Football 2017: Harvard 25, Dartmouth 22

When you're down 14-0, “it's all heart.”

Crunch time: Dartmouth quarterback Jack Heneghan was pressured by Crimson defenders including senior defensive lineman Stone Hart (90), sophomore defensive lineman Brogan McPartland (69) and senior linebacker (and captain) Luke Hutton (35). In the third quarter, Harvard limited the Big Green to six yards of total offense.
Photograph by Tim O'Meara/The Harvard Crimson
Cover guy: Tasked with shadowing star Dartmouth wide receiver Hunter Hagdorn, Harvard freshman defensive back Isaiah Wingfield acquitted himself nobly, amassing eight tackles and plucking his first career interception.
Photograph by Tim O'Meara/The Harvard Crimson
Game-changer: After muffing a punt and surrendering the ball to Harvard's freshman defensive back Max Jones (on ground), Dartmouth's Danny McManus (2) pleaded that he had been interfered with. But the play stood and the Crimson capitalized with a touchdown that began their comeback.
Photograph by Tim O'Meara/The Harvard Crimson
Cool customer: Harvard freshman quarterback Jake Smith continued his maturation, throwing accurately, scrambling opportunistically and exercising mistake-free judgment.
Photograph by Tim O'Meara/The Harvard Crimson

Ivy League football is like Hollywood: Nobody knows anything.

Eight days after being steamrolled on its home turf by Princeton 52-17, and after spotting Dartmouth the first 14 points in this weekend’s game, Harvard’s football team rallied behind the resourceful play of quarterback Jake Smith ’21 for a 25-22 win over the Big Green. The victory moves the Crimson to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the Ivy League. Dartmouth drops to 5-2 and 2-2 in league play. This was Harvard’s fourteenth straight triumph in the series and its twentieth win in the last 21 games between the two ancient rivals.

“I’ve seldom been prouder of a football team,” said Harvard coach Tim Murphy, speaking not only of the in-game comeback but also of the ability to bounce back after the worst loss in his 24-year Crimson coaching career. Dartmouth’s previous five games had been decided by five points or fewer, so in his pregame talks Murphy put his squad on alert, telling them: “This one is going to go down right to the end.”

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Saturday’s contest had an in-the-balance ending, all right, but it was a crowd-pleaser from the opening kickoff, with exciting runbacks, goofy breaks, questionable decisions, and flubbed kicks. There was even a broken window in the press box, courtesy of a Dartmouth coach displeased by a call. The afternoon was reminiscent of some of the ding-dongers the two schools played back in the early Ivy days of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s—minus about 30,000 spectators. From Harvard’s standpoint, it also bore at least a faint resemblance to the 2001 edition, when a freshman quarterback named Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05 stepped in to engineer a 31-21 comeback win. 

In the beginning, though, some fans might have thought Dartmouth had transported Princeton’s Chad Kanoff to Cambridge and dressed him in the uniform of Big Green senior quarterback Jack Heneghan. Receiving the opening kickoff, Dartmouth picked right up where Princeton and Kanoff had left off, driving 80 yards in 10 plays to a touchdown, scored by running back Ryder Stone on a 10-yard burst. David Smith kicked the extra point. Dartmouth 7, Harvard 0. 

For the remainder of the first period and the beginning of the second, the teams fitfully moved the ball and exchanged punts. The Big Green was wise to the running of Harvard’s normally bulldozing Charlie Booker ’19, limiting him in the half to 20 yards on seven carries. Dartmouth punched through again on a 16-play, 66-yard drive that consumed nearly eight minutes. On third-and-goal from the Harvard eight, Heneghan employed a nifty play-action pass on which he connected with Hunter Hagdorn. Smith again kicked. Dartmouth 14, Harvard 0. There were two minutes and 40 seconds left in the half and there was no reason to think that Harvard would win this game.

That was perhaps even more true when the Crimson couldn’t move the ball on its next series. Then came a freaky occurrence that turned the game around. Harvard’s Zach Schmid ’18 punted to Dartmouth’s Danny McManus, who fumbled the ball when hit by the Crimson’s Jack Stansell ’18. Harvard’s Max Jones ’21 recovered at the Big Green 38. But Dartmouth protested, objecting that Stansell interfered with McManus. The ruling was that Stansell was blocked into McManus by a Dartmouth player. So the Crimson kept the ball, and an irate Dartmouth coach allegedly punched out a press-box window.

Smith took advantage of the break, guiding Harvard to a touchdown in six plays. The biggest was Smith’s own 16-yard scramble on fourth-and-eight. The capper was an eight-yard toss to tight end Ryan Antonellis ’18 with 13 seconds left in the half. But on the extra-point try, a bad snap caused Jake McIntyre ’20 to shank the ball off the right goalpost. Dartmouth 14, Harvard 6.

At the beginning of the second half, the Crimson built on its momentum with perhaps its most cohesive drive of the season. Booker got into gear with rushes of 17 and 16 yards. Justice Shelton-Mosley ’19 dashed nine yards on an end-around. Smith completed passes to Stansell and Henry Taylor ’19. With the ball at the Dartmouth four, Murphy sent in Lavance Northington ’20. “L.A.,” as he is known, is a former high-school quarterback. Lining up in the wildcat formation, he took a direct snap from center and flipped to Antonellis. Touchdown! Harvard chose to go for two points, which would tie the game. But Smith’s pass to an open Taylor was too high for Taylor to corral. Dartmouth 14, Harvard 12.

