Football Team Overcomes Cornell On Szaro's Kick in Final Minute

Ever since the last 42 seconds of the 1968 Harvard-Yale game, most Harvard football fans have spent their Saturday afternoons watching the band fool around, or making jokes about Harvard's offense, or enjoying the sun, or leaving in the third quarter when it was too cold.

Last Saturday afternoon, the crowd watched the football game.

Richie Szaro stood in the locker room after the game thinking about the crowd. "I didn't want to walk off the field to the sound of booing," he said. "I really hate the idea of getting booed."

Szaro walked off the field to a roar. His 31-yard field goal had beaten Cornell 27-24 with eight seconds left on the clock and ended a very exciting football game.

Blowin' in the Wind

Szaro's field goal was his second of the game. Kicked with a 25 m.p.h. wind that played an important part in the scoring. The wind also made passing difficult, and without a passing game to balance Harvard's offense, it appeared that the Crimson would not be able to control the ball and keep it away from Cornell's Ed Marinaro.

Cornell Harvard

First Downs 16 19

Rushing 165 285

Passing 113 45

Passes 6-12-0 4-11-2

Punting 6-22 3-26

Fumbles Lost 1 1

Penalties 13 25

Harvard had to beat Cornell to avoid the prospect of a losing season, however, and it was clearly up for the game.

The offensive line snapped out of its Columbia game lethargy to open large holes in the Cornell line. Steve Harrison came back from a disappointing early season to rip off 127 yards and two touchdowns in 21 carriers. Ed Vena, an injured tackle who was not scheduled to start, and Steve Golden, a sophomore safety who had never started before, both turned in excellent performances to help the Crimson's defense contain Cornell's running game.

Trading Lead

The two teams traded the lead throughout the game, and whoever had the wind usually had the lead.

The breeze figured in every first half score. Cornell used the wind to kick a 47-yard field goal and complete a 49-yard touchdown bomb in the first quarter. Harvard had the wind in the second quarter and came back to lead 14-10 at the half. Both Crimson touchdowns were set up by short Cornell punts kicked into the wind.

The wind kept Harvard quarterback Rod Foster from throwing well, but he picked up 80 yards on the ground and exploited Cornell's defense.

Foster's Plays

The Big Red was obviously watching for fullback Tom Miller to run up the middle. Foster countered by working on the plays that had gone nowhere earlier this season, sending Harrison off-tackle and around the end. Then with the Cornell defense spread a little, he came back to Miller, and the fullback ground out 80 yards on 19 carries.

Cornell's highly touted running game was not as successful as Harvard's. Safety Golden keyed on Marinaro and nailed him several times in the open field. Tackles Vena and Mark Steiner pursued well enough to stop Rick Furbush's quarterback sweeps completely.

And linebacker Gary Farneti, who has been dressing under Marinaro's confident, boyish gaze taped on his locker door, made eight tackles and knocked down a key pass.

Marinaro

The Crimson was fairly successful in stopping Marinaro from cutting back across the flow of the play and breaking loose. The defense restrained its pursuit, holding position and limiting Marinaro's options.

Marinaro still managed to pick up 147 yards in 29 attempts and pull off one spectacular play for the Sports Illustrated writers watching him from the press box racing 30 yards for Cornell's last touchdown on a fourth and seven situation.

There were several sensational runs during the game. Harvard put two of them together to score its third touchdown, as Richie Gatto broke loose down the sideline on a 46-yard punt return to set up a 19-yard touchdown run by Harrison.