No. 19 Harvard Clinches FCS Playoffs With 38-24 Comeback Win Over Penn

After an ugly three-minute stretch put No. 19 Harvard down by seven points late in the first half, the Crimson scored 21 unanswered points after the break to complete a 38-24 comeback on the road against the University of Pennsylvania. The victory clinched Harvard at least a share of its program-record fourth consecutive Ivy League title.

Thanks to losses by No. 25/23 Princeton and Dartmouth on Saturday, the Crimson (8-1, 5-1 Ivy League) clinched the Ancient Eight’s automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs and will compete in the 24-team tournament that begins later this month. Meanwhile, the loss knocked the Quakers (4-5, 2-4) down into a tie for sixth place in the conference.

With three and a half minutes remaining in the first half, Harvard boasted a 17-3 lead. But a 69-yard touchdown pass, a recovered onside kick, a blocked punt recovered for a touchdown, and a pick-six in a span of less than three minutes flipped the advantage in favor of Penn as the Quakers carried a 24-17 advantage into the break.

“That was one of the weirdest stretches of football, that second quarter that got the game out of whack,” head coach Andrew Aurich said. “And I just challenged the guys at halftime to play with urgency. Don’t worry about the score, focus on one play at a time to win the game.”

The Crimson came out of halftime with that urgency, holding Penn scoreless for the last 30 minutes and scoring touchdowns on three of its five full second-half drives. In the second half, the host was zero-for-six on third-down attempts and turned the ball over on downs twice.

“Was it perfect in the second half? No, but there was enough there,” Aurich said. “And it was enough to get the job done.”

Freshman wide receiver Nate Bailey starred, accounting for well over half of Harvard’s receiving yards. He finished with 13 receptions, 113 receiving yards, and two touchdowns — the second of which was a wide-open career-long 34-yard score that tied the game 24-24 with seven minutes left in the third quarter.

The rookie’s 13 catches are tied for the program’s fourth-most in a single game, and are three fewer than Bailey’s career high of 16 in the Crimson’s miracle victory over Colgate.

Bailey’s big day would have been impossible without another solid performance by sophomore quarterback Charlie Smith, who went 18-for-28 for 199 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. Captain running back Xaviah Bascon carried the bulk of Harvard’s load on the ground, turning 18 rushes into a season-best 104 rushing yards and a touchdown.

The Crimson’s defense allowed only 10 points when on the field. With the exception of its blown coverage on the Quakers’ lone offensive touchdown — a 69-yard catch-and-run on third down — Harvard held the hosts to just 218 yards of total offense and zero third-down conversions on eight attempts.

The Crimson opened the game with an offensive showcase, as a pass interference call and a big run by junior running back DJ Gordon set the visitors up at the Penn 22-yard line. A pass to sophomore running back Cole Allen on a wheel route to Smith’s left opened the scoring as Harvard took a 7-0 lead.

After forcing a punt, the Crimson added a 40-yard field goal near the end of the first quarter to cap a 17-play, 60-yard drive that lasted more than eight minutes. Then, the defense bent but didn’t break, holding the Quakers to three points on a drive that went 70 yards and ended on the Harvard five-yard line.

Things continued to look good for the visitor on its next drive, as sophomore receiver Ryan Tattersall caught a pass on a hitch, then dodged a tackle for a 31-yard pickup to convert a third down. Then, Bailey made his fourth reception of the drive on a slant in the end zone for a touchdown, putting the Crimson up 17-3 with just over five minutes left in the half.

Three plays into Penn’s next drive, on third-and-four, quarterback Karson Siqueiros-Lasky capitalized on blown coverage by the Crimson’s secondary and aired out a pass over the middle to junior receiver Ronan Johannson, who ran untouched for nearly 50 yards to record a 69-yard touchdown reception.

Then the Quakers took a risk. On the ensuing kickoff, sophomore kicker Mason Walters softly knocked a surprise onside kick to his right. As the ball dribbled towards the Harvard sideline, sophomore Isaac Lee fell on it to give his team the ball back at the Crimson 48-yard line.

On the next play, Siqueiros-Lasky threaded the needle to connect with freshman receiver Mason Page for 28 yards, getting Penn into the red zone. But on second-and-goal from the eight, Siqueiros-Lasky mishandled a snap after colliding with sophomore tight end Michael Hegarty — who was pulling as a lead blocker — and senior defensive lineman Josh Fedd recovered the fumble to give Harvard back possession.

