A STAND FOR THE AGES
Rewind the clock to just over 11 minutes remaining in the contest. Harvard found itself in desperation mode.
Down 13 points—having been shut out in the opening three quarters for the first time since 2010—the Crimson (7-0, 4-0 Ivy) needed to score, and needed it badly.
A strong kickoff return from senior Andrew Fischer, followed by a series of short runs and passes, gave the Crimson first-and-goal at the Big Green one-yard line. If Harvard was ever going to get on the board, it was now.
What followed was a defensive stand of epic proportions. Over the next five plays, three different individuals—Hosch, senior running back Paul Stanton, and senior wide receiver Seitu Smith—all found themselves stuffed at the line for no gain.
On the last of these attempts, Dartmouth defenders gang-tackled Hosch to force the unlikeliest of turnovers-on-downs. It was truly good, old-fashioned football: one of the best offensive lines in Murphy’s 22 years with the Crimson pitted against one of the top defensive fronts in the FCS.
“I will never forget [that defensive stand],” Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said. “The passion, the emotion on the sideline, seeing the look in the eyes of the guys on the field, the excitement in the stands behind us…. We’ll talk about that forever.”
Harvard’s ensuing drive looked doomed to fail yet again when the offense faced a fourth-and-12 at the Dartmouth 39-yard line. The outlook remained bleak as Hosch lofted a pass down the left sideline to Smith with a defender latched onto him.
But the senior somehow made a play, using body positioning to create space and catch the ball on his hip. When Smith fell on the pylon clutching the football, the Crimson had turned a near-certain turnover-on-downs into a one-possession game.
“[Smith] just made an incredible catch over the guy,” Hosch said. “To stay in bounds and also to get in the end zone, just incredible.”
A COMEDY OF ERRORS
There’s often a scapegoat in last-second losses, but the temptation to pin the game on the late Ryder Stone fumble must be resisted. That miscue leading to the Crimson’s game-winning touchdown was only the latest in a series of blunders that cost Dartmouth points.
For instance, the Big Green ran a double-pass play late in the third quarter that seemed perfect until receiver Victor Williams dropped what should have been an easy touchdown catch.
Another missed opportunity came one quarter earlier, when a false start penalty at the Harvard one-yard line followed by a missed 22-yard field goal attempt resulted in no points.
Facing the strongest defense of the season, though, the Crimson made ample mistakes of its own on offense, including three turnovers in Big Green territory. Perhaps the most costly came with less than 20 seconds remaining in the first half, when linebacker Will McNamara picked off Hosch at the Dartmouth five-yard line. McNamara finished with a game-high 14 tackles and two interceptions.
Indeed, Harvard was lucky to find itself in a two-possession game with nine minutes to go. It took a truly memorable sequence for the Crimson to keep its quest for a third consecutive Ivy League title alive against an equal opponent.
“I’m so proud of our kids,” Murphy said. “But even our kids, as joyous as we were, I think they genuinely feel for the Dartmouth kids because they played a great football game. They didn’t deserve to lose.”
—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached david.steinbach@thecrimson.com.