It was a comeback too far. After skating on thin ice during come-from-behind victories at Dartmouth and Penn, the Harvard football team fell through on Saturday at the Stadium in The 140th playing of The Game, losing to Yale 34-29. The defeat, which snapped a seven-game winning streak, dropped the Crimson to 8-2 overall and 5-2 in Ivy League play; the Elis finished at 7-3, 4-3.
In Philadelphia the previous Saturday Harvard had clinched no less than a tie for the Ivy League championship, and that’s what they ended up with. For the second straight year the Crimson is part of a title troika, Harvard’s nineteenth outright or shared championship. The other repeater was Dartmouth (which won its twenty-second league crown). The new entry was upstart Columbia, which won only its second championship, and its first since 1961, when the storied Archie Roberts was the Lions’ quarterback. For what it’s worth, the Crimson beat both teams this season. (A full account of the 2024 season will appear in the January-February 2025 issue of Harvard Magazine.)
Andrew Aurich, in his first year as Stephenson Family head coach for Harvard football, acknowledged that his team had not been at his best. “The mistakes that we had at different points on both sides of the ball [made] it very hard to win a game like that,” he said. Aurich added, “I told the guys in the locker room, [I was] really proud of how hard they fought to the end. That’s a sign of the right type of culture in the program. These guys worked their butts off all season, and I was not surprised that they were fighting to the end in the game.”
The Game was not as close as the score might indicate. Yale controlled the play, holding the ball for more than 37 minutes and outgaining Harvard 503 yards to 349. Its offensive line largely protected quarterback Grant Jordan (who helped greatly with his wizardry at extending plays), allowing him to frequently find elusive receiver David Pantelis, and gouged holes for hard-running back Joshua Pitsenberger. On the other side of the ball, Jaden Craig, Harvard’s junior quarterback, was harassed, hurried, and heaved to the turf (he was sacked five times), while the ground game was limited to 57 yards on 22 carries. Very tellingly, on third-down conversions Yale was a creditable 10 for 19, while Harvard was a subpar 3 for 15. For all that, the Crimson kept battling, and the outcome was not sealed until the Elis recovered an onside kick with 18 seconds to play.
On a gray and raw day, the first period was scoreless, with Harvard making a stand when Crimson senior defensive back Damien Henderson broke up a pass intended for Pantelis on a fourth and goal from the four. Early in the second quarter the Elis drew first blood, when Jordan culminated an eight-play, 75-yard drive by connecting with Chase Nenad on a perfectly thrown 13-yard touchdown toss. Nick Conforti booted the extra point. Yale 7, Harvard 0.
Later in the quarter the Crimson unfurled its quick-strike capability. Senior Scott Woods III made a nifty 23-yard return of a punt that brought the ball to the Eli 44. Two plays later Craig fired a pass deep downfield to his favorite receiver, junior wideout Cooper Barkate, who had beaten his Yale defender. Barkate caught the ball and ran it into the end zone. Freshman Kieran Corr kicked the extra point. Harvard 7, Yale 7.
The Elis responded with brutal alacrity, going 76 yards in five plays (plus two pass interference calls against the Crimson) for a score. The capper came when Pitsenberger, bouncing off blocks, rumbled 11 yards into the end zone. Conforti kicked again. Yale 14, Harvard 7.
During the remainder of the half the Crimson dodged two bullets—first, a fumble by senior captain running back Shane McLaughlin; then, a block of a punt by senior Sebastien Tasko. Both times the Harvard D held the fort.
To start the second half, however, the Crimson coughed up a pick-six on possibly Craig’s worst throw of the season. He lobbed a screen pass out to the left, a marshmallow that hung in the air forever before being plucked by the Elis’ Abu Kamara. The defensive back took it 35 yards to the house. Conforti kicked. Yale 21, Harvard 7.
Later in the period the Elis drove 69 yards to the Crimson 12, the big play being a 28-yard quarterback draw by Jordan. When the Harvard defense stiffened, Conforti rammed through a 30-yard field goal. Yale 24, Harvard 7.
It looked like it was all over, but in fact the stage merely had been set for a typical wild Game denouement. Again striking quickly, Craig found Barkate for 48 yards, with the receiver coming back to catch the ball. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Craig took the snap, rolled to his left, then threw to the right to Woods in end zone. The two-point conversion try featured an unusual wrinkle. In trotted senior running back/quarterback Charles DePrima—but not in his accustomed role. With the rest of the Crimson line deployed far to the left, DePrima was snapper—and also, because he was at the end of the line, an eligible receiver. After DePrima snapped the ball to Craig, he filtered into the end zone, where Craig returned the ball to him. Count two points for the Crimson! Yale 24, Harvard 15.
