Senior free safety Chris Raftery’s interception on Penn’s next play from scrimmage—a pick that literally fell into his lap as he spun to look for the ball—gave the Crimson possession once more inside Quaker territory.
But after an 18-yard reception by freshman wide receiver Corey Mazza, Harvard stumbled, with two incomplete passes and a false start penalty setting up a crucial fourth-and-10.
Under heavy pressure, Fitzpatrick scrambled from side to side, desperately searching for a man open downfield. After slipping one sack, he found himself wrapped up by a second pursuer, but, unwilling to succumb to the tackle, Fitzpatrick put the ball up for grabs and Penn’s Luke Hadden snatched the ball out of the air.
After the Quakers tacked on a field goal to extend their lead to 16, the Crimson stormed back downfield to the six-yard line, with Fitzpatrick accounting for 66 of 77 yards gained. But on first-and-goal, a miscommunication at the line led to a fumbled snap—and once again, when Harvard made a mistake, Penn was there, this time recovering the ball at the 10-yard line.
On this occasion, however, the Crimson had an answer.
Desperately trying to regain control of the ball with the clock winding down, Harvard’s defenders pounded Mathews, trying to strip the ball from his grasp.
Balestracci succeeded.
After seven tries, the ball sprang loose, and senior cornerback Benny Butler snatched it up. Seemingly uncertain about whether the ball was live or downed, he slowly began to move towards the Penn goal line before sprinting to the one-yard line where he was tackled as he dove for the corner pylon.
“We needed to get the offense the ball back and we were going to do everything we could to punch and rip at the football and find a way to get it out,” Balestracci said. “I don’t know if he hesitated or what but he picked it up and stood there for a second. We practice picking up the football and running them back for touchdowns and that’s what we had to do.”
Dawson leaped over the pile on the next play and Fitzpatrick’s rush right on the ensuing poing after to convert for two points brought Harvard within eight.
After failing to recover the onsides kick, the Crimson defense clamped down, allowing no yards on three plays. It stuffed Mathews on two straight plays and forced both a timeout and an incompletion on the third, giving the ball back to Harvard with just 44 seconds left.
“That was bad communication,” Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. “We should have run the ball, then put ourselves in a position to punt with 25 or 30 seconds left instead of 52 or 53 seconds left. That was just poor on my part.”
Fitzpatrick rushed for six yards and threw for 54 more, placing the Crimson within 17 yards with seven seconds remaining, leaving time enough for just one shot.
Fratto was open, Fitzpatrick took his chance. But the window of opportunity was slammed shut, the wounds of a year ago left to fester for another season.
—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.