Football: Harvard 14, Dartmouth 13

Harvard squeezes by Dartmouth, 14-13, for its twenty-first straight win.

After getting the Crimson on the board with his circus TD catch, Seitu Smith II got a big lift from offensive lineman Cole Toner (78). Smith also ran for 31 yards on six carries.
Photograph by Gil Talbot/Courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications
Though not at the top of his game, Harvard quarterback Scott Hosch (3) had it when he needed it, leading the Crimson on the game-winning drive. The senior ran his record as a starter to 13-0.
Photograph by Gil Talbot/Courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications
It's up…it's good! With 38 seconds left, and from the hold of Jimmy Meyer, kicker Kenny Smart delivered the game-winning extra point.
Photograph by Gil Talbot/Courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications

At game’s end last Friday night at Harvard Stadium, a reporter from The Harvard Crimson turned to her colleagues in the press box and held up her hands. “How,” she asked, “did we win this game?”

The young lady may be forgiven her partisanship, usually taboo in that setting. She had just seen arguably the most improbable victory in an important game in Harvard’s 142-season football history. In a showdown of Ivy unbeatens, the Crimson shrugged off an epic goal-line stand, scored two touchdowns in the final seven minutes—the second set up by a fumble forced by linebacker Jake Lindsey ’16—then staved off a game-winning field-goal attempt to outlast Dartmouth 14-13. Translated to baseball terms, this was Game Six. (Mets and Red Sox fans will know what we mean.)

The victory moved Harvard’s record in the 2015 season to 7-0 overall, and 4-0 in the Ivy League, putting the Crimson alone in first place; the Big Green is 6-1, 3-1 (tied for second with surprising Penn). With three games left, the Crimson has its destiny in its hands in the Ivy title race. The triumph was Harvard’s twenty-first in a row, tied with Ohio State for the longest winning streak in Division I. It also was the Crimson’s eighteenth victory over Dartmouth in the last 19 games between the two ancient rivals. (This fact is almost unbelievable to those who recall the green-clad juggernauts of the Bob Blackman era.)

“We stole one today,” said Harvard coach Tim Murphy afterward. “We did the thing we do best: we just found a way to win.” Though Murphy was relieved, he admitted that he felt badly for the Big Green—“I can’t say enough about Dartmouth”—and its coach, Murphy’s lifelong friend Buddy Teevens. “My emotions are a bit conflicted,” he added.

Teevens was understandably crestfallen. “It’s a hard loss,” he said. “We’ll go back to work tomorrow.” 

 

What made defeat more galling for Teevens and his crew was that for most of the night they had Harvard hornswoggled, never letting Crimson power runner Paul Stanton ’16 (21 carries, 67 yards) get in gear behind his vaunted offensive line. Dartmouth took the lead behind quarterback Dalyn Williams on the opening series, smartly marching 59 yards to the Crimson 16. The drive stalled, but Alex Gakenheimer booted a 33-yard field goal. Dartmouth 3, Harvard 0.

Two minutes later the Big Green got the ball back, and this time Williams (24 of 42 passing for 311 yards) led them on a clock-chewing, 17-play drive that resulted in a three-yard touchdown run by Ryder Stone. (A facemask call on Crimson defensive lineman James Duberg ’16 helped keep the drive alive.) Gakenheimer nailed the point, and the Crimson was in a 10-0 hole.

Now commenced the myriad frustrations that would bedevil Harvard on this chilly Devil’s Night. On the ensuing kickoff, a 70-yard return by Andrew Fischer ’16 was negated by a holding penalty. Nevertheless, quarterback Scott Hosch ’16 drove the Crimson to the Dartmouth seven. On third down and goal, Hosch tripped and lost seven yards. On the next down, kicker Kenny Smart ’18 flubbed his field-goal attempt.

Then it was Dartmouth’s turn to flub. Williams moved the Big Green all the way to the Harvard one-yard line—where offensive lineman Dave Morrison was called for a false start, bringing the ball back to the six. Williams misfired on two pass attempts (hurried on the second by defensive linemen Duberg and Miles McCollum ’17), then Gakenheimer sent a field-goal attempt wide left.

Late in the half, it looked as if the Crimson at least would put points on the board. A 53-yard Hosch-to-Fischer hookup brought the ball to the Dartmouth 27. Five plays later, with the ball on the 15 and 19 seconds left in the period, Hosch tossed one into the middle—right into the hands of Big Green linebacker Will McNamara. The half ended.

The pattern was repeated on the first series of the second half. Again, the magnificent Fischer (177 all-purpose yards) performed his heroics, taking the kickoff 53 yards to the Dartmouth 35. On fourth-and-one at the 26, offensive lineman Max Rich ’17 was called for a false start. Fourth-and-six. Hosch rolled left, threw right—right into the hands of McNamara, that is. Drive over.

The Harvard defense held the fort and forced a 27-yard Ben Kepley punt that gave the Crimson the ball at its 35. Back Harvard came, down to the Dartmouth 17. On first down, Stanton made two yards—and coughed up the ball when Big Green linebacker Folarin Orimolade hit him. Safety David Caldwell recovered. Foiled again!

Now Dartmouth could have, should have put the game away. A 29-yard Williams-to-Ryan McManus pass took the Big Green to the Harvard 27. On the next play, Williams pitched to McManus in the left flat. Nominally a receiver, McManus stopped and tossed a beauty into the end zone, where receiver Victor Williams was waiting—all alone. The ball came down…and Williams dropped it. Two plays later, Gakenheimer eked a 39-yard field goal over the crossbar. Dartmouth 13, Harvard 0.

Next came one of the most bewildering sequences in recent Harvard annals. Again, Fischer did his job, returning the kickoff 39 yards to the Dartmouth 48—but in the process pulling a hamstring. (He may be out for the rest of the season.) Using a 22-yard pass to tight end Anthony Firkser ’17 and short rushes by Stanton, Hosch brought the ball down to the Dartmouth one-yard line. First and goal. The Crimson had five smacks at getting into the end zone (the extra try was afforded when the Big Green was flagged for offside): three by Hosch, one by Stanton, and another by Seitu Smith II ’15 (’16). Stacked up by a Green giant wall that included McNamara and mammoth defensive tackle A.J. Zuttah, the befuddled Crimson did not cross the goal line (and even needed to burn a timeout during the series).

“It was a legendary goal-line stand,” said Teevens afterward. “It was pretty cool to sit back and watch it.”

 

At this point, already several minutes into the final period, it was amazing that Harvard, despite its failure to cash in, was still in it. So naturally, when the Crimson did score a few minutes later, the points came when everyone least expected them. From the Dartmouth 39, Harvard faced a fourth-and-12. If it failed to produce at least a first down, the game was over. Hosch dropped back and saw Smith running down the left sideline on a pattern called “stutter and go.” Hosch threw and at the left pylon Smith leaped, twisted his body—and made a magnificently acrobatic grab. Touchdown! Smart kicked the point. Dartmouth 13, Harvard 7, with 6:38 to go.

The Harvard defense again did its job, forcing Dartmouth to punt. But on its series the Crimson could not make a first down. There were just under four minutes left to play, and Harvard faced fourth down and five from its 30. Do you go for it so deep in your territory? That never crossed his mind, said Murphy: “The reason you punt it away is that you think you’re going to get it back.”

Which is what happened. “We’re in desperation mode there,” said Harvard’s Lindsey afterward. On first down from the Crimson 49, Dartmouth’s Stone ran to the right side, where Lindsey hit him—“I felt if I went over the top [of the blocker], I could make a play,” he said. And how: the ball came out, and fellow linebacker and Crimson captain Matt Koran ’16 fell on it.

Now Hosch, whom we have previously compared to Bart Starr, conducted his version of the immortal Green Bay 1967 Ice Bowl drive against Dallas. In going half the length of the field in 11 plays and in 2:16, he used short tosses to Stanton and then an 18-yarder to Firkser to work the ball down to the Dartmouth nine. On third and goal from the five, he rolled right, then saw receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley ’19 just over the goal line. The freshman “was like the third option,” said Hosch. Hosch flipped, Mosley caught—his team-high ninth grab of the day, and his most important. When Smart kicked the point, it was, unbelievably, Harvard 14, Dartmouth 13. (Hosch finished 24 of 38 passing. His most important statistic is his record as a starter: 13-0.)

Thirty-eight seconds remained, but it was not over, especially when Smart sent the kickoff out of bounds, giving Dalyn Williams a chance to start a drive from his 35. Using passes to Victor Williams and McManus, he got the ball to the Harvard 29, then tossed a bomb over the head of Jon Carrier in the end zone. The clock read 0:00, and the Harvard partisans stormed the field. But hold on! The officials put one second back on the clock—time for a Gakenheimer 47-yard field-goal try, hardly a chip shot. When the Big Green kicker booted, the ball met the left hand of leaping, 6-foot-3 Harvard defensive lineman Stone Hart ’18 and bounded away. Now the game was over.

There are ones for the record books. This is one for the legends book.

 

Weekend roundup
Penn 48, Brown 28
Columbia 17, Yale 7
Princeton 47, Cornell 21

 

Coming up: Next Saturday, Harvard travels to New York City to play Columbia at Wien Stadium. Kickoff: 1 p.m. (The game will be seen on the Ivy League Digital Network and heard on WXKS 1200 AM and 94.5 FM-HD2, WHRB FM 95.3.) The Lions are 2-5 and 1-3 in the Ivy League. Harvard leads the series 58-14-1 and has won the last 11, including the last three by shutout.

Can you say “trap game?” The once-toothless Lions suddenly are ferocious, having beaten Yale (Columbia’s first Ivy win in three years) after having played Dartmouth tough the previous week. This is the first time the Crimson will face Columbia under coach Al Bagnoli, who moved to Morningside Heights this year after a brilliant 23-season stint at Penn. Bagnoli is the only Ivy coach to have a winning record (11-10) against the Harvard teams of Tim Murphy.

 

The score by quarters

Dartmouth10030  13
Harvard00014  14

Attendance: 13,058

Read more articles by: Dick Friedman

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