Harvard falls just short again
Two late drives thwarted
Harvard continued to suffer heartbreak, letting a three-point lead in the third quarter slip away as nemesis Penn roared past to post a 24-20 victory before a chilled Harvard Stadium crowd of 8,113 Saturday afternoon. It was the fourth straight setback in a string of losses that has featured an overtime defeat to Columbia in New York last week and a Hail Mary loss to Ivy frontrunner Dartmouth on the last play two weeks ago. The last time Harvard dropped four in a row was during head coach Tim Murphy’s second season in 1995.
PENN 24 HARVARD 20
“We played hard. We played well in all three phases. It was deja vu. They just made one more play than we did. Bottom line is we have to get the job done,” said Murphy. “In 33 years of coaching, I’ve never had a team go through a stretch that we’ve had like this. You can talk about bad bounces but you have to take control of what you can control. You look at the Ivy League every week. There’s so much parity. There’s so many good players. We just have to finish.”
Harvard twice faced fourth-down situations in the last three minutes, driving to the Penn 7 (2:42 left) and 31 (1:45 remaining) before being stopped on downs by the rousing Quakers defense.
“Right before the last play — I’m pretty sure there was a (video) review — and we had everyone over at the sideline and we talked about what we had to do. Nothing else mattered. We had to get the job done. That was the game right there,” said Penn senior tackle Prince Emili, who sported a team belt signifying best defensive player. “I love this stadium. There’s no track around it. No space between you and the fans. You’re locked in. No distraction. The sounds echo. It’s all football. You just show up.”
Harvard took the opening kick but had to punt. The ball hit a Penn blocker in the helmet but took a quirky bounce right to return specialist Sam Philippi, who brought it back to the Harvard 40. Senior quarterback Nick Robinson led the Quakers the rest of the way, keeping the ball for a 3-yard score.
Harvard used the opportunity of a missed field goal to march 89 yards with junior quarterback Jake Smith finding speedy B.J. Watson (8 rec., 87 yards) isolated behind a Penn linebacker and turned the play into a 47-yard catch and run. Jake McIntyre upped his season PAT total to 30-for-30 to tie with 1:17 to go in the stanza. The TD toss was the 17th for Smith (26-of-41 for 322 yards).
A roughing the punter penalty against Harvard’s Adam Shepherd gave Penn new life on a subsequent drive that ended with Daniel Karrash making a 24-yard field goal with 7:49. On the play before the Karrash kick, Quakers wide receiver Ryan Cragun dropped a sure touchdown in the end zone.
Harvard defensive back Max Jones picked off Robinson near midfield for his third pick of the season to give the hosts another chance. That turnover resulted in a 28-yard field goal by McIntyre to pull Harvard even with 1:51 left.
Harvard forced Penn to punt and Shepherd atoned for his earlier transgression by getting a hand on the Jake Haggard punt attempt with the ball striking a Penn lineman in the back and Harvard’s Dan Abraham recovering. McIntyre then matched his career-best with a 42 yard field goal to hand the Crimson a 13-10 led with 42 seconds before intermission.
Penn began the second half with Robinson firing a leaping 70-yard bomb to Rory Starkey, Jr. who caught the ball over the top behind coverage by Harvard’s Jones for a 17-13 lead.
Harvard moved back in front, 20-17 with 7:37 left in the third quarter when sophomore receiver Cody Chrest scored on an 18-yard double reverse, walking untouched into the end zone.
“We’ve scored more touchdowns on that play over the years so I told our staff, ‘Let’s use it,’ Murphy said.
The back-and-forth battle saw Penn retake the lead, 2420, with 7:15 to play in the fourth when Penn converted a fourth-and-1 from the Harvard 16. Robinson (12-of-27 for 203, 2 TD s) threw to Starkey, who made a nifty one-handed catch for his (3 rec., 96 yards) second score of the afternoon.