“Corey Waller is a kid that we just put on that team in the last two weeks,” Murphy said. “He really, quite frankly, was a JV player, still learning the offense. He broke one in a JV game a couple of weeks ago and he’s done a great job in practice. We had not had a great return team until recently and he’s certainly a part of that.”

Captain Dante Balestracci’s rush on a fake punt set up Fitzpatrick’s touchdown pass to freshman wide receiver Corey Mazza.

Balestracci loomed large over every aspect of The Game, rushing for that first down, blocking an extra point and recovering the Bulldogs’ last chance on-side kick effort.

Plumb Good

While the Harvard defense excelled inside the 20-yard line, controlling Yale wide receiver Ralph Plumb outside the red zone proved to be the Crimson’s most difficult task of the afternoon.

Bulldog quarterback Alvin Cowan found Plumb 15 times on the afternoon for 158 yards.

Of the 64 passes that Cowan attempted, 24 were sent Plumb’s way.

Averaging first-down yardage on each reception, Plumb found seams in the Harvard coverage on every catch, as long as he was outside the 20.

Inside, his success was far less remarkable, as the Crimson secondary kept him from crossing into the end zone. And didn’t Plumb know it.

“We had 500 and something yards of offense,” Plumb said. “And how many points did we score? 19? That’s laughable. That’s awful.”

Not that he didn’t do his part.

When he wasn’t catching balls, he was throwing them.

On a reverse option pass, Plumb came from the wide receiver slot and took the handoff before finding 6’7 tight end Nate Lawrie 37 yards downfield for a first down that set up Yale’s first score, a field goal that knotted the score at three apiece.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.