The takeaway was not enough to swing the momentum back in favor of the visitor. The Crimson quickly went three-and-out, and on the punt, Quaker freshman linebacker Jacob Earnest burst through the line to block the kick. The ball popped high into the air and landed in the arms of a Penn special teamer in the end zone. Suddenly, the Quakers had tied the game at 17 with just over a minute left in the half.

There was still time for Smith to reply and give Harvard the lead before the break. On the first play of the next drive, though, the quarterback’s pass to his right side was tipped at the line into the air. It fell directly to senior linebacker Zack Darche, who returned the interception 37 yards into Harvard’s end zone.

The Crimson was shocked.

After the extra point sailed through the uprights to give Penn a seven-point lead, Aurich was resigned. Despite getting the ball back with about 50 seconds to go, he opted to run out the clock and cut Harvard’s losses entering halftime.

The Quakers opened the second half on a drive that started on their own 10-yard line, but after being stalled at midfield by a freshly polished Crimson defense, a punt put the ball back into the hands of Smith and his unit.

On Harvard’s first offensive snap of the half, a quick pass to Bailey went for a first down, but on the next set of downs, the offense stalled and was forced to punt. Sophomore punter Brian Checkley’s kick rolled all the way to the three-yard line for a season-best 63-yard punt.

Penn was quaking in poor field position on its next drive, and on the first play, junior linebacker Dorsey Benefield blew up freshman running back DJ Lee at the two-yard line to pin the Quakers down even further. Two incomplete passes later, Penn was forced to punt from its own end zone, and the subsequent Bailey return gave the Crimson its best field position of the day at the Quakers’ 34-yard line.

Bailey immediately followed his 11-yard punt return with his second touchdown reception of the day, collecting a season-long 34-yard score on a wide-open deep post route. After junior Kieran Corr nailed the extra point, the score was leveled at 24-24.

The teams traded punts across the next two drives. On Penn’s next possession, the Quakers faced fourth-and-two near midfield and opted to go for it. Siqueiros-Lasky rolled out to his right on a play-fake, but sophomore linebacker Ethan Carson chased down the quarterback for the sack, giving Harvard the ball at the Penn 34-yard line once again.

In the next Crimson drive, Gordon rushed for a first down followed by a trio of runs by Bascon, the third of which ended in the end zone for the captain’s fourth score of the season. The point-after push extended Harvard’s lead back to seven points with 12 minutes left in the game.

Freshman quarterback Miles Teodecki came in for the Quakers, looking to lead Penn on a game-tying touchdown drive. But the drive ended as quickly as it started with a three-and-out largely thanks to freshman defensive lineman Mikhal Johnson, who recorded a tackle for loss on first down and batted down a pass on third down.

On its last full drive of the game, the Crimson opted to keep the ball on the ground and chew clock, running the ball with Bascon and Allen as the offense marched down the field and burned more than six minutes of clock. On first-and-goal from the two, freshman wildcat quarterback Kise Flannery took the snap and fell over the goal line for Harvard’s knockout blow as the team extended its lead to 14 points with four minutes left.

Teodecki completed three consecutive passes on the next drive, then drew a personal foul on a scramble to get Penn to a first-and-10 from the Crimson’s 31-yard line, but the host did not move the chains again. Harvard forced three straight incompletions, then hounded Teodecki into a short scramble on fourth-and-10 for a turnover on downs.

The Crimson iced the game — and the conference title— on the ensuing drive as Bascon picked up a couple of first downs on the ground.

Harvard’s automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs takes a weight off its shoulders as the team prepares for the 142nd playing of The Game next Saturday at Fenway Park.

“Super happy for the guys, especially our seniors, to be able to have a fourth straight Ivy League Championship,” said Aurich. “And I’m really excited to get started on Yale.”

Yale (5-4, 3-3) has been eliminated from postseason contention, but blew out Princeton 28-0 today. The Bulldogs’ defense held the Tigers to just 248 yards of total offense, 11 first downs, and two-for-14 third-down efficiency.

At 3:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, Yale will look to spoil the Crimson’s hopes of starting its playoff run at home, a privilege given to teams ranked in the top-16 by the FCS selection committee at the end of the regular season. The Bulldogs have won four straight in the series, tied for their longest such streak since they won six in a row from 1902 to 1907.

—Staff writer Connor Castañeda can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Maxwell P. Friedman can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Samuel S. Rudavsky can be reached at [email protected].