NOTEBOOK: Harvard and Penn Get Physical

PHILADELPHIA—When two teams are vying for the top spot in the league, their meeting is likely to get rough.

Saturday’s pairing of Harvard and Penn—going into the game tied for first in the Ivies with Brown at 4-1—was nothing if not physical.

“I give our kids a tremendous amount of credit for everything they’ve had to overcome, and the way they’ve fought and persevered, and I couldn’t be prouder of them,” Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. “And I give Harvard credit for coming up with some big plays when they had to, and certainly they are a very good football team.”

The opening kickoff set the tone when Penn’s Matt Tuten got flagged for a late hit on the kick return, taking 10 yards off of Chris Wynn’s return.

On the whole, there were 13 flags on the day. The Crimson tallied five, accounting for 58 yards, and the Quakers racked up eight for 61 yards.

“Stating the obvious, they gave us all we could handle,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said.

Captain Matt Curtis was twice flagged for roughing the passer, one of which turned a potential third-down stop into a first down at midfield.

When all was said and done and Harvard escaped with the 24-21 victory, Murphy was just glad to see it end.

“Relief,” Murphy said of his emotion after the game.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

Of the three phases of the game, special teams has consistently proven to be Harvard’s Achilles’ heel. But on Saturday, Penn was the one troubled by its kicking unit.

“That was a huge part of the game, huge part of the field position game,” Murphy said. “We emphasized it all week, [Wynn] is a tremendous athlete, one of the better returners in the league. Overall probably our best day against a good unit this year.”

The Quakers’ Andrew Samson missed a field goal from just 23 yards out early in the fourth quarter that wound up being the difference in the game.

Junior Patrick Long converted a field goal from 20 yards out and all of his kickoffs were booted into or near the end zone, limiting Wynn’s returns.

Junior Thomas Hull averaged 41.3 yards per punt, including a perfectly placed 57-yarder from the Harvard 20 that landed out of bounds at the Penn 23.

Penn’s punter Scooter Belasco couldn’t claim the same success. On a bad snap, Belasco tried to run it, and his inability to get the first down gave the Crimson the ball at the Penn 30.

BREAKING THE DROUGHT

Going into Saturday’s contest, Harvard was an abysmal 1-12 in its last 13 visits to Penn’s Franklin Field, dating back to 1982.

“I’ve been here for 15 years, so I guess I prefer to see the glass as half full,” Murphy said, pointing out that that stretch exceeds his tenure as head coach. “We’ve won two out of our last three years down here. That’s all I care about.”

The Crimson’s last win in Philadelphia came in the 2004 season, when quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05 led Harvard to a memorable 10-0 Ivy title finish.

By overcoming the odds on Saturday, Harvard now heads into its final obstacle, the 125th playing of The Game against Yale, with its repeat Ivy title chances still intact.

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.