Football Notebook: Perfect Football Turns To Unusual Suspects

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—The Harvard football team’s Ivy League-clinching victory over Penn last week featured the usual clutch plays from Carl Morris, Neil Rose and the Harvard defensive line.

But in a surprisingly close win over the Bulldogs yesterday, the Crimson turned to a number of unexpected heroes for the stellar performances that allowed them to hang on to victory.

Special K

Sophomore linebacker Dante Balestracci is already no stranger to game-breaking plays on the defensive side of the ball. In yesterday’s win against Yale, Harvard Coach Murphy called on Balestracci to extend a Harvard drive in a critical situation.

As the Crimson nursed a 22-17 lead in the third quarter, Harvard faced fourth-and-5 at midfield and brought out the punting team. Balestracci was lined up between the line and sophomore punter Adam Kingston to protect the kick. The snap came, but to everyone’s surprise, Balestracci received it and began running to his left.

Six yards later, Balestracci hit traffic and lateralled the ball to Kingston, who was streaking to his right.

Kingston handled the toss easily and took advantage of solid blocking to run the ball all the way to the Yale 8-yard line before being brought down by the Bulldogs’ Brian Ford.

It was the sort of trick play that Murphy’s followers have almost come to expect and one that Murphy said he hadn’t pulled out of his bag of tricks since he coached Cincinnati a decade ago.

“I think the last time I tried that one was against Florida State in maybe 1991,” Murphy said. “We got a lot of yardage, but [current New England Patriots cornerback] Terrell Buckley picked us off on the next play and scored.”

This time, Murphy got to see something good come from his shenanigans. The play set up Harvard’s fourth touchdown of the day, a Rose sneak that brought the score to 28-17.

Murphy praised both of the parties involved in the fourth-down conversion, noting Balestracci’s athletic prowess.

“Dante Balestracci could play for our basketball team,” Murphy said. “He could play for our baseball team. He’s got a way of doing all the right things.”

And what about the punter?

“Adam was a standout receiver at Nebraska,” Murphy said. “He’s been asking for chances to catch the ball. I might have to start listening.”

Where’s The Money, Laborsky?

Like Balestracci, senior defensive end Marc Laborsky is no stranger to the big plays. But he, too, found himself in an unusual role at the Yale Bowl.

The Crimson scored on its first drive of the game on a short pass to Morris in the end zone, and junior placekicker Anders Blewett led the special teams unit on the field for the point-after. But the snap on the attempt was high and senior holder Sam Taylor had to get on his feet once he corralled the ball to save the broken play.

Taylor lofted the ball to the right corner of the endzone—an area occupied by three Bulldogs and Laborsky, who had lined up apart from the line and was eligible on the play. Laborsky outjumped the surrounding defenders to haul in the ball and give the Crimson an 8-0 lead. The defenders bumped him and pass interference was called, but Laborsky’s sure hands made the flag a non-issue.

With only two tackles, Laborsky had a relatively quiet day in what had been a torrid, All-Ivy caliber campaign.

But his bizarre catch set the tone for what would be the only victory over Yale in his career.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Fratto

Going into Saturday’s game, the only Harvard receiving record Carl Morris did not hold was three touchdowns in a game. By halftime, it looked as if little-known tight end Matt Fratto might beat Morris to it.

Prior to the Yale game, Fratto had only reeled in eight catches for 54 yards and one touchdown all season. But just yesterday, he caught Rose passes of two and 21 yards in the endzone in the second quarter to extend an 8-7 lead to 22-7.

After the first score, Fratto threw his hands up in the air in jubilation—and, perhaps, a bit of relief.

Rose had been throwing the ball Fratto’s way more frequently in recent weeks, despite an offense that has not used the tight end much since the graduation of Chris Eitzmann ’00. But Fratto had not been able to capitalize—most notably, he dropped a pass in the endzone against Columbia two weeks ago in New York.

Fratto finished yesterday’s game with 42 yards on three catches on a day when Rose spread the wealth among virtually all of his receivers. If Fratto does become a reliable offensive presence, it will only make Rose a more dangerous quarterback in 2002.

The Twelfth Man

The seniors on the Harvard side of the Yale Bowl yesterday had waited four long years to storm the field at Harvard-Yale. By the end of the game, many of them couldn’t wait four more seconds.

With Harvard up 35-23, senior safety Andy Fried picked off a T.J. Hyland pass in the endzone and ran it back to the 17-yard line.

The change of possession stopped the clock with four ticks remaining and Harvard only needed to take a knee on the next play to seal the deal. But hundreds of Harvard’s fans could not contain their enthusiasm, streaming onto the field as the teams lined up at the 17.

Despite the pleas of the public address announcer, it soon became obvious that the game was over. By the time the clock ticked down to triple zeroes, the field was already nearly full.

“It meant a lot,” Murphy said. “It’s just good to see the fans involved.”

A week earlier, Murphy had written a letter to Harvard’s fans thanking them for their support in the previous week’s competition against Penn. He likened the stadium presence to having a “twelfth man” on the field.

Yesterday, Harvard’s twelfth man really was on the field in the closing seconds. By the game’s official end, so was the ten thousandth.