Football rolls past Lafayette

EASTON, Penn.--It's a football cliche: quarterbacks have to find their second and third options in the passing game. Junior Neil Rose knew where all of his options were on Saturday in a 42-19 win over Lafayette.

Sophomore wide receiver Carl Morris, who came into the game as the second-highest-rated receiver in Division 1-AA, averaging over 140 yards per game, was bottled up as Lafayette (1-3, 0-1 Patriot) used two defenders to limit Morris to one catch and three yards.

Harvard (2-1, 1-0 Ivy), was hitting on all other cylinders through the air. With his other receivers in man-to-man coverage for most of the game, Rose was able to complete 19-of-35 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns.

The Crimson's offensive attack came alive in the second quarter. After a typically slow start, the Crimson reeled off 21 unanswered points.

Harvard's offense was sparked from an unlikely source--freshman punter Adam Kingston.

After the Crimson's third three-and-out in three drives in the first quarter, and down 7-0, Kingston boomed a 79-yard punt--all but 15 yards of it in the air--from his 16-yard line to the Lafayette 14-yard line.

The Crimson defense stopped Lafayette on the next possession. Junior defensive tackle Ryan Fitzgerald stopped sophomore running back Bill Stocker on second-and-8 and then junior cornerback Andy Fried broke up a pass on third down to force a Lafayette punt to the Harvard 41-yard line.

With good field position, Harvard marched down to the Leopard 11 in three plays, all passes and all to different receivers. Harvard spread the field with three wide receivers and a tight end. Rose first found senior tight end Chris Stakich in the flat for six yards on first down. Freshman wide receiver Ryan Neff then got open at Lafayette's 11-yard line for a 13-yard gain.

Rose found sophomore wideout Sean Meeker along the left sideline after Meeker had beat two Leopard defenders, and Meeker reeled in the catch with one hand to the Lafayette 11.

The Crimson ground out the remaining yards on the ground. Harvard lined up in a pro set--two backs and two wideouts. Sophomore running back Nick Palazzo gained four yards up the middle on the ensuing play. Rose dropped back to pass on second-and-6 from the 7-yard line but, finding no open receivers, tucked the ball and scrambled to just outside the Lafayette 1.

On third-and-inches at the 1-yard line, Harvard brought in three tight ends and powered through the Lafayette defense on a quarterback sneak for a first down. On first-and-goal at the one-foot line, The Crimson stayed with the ground attack and sent Rose on another sneak for a touchdown to tie the score at 7-7 with 1:22 to go in the first quarter.

Lafayette returned the ensuing kickoff to its 32-yard line and looked to senior wide receiver Phil Yarberough to strike back at the Crimson.

On the Leopards' second play of the drive, Yarberough ran by Harvard junior cornerback Willie Alford and senior strong safety Mike Brooks to get open deep, but junior quarterback Chad Ritchie overthrew him on the play. Yarberough beat Harvard deep again on the next play, this time victimizing sophomore free safety Niall Murphy and reeling in the pass at Harvard's 35-yard line.

Lafayette went to Yarberough for a third time but he caught the pass out of bounds at Harvard's 1-yard line. The Crimson defense toughened and stopped Lafayette on the next two plays, giving up a four-yard run but sacking Ritchie on third down to end the first quarter. The Leopards' ensuing punt sailed into the end zone for a touchback.

Harvard took over at its 20-yard line and started to try and pound the ball on the ground. Sophomore running back Nick Palazzo, a fifth-stringer coming into the preseason and starting because of injuries to Harvard running backs, repeatedly tried running up the middle on this drive, but was stopped on all of them. With Palazzo's running quelled, Rose accounted for most of the yards on the ground on the drive. Of the 16 plays and 80 yards in the drive, Rose ran on six of them for 26 yards. Rose also found senior fullback Grady Smalling on fourth-and-2 at the Lafayette 35-yard line. Smalling, who was uncovered, rumbled to the Lafayette 11-yard line.

Rose capped the drive with a one-yard touchdown plunge on an option play to put Harvard in the lead, 14-7, with 7:59 to go in the second quarter.

