“He gave us a huge lift,” Murphy said. “He showed us he’s a real player at this level.”

In the second half, Stanton continued to play well, finding big holes and breaking numerous tackles to help him collect 43 more yards on just six carries—a 7.2 yards per attempt average.

The freshman set himself up for a potentially increased workload down the stretch, which could give the Crimson a powerful one-two punch similar to the one it had last season with current senior Treavor Scales and Zach Boden, then another freshman standout running back who has not played this season.

“We would like to balance the running game [in the future],” Murphy said. “But it’s not an easy decision to take Treavor off the field.”

TOTAL D-OMINANCE

Not to be overshadowed by the offense’s record-breaking performance was the play of the Harvard defense, though the unit struggled on the Crusaders’ opening drive. A blown coverage allowed a 65-yard pass to Nate Stanley down the right sideline on Holy Cross’ first play from scrimmage, and the defense then allowed Reed Apfelbaum to get wide open in the end zone on the Crusaders’ next play.

But Holy Cross quarterback Ryan Laughlin underthrew Apfelbaum, the road team was forced to settle for a field goal after two more Crimson stops, and from there, the Crimson defense dominated the rest of the evening.

The unit held the Crusaders to a 3-for-16 conversion rate on third down (1 for 8 in the first half) and allowed just 2.7 yards per carry. Under consistent pressure—Harvard had four sacks on the game—Laughlin completed just 8 of 24 passes for 40 yards after the opening bomb to Stanley.

“It started first with stopping the run, which is the staple of our defense,” said fifth-year senior defensive end John Lyon. “It was very exciting to be able to go out there and have a great defensive effort like we did. Our defense has a lot of pride, and that’s something that we want to try to do each week.”

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