The Crimson defense now turned it up a notch or two, throttling Heneghan. Harvard linebacker and captain Luke Hutton ’18 expressed it thusly: “You can either fold, or you can bounce back. Down 14-0, it’s all heart.” Dartmouth had to punt—and Shelton-Mosley fielded it at the Harvard 28. As usual, he made the first two Big Green coverage men miss, then set sail upfield on a thrilling jaunt that didn’t end until he was downed at the Dartmouth one. Alas, much of the return was negated by a penalty for a block in the back. Even so, the Crimson advanced to the Big Green three—but McIntyre’s 20-yard field-goal attempt was wide left. (Not a good day for the Harvard placekicking game.)

It looked as if Dartmouth had dodged a bullet. But on the next series the Big Green again went nowhere. On fourth down, Dartmouth tried to punt—except that Harvard defensive back Tim Haehl ’18 burst in to block it. The Crimson took over at the Big Green 13. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Harvard did get into the end zone, on a four-yard flip from Smith to Taylor. Again Harvard tried for the two-point conversion, but a Northington run was stopped. Harvard 18, Dartmouth 14.

The seatbelts were buckled for a wild finish. Heneghan got the Big Green on the move. On first and 10, hurried by defensive lineman John Pirrmann ’19, he threw left—and was intercepted by defensive back Isaiah Wingfield ’21. It was exactly the kind of takeaway the Crimson had been lacking. 

Nevertheless, Harvard couldn’t move the ball and was forced to punt. Dartmouth took over on its 20. On fourth-and-one from the 29 came one of the season’s strangest decisions.  Even though there were 11 minutes remaining and the orthodox play is to punt and pin the opponent in its territory, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens chose to go for the first down. Heneghan tried the sneak—and he was stopped. “It’s fourth and thatmuch,” said Teevens afterward, putting his hands close together. “You gotta get it.”

Smith made him pay. On third and four at the Dartmouth 13, he ran a quarterback keeper for the first down. Two plays later, he scrambled and connected with Aaron Shampklin ’21 for a touchdown. This time McIntyre’s kick sailed through. Harvard 25, Dartmouth 14.

There were seven and a half minutes left—plenty of time for Heneghan. With 4:18 left he sliced the lead to 25-22 on his own six-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion pass to Dylan Mellor. However, if Harvard could get a couple of first downs, it could salt the game away. Smith got one on a pass to Antonellis, but he came up a yard shy of another when he was stopped by Dartmouth’s Colin Boit. 

Taking over the ball at its 20, the Big Green briskly moved to its 40. Field-goal territory (and a tie, and overtime) beckoned. On second down, Heneghan dropped back and threw. The ball was deflected by defensive back Raishaun McGhee ’18—and hung in the air long enough for Tanner Lee ’18 to dive and cradle it. Game over. (Lee also had a team-high 10 tackles.)

Smith finished 18-for-35 passing, for three touchdowns and (significantly) no interceptions. He also ran nine times, many of them sinuous scrambles, for 64 yards.

Tim Murphy now has 167 wins at Harvard. But very few have been as satisfying. 

 

Bob Dylan (“Everybody Must Get Stoned”) Tackle of the Week: This epic stoppage occurred in the final period, when on third-and-four from the Harvard 29, Crimson defensive lineman Stone Hart ’18 halted Dartmouth runner Ryder Stone for no gain. 

 

Weekly Roundup

Yale 23, Columbia 6
Penn 17, Brown 7
Cornell 29, Princeton 28

 

ABERCROMBIE UPDATE: Ben Abercrombie ’21, the defensive back from Hoover, Alabama, who suffered a spinal injury in the opener against Rhode Island, is now in Atlanta’s Shepherd  Center, which specializes in spinal-cord and brain-injury rehabilitation. His family has been posting periodic reports on a CaringBridge website. On Saturday his father, Marty, wrote: “Ben had a great week here at the Shepherd Center. His chest congestion has continued to improve so he was able to get involved with more rehab activities. The physical and occupational therapist have been giving him a good workout....Late in the week, they connected him to a stimulation machine that works muscles similar to riding a bike. They have some amazing technology here and we pray that his therapy along with God's healing hand will begin to rejuvenate the injured connections in his spinal cord."

 

Coming up: Next week Harvard travels to New York City to take on surprising Columbia. Kickoff: 1 p.m. The game will be telecast on Eleven Sports and the Ivy League Network, and broadcast on the radio on WRCA 1330 AM, 106.1 FM and 94.5 FM-HD2, WHRB FM 95.3. The Lions stand at 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Ivy League. Harvard leads in the all-time series 60-14-1 and has won the last 13, but the scores of the most recent Crimson victories show the progression of Columbia’s program under coach Al Bagnoli: 45-0, 24-16 and 28-21. 

 

The score by quarters

Dartmouth7708  22
Harvard06613  25

Attendance: 11,143

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