In only six plays the Elis ruthlessly got back seven points. From the Harvard 39 Jordan flipped a pass in the left flat to Pitsenberger, and he took it all the way into the end zone, cutting across field and weaving his way through a host of would-be tacklers. It was a dazzling jaunt. Conforto kicked the point. Yale 31, Harvard 15.
HARVARD FOOTBALL
Sign up for Harvard Magazine’s weekly email to follow the Crimson. Get Dick Friedman’s football news, game summaries, and insights each Friday during the season.
Follow us on X for breaking game updates and Instagram for game photos and coverage: @harvardmagazine
The Crimson riposted, going 75 yards in eight plays. Two of them were Craig-to-Barkate hookups, the first for 35 yards, the last a perfectly thrown ball to the back right of the end zone. (No matter what the recriminations, Barkate must be held harmless. He had another marvelous afternoon, with eight receptions for 169 yards and two touchdowns, all game highs.) Given the score, it again was time to go for two points, and Craig obliged, flipping to Woods in the end zone. Yale 31, Harvard 23. With 8:58 to play, a one-score game.
More than three of those minutes were chewed up by the next Eli drive, which moved to the Crimson 33 and only was halted when Harvard senior defensive lineman Brandon Svets stopped Jordan for a loss on a fourth-and-two. But the Crimson then went four-and-out.
Yale now had the ball at the Harvard 38. They only reached the 18, but more important, they burned off 2:28. Arguably this was a time for the Crimson to use their timeouts to preserve the clock; Harvard did use one, but as it happened, the game would end with Harvard having two unused timeouts. On fourth and two Conforti booted a 36-yard field goal. Yale 34, Harvard 23. The Crimson would need to score twice to win or even tie.
The Crimson drive started with 2:07 left. With the Elis guarding against big plays, Harvard did well to score with time left on the clock. The touchdown came on the eleventh play of the drive when sophomore Xavier Bascon ran in from five yards out. Again the Crimson went for the two-pointer, but DePrima’s pass failed. Yale 34, Harvard 29.
Only 18 seconds remained, and now the Crimson not only would have to recover the ensuing onside kick but also figure out a way to get into the end zone. Hey, ya never know. But the kick was covered by the Elis. Finis.
For the third consecutive year, Yale had beaten Harvard by five points. It’s almost making an augury of the last line to Yale’s fight song “Down the Field”: “Harvard’s team will fight to the end, but Yale will win.”
The only question left is: Today, would you rather be Ivy co-champion Harvard…or fourth-place Yale?
TIDBITS: Yale now leads the series 71-61-8.…The Elis have won six of the last eight meetings….Harvard junior quarterback Jaden Craig finished with 23 touchdown passes, one behind the single-season record set by Colton Chapple ’13 in 2012…Harvard junior wide receiver Cooper Barkate finished with 11 touchdown catches, one shy of the single-season record set by Carl Morris ’03….On Saturday Harvard Athletics announced that beginning next season the home of Harvard football will bear the name Tim Murphy Field at Harvard Stadium, after the Crimson’s iconic coach who retired after the 2023 season.…And for a trip down memory lane, watch this rare vintage film footage of the 1930 Game.
Weekly Roundup
Dartmouth 56, Brown 28
Columbia 17, Cornell 9
Princeton 20, Penn 17
FINAL STANDINGS
Ivy Games Overall
HARVARD 5-2 8-2
Dartmouth 5-2 8-2
Columbia 5-2 7-3
Yale 4-3 7-3
Cornell 3-4 4-6
Princeton 2-5 3-7
Penn 2-5 4-6
Brown 2-5 3-7
Coming up: The 42-weekend bye between Harvard football games. The Crimson will kick off its 151st season on September 20, 2025, against an opponent and at a venue to be announced. Meantime…happy, healthy, and safe holidays to everyone!
THE SCORE BY QUARTERS
Yale | 0 | 14 | 10 | 10 | — | 34 | ||
Harvard | 0 | 7 | 0 | 22 | — | 29 |
Attendance: 27, 105
THE SEASON: follow Dick Friedman’s dispatches.
Football: Harvard 26-Columbia 6
Football: Harvard 31-Dartmouth 27
Football: Harvard 45-Princeton 13
Football: Harvard 35-Holy Cross 34
Football: Harvard 38-Cornell 20
Football: Harvard 28-New Hampshire 23
Football: Harvard 35-Stetson 0
Pre-season:
