But one third-quarter punt from Dembrowski was clearly his most impressive of the day. After a three-and-out, the punter hit a booming 54-yarder from the Crimson 23.
Despite the length of the punt, impressive hang time allowed captain linebacker Alex Gedeon to get to the kick, forcing a fumble.
Junior tight end Kyle Juszczyk recovered the loose ball. Just before he went down, he handed it off to senior safety Matthew Hanson, who ran it in for a touchdown.
The score was taken back just moments later when it was ruled that the handoff to Hanson—who stood a few feet in front of Juszczyk—was an illegal forward pass, but the Crimson kept possession and scored later in the drive.
“I saw [Jusczcyk] looking to hand the ball off to somebody as he was getting tackled, [and I] went for it,” Hanson said. “Honestly, I didn’t know that was a rule that you couldn’t hand the ball forward,” he added as Murphy gave his safety a jokingly incredulous look. “I learned that today, so that’s unfortunate, but I’ll tell my grandkids about that play anyways.”
FLAG BEARERS
For most of the game, it was very clear that Harvard controlled the momentum of the contest.
Lafayette penalties played an important role in shifting momentum towards the Crimson, and the Leopards drew flags in costly situations all day.
In the third quarter, it looked like Lafayette had scored a touchdown to bring the team back within seven points. But the play was called back on a holding call, and Leopard quarterback Andrew Shoop threw an interception to Harvard senior defensive back Dan Minamide two plays later, leaving Lafayette in a 17-3 hole.
Lafayette struggled to maintain its composure after that. After the Leopards’ botched punt return, the home team earned two major penalties on the same play.
After a roughing the passer call on a late hit to Pruneau, Lafayette linebacker Leroy Butler threw his helmet on the ground in frustration, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct call.
The penalty struggles continued in garbage time. After another touchdown with about three minutes left gave Harvard a 30-3 lead, Lafayette committed two more personal fouls on the extra point, one of which led to an ejection.
In total, the team drew 16 penalties for 101 yards.
“We just did a number of things to hurt ourselves: four holding penalties, four false starts, missed tackles,” Lafayette coach Frank Tavani said. “Quite honestly, the way we’re playing right now, there’s no one on our schedule that we can beat.”
—Staff writer E. Benjamin Samuels can be reached at samuels@college.harvard.edu.