Harvard Survives Nor’Easter Battle Against Brown With Narrow 14-10 Victory

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Leading 14-0 at halftime under pouring rain and swirling winds from an impending Nor’easter, No. 21/25 Harvard appeared to be on pace to claim a dominant win over Brown. However, a second-half offensive surge by the Bears threatened the Crimson’s success and resurrected ghosts of a 2024 collapse against Brown that saw Harvard blow a 21-point lead in head coach Andrew Aurich’s first Ivy League contest.

The Bears possessed the ball down four points with less than two minutes to play after a failed fourth-down conversion attempt by the Crimson, but junior defensive back Xaden Benson’s third interception — and fourth takeaway — of the game secured an uncomfortable 14-10 win.

Harvard (2-0, 1-0 Ivy League) collected its 14th victory in its last 15 games against Brown (1-1, 0-1), with its four-point win being the fourth one-score result in the last five matchups between the Ancient Eight rivals. The 24-point total between the two teams is the lowest in any matchup since the Crimson beat the Bears 14-9 in 1987.

All three of Brown’s captain James Murphy’s interceptions were snagged by Benson, bringing the defender’s season total to four and tying the program’s single-game record. The Atlanta, Ga., native also recovered a crucial muffed punt in the game’s final five minutes. Despite Benson having played just two games while most other teams have already played three or four, only one player in the FCS has as many interceptions as he does.

After sophomore quarterback Charlie Smith threw for just 71 yards in last week’s 31-7 victory over New Hampshire, the Charlotte, N.C., native looked much more comfortable under the lights. Smith finished the game going 30-for-37 for 205 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.

Freshman wide receiver Nate Bailey — who scored two touchdowns last week — was also a bright spot, turning nine receptions and three rushes into 101 yards. Harvard made a clear effort to get Bailey the ball in space on the sideline, and the Montclair, N.J., native rewarded his coaches by accounting for more than a third of the Crimson’s total yards.

“He’s just so versatile, you know,” Smith said about Bailey. “He returns punts, returns kicks. He’s all over the place, and he’s small, but he can really go. He’s gonna be really big for us going here into all the other Ivy games.”

Smith quickly marched Harvard down the field on its opening drive. At the end of a first-and-10 carry from the Bears’ 15-yard line, though, sophomore running back Cole Allen had the ball ripped out of his hands by Brown junior defensive back Alejandro Bello, who recovered the fumble.

Harvard’s defense punched right back, as Benson snagged a jumping interception on a third-down overthrow over the middle. After the play, Benson and senior defensive back Austin-Jake Guillory — who picked off Murphy in last year’s 41-7 victory over the Bears — wheeled off towards the corner of the soccer stadium before leaping and mimicking Cristiano Ronaldo’s iconic “SIU” goal celebration.

Starting from the Bears’ 48-yard line, the Crimson’s offense hummed into the red zone, setting itself up with a third and goal at the five-yard line. Unnerved by Brown’s student section roaring behind the end zone, Smith calmly dropped back and found sophomore receiver Ryan Tattersall on a fade route to the right side of the end zone, opening Harvard’s scoring less than ten minutes into the game.

For three drives, the sides exchanged punts until the Crimson took over at its own 14-yard line with about 11 minutes left in the half. Harvard then ran 14 pass plays and just one run play in a 6:57 epic drive.

The downfield churn was nearly cut short when the Crimson faced a fourth-and-six on the Brown 43-yard line. With Smith’s pocket collapsing, the quarterback stepped up, rolled right and threw to the sideline while stiff-arming a defender. He found sophomore tight end Teigan Pelletier in the flat, who managed to stay in bounds for a remarkable first down.

Six plays later, Harvard faced fourth down again, this time at the Brown four-yard line. On the ensuing pass, a Bears defensive end went right by Pelletier off the right side of the line and came crashing into the backfield. Moments before Smith took a walloping hit, he connected on a contested out route with none other than Pelletier, who tallied his first collegiate touchdown.

Brown looked to finally get some momentum on offense on the ensuing drive, entering the red zone for the first time. On third and one, senior linebacker Sean Line – the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week – got his hands up and forced Murphy to double-clutch his pass, forcing a high throw to junior receiver Trevor Foley. Foley leaped to bring the ball down, only to tip it into Benson’s hands.

Harvard entered the stadium’s locker rooms with a 14-0 lead. Smith went a near-perfect 21-for-24 in the first half, throwing for 154 yards and two touchdowns.

Brown’s offense came out of the break with a bit more fire. After picking up a couple of first downs, junior running back Matt Childs broke off a 26-yard run on a double reverse play that fooled Harvard’s defense and advanced the Bears to the Crimson’s 27-yard line.

However, immediately after the chunk play, Brown’s offense stalled. Junior linebacker Dorsey Benefield fought through a running back’s block and wrapped up Murphy’s ankles on third-and-10 to record a nine-yard sack and push the hosts out of field goal range. Harvard took over from the five.

Following back-to-back third-down conversions, Smith threw a quick slant pass on a run-pass option. The ball was tipped at the line, then ricocheted off Tattersall’s fingertips into the hands of Brown’s senior linebacker Max Malo, giving Brown the ball at the Crimson’s 45-yard line midway through the period. Four minutes later, the Bears sliced a 48-yard field goal through the Nor’easter wind to make the score 14-3.

The teams exchanged punts, then Harvard started a drive into Brown’s territory. Junior kicker Kieran Corr was unable to overcome the winds and hung a 42-yard field goal left of the uprights to give the Bears the ball down two scores with under 12 minutes to go. Out of nowhere, Brown’s offense came to life, recording three 15+ yard plays in an eight-play drive capped by a 29-yard touchdown run.

Suddenly, the pressure ramped up on Aurich’s squad.

Harvard went three-and-out and was forced to punt from deep inside its own territory. The punt was shanked, but bounced off the back of a Brown blocker and fell directly into the arms of Benson, who was serving as a gunner. The Crimson took over possession at the Brown 48-yard line with five minutes left on the clock.

Despite moving the chains once, Harvard soon found itself with a fourth and three at Brown’s 27 at the two-minute warning. Perhaps still haunted by an errant snap on a late field goal that cost his team during its last away game against the Bears, Aurich opted to go for it instead of kicking the field goal to go up seven. Smith found Bailey open on the far sideline, but a Brown defender swooped in to break up the pass, giving the Bears a chance to win it.

“There was never a bad vibe on the sideline of like, ‘oh no,’” Aurich said. “These guys get right back to work.”

Brown’s comeback drive did not last long. On a pass tipped by Line, Benson dived just before the ball hit the ground to record his third interception of the night and all but end Brown’s hopes for an upset.

“Looking to my teammates, everyone smiling, happy, knowing we were going to get that first Ivy League win,” Benson remarked. “It was great.”

Harvard’s second-half offensive stagnation was partly due to the loss of starting left tackle Spencer Doan. The preseason Phil Steele All-Ivy first-teamer was held out of the second half as a precaution, according to Aurich. He said postgame that the rest was planned because of an injury Doan suffered last week against New Hampshire.

The decision to host the game at the neutral site, which typically hosts USL Championship side Rhode Island FC — selected because its permanent floodlights allowed the contest to happen at night — paid off for the Bears. Thousands of Brown fans made the three-mile trip from campus to the stadium and formed raucous sections behind each end zone.

Despite the hostile environment and late-game scare, Aurich recognized the worth of Harvard edging out a narrow victory in its Ivy opener.

“Winning a close game is not a bad thing because you get battle-tested,” Aurich said postgame. “The growth is there, and that’s the key part because they’re young, but they’re super talented, and you’ve gotta learn from the mistakes. We’ll be sitting in a room like this in three weeks, and we’ll be looking at those guys, and we’ll be like ‘heck yeah, these guys are ballers’.”

With the win, Harvard will now shift its sights to No. 23 Colgate (3-1, 2-0 Patriot League). The Crimson will host the Raiders under the lights on Tim Murphy Field in Harvard Stadium for its home opener. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. EDT.

—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].