broke off the line and faced bracket coverage—a defensive back stayed on his right hip while a linebacker blanketed his left side. It didn’t matter.

Hempel double-clutched as Brate broke to the inside and into the middle of the endzone. Hempel threw it up, following his motto, “Force it to Brate.” If you watch the replay enough, you might see Brate push one of the defenders off with his right arm, but no yellow flags appear as the ball somehow finds Brate’s hands, and vice versa. The senior tapped one foot in the back of the endzone to tie the game at 21 and send it to overtime.

In extra time, the Harvard offense finally came alive, scoring on its first two possessions. Holy Cross did the same. Including each team’s final drive of regulation, they both had scored touchdowns on three straight possessions at that point. What was a defensive grind for so long had become a shootout so quickly.

But then things returned to normal.

The Crusaders got the ball first in triple overtime, but they didn’t get far. A sack and an incompletion forced a 45-yard field goal that Holy Cross missed wide left, setting up Stanton’s game-winning scamper on the ensuing possession.

It took three overtime periods and over three hours but the Harvard offense and defense were finally in sync just in time to move the Crimson to 3-0.

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacob.feldman@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @JacobFeldman4.