Harvard forced a Lafayette three-and-out on the next drive on the strength of a sack by senior defensive tackle R.D. Kern, as well as a Fitzgerald stop of Ritchie for a gain of just one on third-and-10.

Morris made his presence felt on special teams, returning the ensuing punt to Harvard's 49-yard line. Meeker ran a reverse on first down, but the Leopard defense was not fooled and stopped Meeker for no gain.

On second down, Palazzo ran up the middle and made enough defenders miss to get a 12-yard gain on the play.

Rose dropped back and found Stakich for what appeared to be a short completion on the next play, but Stakich ran through the first would be Leopard tackler and, with help from some downfield blocking by the wide receivers, turned the short pass into a 38-yard touchdown catch.

With 4:15 to go in the half, Harvard took a 21-7 lead. After another three-and-out by Lafayette, highlighted by tough Crimson coverage downfield that forced three consecutive incomplete passes, Harvard took over at its 19-yard line.

The Crimson ran out the remainder of the first half and drove down to the Leopard 21 where sophomore kicker Anders Blewitt left his field goal attempt short to end the half.

Though the Crimson was up by only 14, and Lafayette cut the lead to 21-13 in the third, the game was never really in doubt after a second quarter that the Crimson completely dominated.

Including the last 1:22 of the first quarter, Harvard scored 21 unanswered points to end the half while limiting the Leopard offense to just one first down.

The Crimson offense continued to roll in this game, and it was Rose who made it work. Rose accounted for five touchdowns in the game--two on the ground and three through the air.

Rose was also able to find lots of different receivers in the game.

"We didn't think that we'd see any man coverage because we torched it against Brown," Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said. "But we did see it and we had to adjust our game plan."

Lafayette's man coverage was able to take away both of Harvard's spread receivers, Morris and sophomore Kyle Cremarosa, but it also left inside receivers open. Stakich had two touchdown catches from his tight end spot and 58 yards receiving.

On the ground, Harvard was able to gain 114 yards despite operating with fifth-stringer Palazzo and converted free safety Dan Miree backing him up.

Palazzo gained 101 yards on 23 carries on the day--a 4.4 yard-per-carry average--and scored a touchdown.

"The offensive line made its blocks all day," Palazzo said. "The wide receivers, fullbacks, it was a real team effort to run the ball today. We had to run the ball, to make a statement that we can."

Though Palazzo had nothing but praise for the offensive line, it had some difficulties in the first quarter. Lafayette senior defensive tackle Mike Levy got lots of penetration through the middle of Harvard's offensive line through the first quarter and disrupted much of what the Crimson was trying to do on offense.

Junior center Jason Hove, the backup through the first two games of this season, started this game and had lots of trouble. Senior center John Kadzielski replaced Hove and stabilized the offensive line for the remainder of the game.

Defensively, the Crimson was lucky as well as good. In the second quarter Ritchie overthrew several receivers who had gotten open deep, and Harvard was unable to mount much of a pass rush.

In the second half, Ritchie was benched in favor of freshman Marko Glavic. Glavic was intercepted twice, once by Fried and once by Niall Murphy.

The Crimson had a much more effective pass defense in the second half up until the waning moments of the fourth quarter when much of the second string defense was playing.

Harvard was very tough against the run, giving up only 26 yards on 25 rushing attempts for Lafayette.

In the second half, Lafayette narrowed the lead to 21-13 on the strength of a 4 play, 52-yard drive. The drive consisted of three completions, the final one to junior tight end Stewart Kupfer for a 24-yard touchdown strike. Lafayette botched the snap on the point after, leaving the score 21-13.

Harvard struck back immediately on a 10-play, 66-yard drive capped by a one-yard touchdown plunge by Palazzo.

Fried snagged his interception on the eighth play of the next Lafayette drive and gave the ball back to the Harvard offense, which scored again on a nine-play, 36-yard drive to increase the lead to 35-13.

The Leopards scored their final points of the day on a desperate 35-yard lob towards the end zone for which junior wide receiver Andrew May outjumped Fried.

The Crimson had its last score with 4:45 to go in the game when Rose faked an option play at the 1-yard line and pulled up to find Stakich in the opposite corner of the end zone.

On Saturday, Harvard will play Ivy power Cornell in what should be one of its toughest tests of the season.