"[Yale] came out and didn't play the defense they had all year," Murphy said. "[It was] very different than what we had seen on film, so it took us a while to adjust."

Harvard did adjust in the second half, as Mothander kicked a 37-yard field goal to cap a 12-play drive and give the Crimson the lead 6:07 into the third quarter. On the next Crimson possession, Chapple put Harvard up, 13-3, by scampering for an 18-yard touchdown down the right sideline.

Yale responded with a Tyler Varga three-yard touchdown run that was set up by a 46-yard completion from Furman to Cameron Sandquist, who badly beat junior safety Chris Splinter deep over the middle. The Bulldogs took the lead 1:30 into the final quarter, when Grant Wallace caught a third-down 12-yard touchdown pass from Furman in heavy traffic.

But the Crimson answered right back. A seven-yard completion to Brate, three Scales runs totaling 25 yards, and a 32-yard touchdown pass in the right corner of the end zone to junior wideout Andrew Berg put Harvard up, 20-17.

"[It] was one of the best catches I've seen all year," Chapple said. "It got us really going offensively. I felt like we were kind of stuck in the mud a little bit [until then], but having that touchdown pass and getting the crowd back into the game, I felt like it was a really big momentum shifter in our favor."

On Harvard’s ensuing possession, Chapple tried to throw a screen under heavy pressure but was intercepted by Yale lineman Nick Daffin. On third-and-goal from the two, Varga scored for the second time to put Yale back up, 24-20, with 7:07 remaining.

But the Crimson scored 14 unanswered to deny Yale its upset bid, and the Harvard student section stormed the field in excitement at the end of the contest.

"We had to make really big plays to win this game," Murphy said. "It was just a great heavyweight fight, and we landed the last punch."

The Crimson's 34 points gave it 394 on the season, breaking the modern-era Ivy League record.

Harvard entered the day with the chance to earn a share of the Ivy championship. Though Penn beat Cornell, 35-28, in Ithaca to win the title outright, that outcome did nothing to quell the Crimson's excitement at ending the season with a victory.

"The emotion out there—it's just a bunch of brothers, it's one big family that has come together after 364 days of work," Scales said. "[That win was] a culmination of all the blood, sweat, and—I'm not afraid to say it—the tears that have gone into being a Harvard football player. That's what comes out on the field. It's almost indescribable."

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.