Crimson Can't Convert

In a game in which Holy Cross tried its best to lose, the Harvard football team's offense did it one better.

Both sides littered the field with offensive miscues as the Crimson (0-1, 0-0 Ivy) lost to Holy Cross (2-0, 0-0 Patriot) in Saturday's season-opener 27-25, in front of 7,406 at Harvard Stadium.

Turnovers hurt the Crimson badly on Saturday. Harvard lost two fumbles, one on the opening kickoff, and threw three interceptions. The Crusaders, on the other hand, lost two fumbles but at least threw the ball only to themselves.

"We dug ourselves an unbelievable hole and because of that as much as anything we didn't put ourselves in position to win." Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said.

The most bumbling miscue exchange also proved the most damaging for the Crimson. Harvard had crept back in the game and was down 20-18. Crusader quarterback Brian Hall, who otherwise had a good day completing 16-of-23 passes and gaining 141 yards on 23 rushing attempts, fumbled on the Holy Cross 20-yard line and Harvard senior linebacker Michael Green recovered the ball.

On first-and-10, junior quarterback Neil Rose, who completed 7-of-9 passes for 78 yards and had just replaced the ineffective sophomore Barry Wahlberg, fumbled the snap from center and Holy Cross recovered.

"We got our chance because our defense turns the ball over and we turn it over the next play." Murphy said. "I believe at that point we certainly had the momentum."

Holy Cross then drove the length of the field on nine plays, highlighted by a 54-yard scramble by Hall, for a touchdown, putting the Crusaders up 27-18. Hall eluded the blitzing junior defensive end Phil Scherrer and darted up the right sideline, eluding several Crimson would-be tacklers.

Harvard appeared to bounce right back, however. On the third play of the next series, sophomore split end Carl Morris took the ball on an apparent reverse but pulled up and found fellow sophomore wideout Kyle Cremarosa at the Holy Cross 22. It was a 38-yard pass and the Crimson's longest completion of the day.

That pass set up sophomore placekicker Anders Blewett's 32-yard field goal attempt a few plays later. Blewett missed the attempt wide left which would have made the score 27 - 21 Holy Cross.

After a three-and-out for Holy Cross, Harvard got the ball with 7:55 to go in the game at its 28 yard line. Harvard marched down the field on the strength of four Rose completions along with some tough red zone running by Jared Lewis to the 1-yard line. Rose capped the drive with a one- yard touchdown plunge with 4:18 remaining.

"Obviously we gave a great effort and played extremely hard and because of that we still had a shot," Murphy said. "Basically we kick a field goal, we have a chance to win the game."

Though Harvard still had all of its timeouts, the defense was unable to stop Holy Cross from running out the clock on a seven play, 59-yard drive.

The defense couldn't stop the Crusaders at the very end, but it was the offense that lost the game for the Crimson.

Harvard coughed up five turnovers, three of them interceptions, to a Holy Cross defense that didn't have to stop the Crimson offense so much as wait for it to make a mistake.

Much of the blame for the impotent offense has to lie with Wahlberg. A quarterback who enjoyed success playing in Florida at the high school level against some very good players, he looked confused on Saturday and struggled to make his reads downfield. He threw all three Crimson interceptions and completed only 4-of-16 passes on the day.

"[Wahlberg] seemed like he was a little nervous, and we were giving him pressure, moving him around, stemming him a lot," said Crusader senior linebacker Luke Sinkhorn. "Seemed like he couldn't handle it that well."

The Crimson was unable to find any rhythm on offense until the third quarter and didn't muster a first down until 11:08 to go in the second quarter.

Though Wahlberg played until the third quarter, he never found his rhythm. Rose, on the other hand, looked poised when he was in the game.

"Neil probably hadn't practiced anywhere near was well as Barry lately, and that's the reason why we went with him," Murphy said. "To Neil's credit, even though he hadn't had a great week of practice, he came in very cool and confident."

On Harvard's fourth quarter touchdown drive, Rose looked especially good, as he found four different receivers with passes of over ten yards.

Other than the quarterback position, the offense looked solid. The Crimson receiving corps looks to be solid through at least the first four receivers on the depth chart. Sophomores Carl Morris, Kyle Cremarosa and Sean Meeker and junior Dan Farley were all able to get downfield and make catches in traffic.

Holy Cross jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter by wining the field position battle. After recovering the opening kickoff at their own 45-yard line, Holy Cross kept the ball in Harvard's end of the field by playing good defense and executing on punt coverage .

Harvard came back in the second quarter with a 31-yard field goal from Blewett and a 31-yard touchdown run by sophomore Matt Leiszler to make the score 14-10 at the half.

With 12:55 to go in the third quarter, Wahlberg threw an interception that Sinkhorn returned for a touchdown.

On the point after attempt, the ball was snapped badly and senior strong safety returned the ball to give Harvard two points. Brooks is only the second accomplished the feat in Harvard football history. Greg Belsher '92 did it in 1991 against Penn.

Less than two minutes later, senior defensive tackle R.D. Kern sacked sophomore Crusader quarterback Brian Hall who fumbled and gave Harvard the ball on the Holy Cross 18 yard line. Five plays later, Leiszler scored from the six yard line making the score 20-18, which is the way it stayed after Wahlberg's pass was incomplete on the point after attempt.

The running backs took a hit early on in the game when senior tailback Chuck Nwokocha, really the only experienced running back that the Crimson has, went down with a sprained MCL and should be out at least a month.

Luckily for Harvard, sophomore Matt Leiszler was able to come in and give the offense a spark. Leiszler accounted for the only Harvard touchdown of the first half on a 31-yard dash from scrimmage.

Leiszler finished the game with a 6.6 yard per carry average--gaining 60 yards and scoring two touchdowns on only 9 carries.

The offensive line also played well against the Crusaders. The line was able to consistently open holes and protect the quarterbacks when they didn't hold on to the ball too long.

On defense, the Crimson had a generally good day. Although the Crimson gave up a few big plays, it also kept Harvard in the game. Kern played a stellar game for the Crimson at defensive tackle and although the linebacking corps was young, starting two true freshmen, it also played well.

"The reason we didn't have better opportunity to win this game was ball security," Murphy said. "Take away the ball security issue, and the fundamentals were pretty solid."