Back in Business

WORCESTER, Mass.—Warm weather wasn’t the only reason No. 19 Harvard was sweating in Saturday’s game against Holy Cross. The Crusaders gave the Crimson a run for its money, but even a rusty Harvard squad was hard to handle, as the Crimson left with a 31-21 victory.

During the third quarter, a season-opening loss on the road against the recent pushovers seemed disturbingly plausible. The Crimson defense was worn down, its offense turnover-ridden, its leadership uncertain.

But with just under 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, sophomore quarterback Liam O’Hagan found senior wide receiver Ryan Tyler wide open in the middle, and Tyler outpaced the Holy Cross secondary for a 48-yard touchdown reception.

Junior tailback Clifton Dawson had a bounce in his step as he decelerated in the endzone after cruising in for the two-point conversion to put Harvard up 28-21 and give the Crimson a lead it would not cede.

“For a team that was searching for its identity, the fact that we were able to overcome some adversity on the road against a team that had already played two games tells me a lot about how hard we’ll battle,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “I think we established our identity as fighters.”

Until the fourth quarter, it had been an uphill battle, the outcome of which was far from certain.

Harvard barely had a chance to establish momentum under sophomore quarterback Richard Irvin, who started for the Crimson and completed 5-of-8 passes for 43 yards. Unfortunately for Irvin, his final pass found the arms of cornerback Casey Gough, who ran the pick back for a touchdown, the game’s first score.

“I think Richard played well today, but he just had one bad ball and it really turned out to be bad for him,” Mazza said.

Two interceptions kept close a game that was otherwise anything but. Harvard topped Holy Cross in nearly every relevant statistical category—301 yards passing to the Crusader’s 147, 219 to 68 yards rushing, 27 to 13 first downs, and five minutes more possession time.

“We could have stopped them, but they came up with some big conversions. They’re a hell of a football team,” Holy Cross head coach Tom Gilmore said. “I think there’s plenty of blame to go around on our team.”

The cornerstones of the Harvard offense started the season with a statistical bang, as Dawson rushed for 153 yards and a touchdown and caught three passes for 23 more yards, and junior wide receiver Corey Mazza snagged seven passes for 131 yards and a touchdown on a 22-yard pass late in the first to tie the game at seven.

“They’re so balanced with everything that they do,” Gilmore said. “They’re very good rushing the ball, but they still keep you off balance with their pass game.”

In the multifaceted offense, the surprise standout was O’Hagan. The Harvard offensive line gave the new signal caller plenty of time to sit in the pocket, and O’Hagan made full use of it. He was 15-of-24 passing, with two touchdowns and 258 yards in the air.

After throwing an interception that left Holy Cross a few rushes from a touchdown, O’Hagan found redemption on third-and-nine at the Crusaders’ 22-yard line. He sat in the pocket and looked to the right for an open man—and then, when the defense bit, he danced across the 22 yards of empty field to his left for the touchdown.

“I tried to go out there and be confident in myself in my first college game, on the biggest stage I’ve played on in my life,” O’Hagan said. “I just got more confident out there and wanted to go out and lead the offense.”

O’Hagan distinguished himself as a scrambler, rushing for a total of 63 yards in the game.

Harvard also led by wide margin in another category—penalties. The Crimson was flagged 13 times for 110 yards. An importune few were a late-hit call on junior linebacker Matt Thomas that gave up critical yardage in the red-zone and a facemask penalty that pushed sophomore kicker Matt Schindel’s point-after back and led to a miss, his first in the last 21 attempts dating back to 2004.

When the offense dragged in most of the game, the team fell back on its defense, which held up despite a thin secondary. The pass rush kept O’Neil from finding his rhythm, with the notable exception of a third-quarter drive in which he completed seven consecutive passes for 53 total yards.

The Holy Cross offense relied heavily on one man, tailback Steve Silva, whom Harvard effectively contained. Silva rushed for only 37 net yards on 16 carries, with one touchdown. He was a return threat nevertheless, with 69 yards on three kickoff returns.

Harvard recovered a Holy Cross fumble on the Crimson’s seven-yard line, ending a dangerous drive, although the Crimson’s own offense couldn’t convert the opportunity into a score.

The defense squelched late-game comeback attempts as well, as captain defensive end Erik Grimm crushed Silva two yards behind the line of scrimmage on third-and-one on the Crimson’s 35, and the secondary shut down four pass attempts to terminate the Crusaders’ final drive before it started.

Two freshmen, cornerback Andrew Berry and linebacker Eric Schultz, posted the best numbers of the defense with Berry breaking up three passes and Schultz notching two tackles-for-loss and a sack.

—Staff writer Samuel C. Scott can be reached at sscott@fas.harvard.edu.