Downed

It was a battle of undefeateds, the most highly anticipated—and unlikely—marquee matchup of the young 2006 football season, and yet the scene unfolded with an eery familiarity.

The No. 15 Harvard football team (5-1, 2-1 Ivy) lost to No. 21 Princeton (6-0, 3-0) on Saturday in front of 16,284 fans at Princeton Stadium after a combination of calls by officials and Crimson coach Tim Murphy went ultimately in favor of the Tigers.

In the waning minutes of last year’s 27-24 defeat, a decision to go for it on fourth and one cost Murphy and the Crimson. This time, Harvard led 28-24 late in the fourth quarter when Princeton had third and four in Crimson territory. On the ensuing play, senior free safety Danny Tanner broke up a pass to tailback Rob Toresco and proceeded to turn toward his teammates and pound his chest.

Flags flew for unsportsmanlike conduct, and the Tigers got a much-needed first down that would lead to the game-winning touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Brendan Circle with 4:37 remaining in the game.

“I’m not anybody who gets down on officials,” Murphy said. “They’ve got a tough job, but I haven’t seen that call in college football, in the Ivy League. I still don’t know, the kid just celebrated. It was a great play.”

Princeton began the drive after a trick play by Harvard, a reverse wide receiver pass from sophomore Chris Sanders to senior Clifton Dawson in tight coverage, was picked off by Tiger linebacker Luke Steckel.

The Crimson had two chances to win it after the Circle score, but junior quarterback Liam O’Hagan, making his highly anticipated return from a five-game suspension, threw two interceptions on the final two drives to seal the deal.

O’Hagan did give Harvard a new set of legs early, replacing junior Chris Pizzotti in the second quarter and running for 89 yards on ten carries. The junior completed 13 of 27 passes for 168 yards and one touchdown.

“I just thought that we needed a spark,” Murphy said. “I just thought that [O’Hagan’s] combination of enthusiasm and mobility and improvisational skills could give us a spark, and a dimension to our offense that we [didn’t] have.”

The Crimson got off to a quick start without O’Hagan. After three-and-outs by both teams, Harvard blocked its first punt in two years, which set up the Crimson’s first score, a 20-yard screen pass to senior tailback Clifton Dawson with 3:32 gone in the first period.

But Dawson struggled on the ground. Although he added career rushing touchdowns No. 53 and No. 54, laying claim to sole possession of the all-time Ivy League record in that category, Dawson was limited by the Tigers to a mere 64 yards on 21 carries, his lowest output of the season.

“They did an outstanding job,” Dawson said. “We knew coming in that they were a very tough defense...they’re a very physical defense, and my hat goes off to them.”

On the next drive, senior quarterback Jeff Terrell led the Tigers 76 yards downfield to even the score at seven with 7:25 remaining. The Princeton signal-caller burned Harvard for 223 yards in the air and 32 on the ground.

The bleeding for the Crimson did not end there.

Two Harvard plays later, Pizzotti threw an interception to sophomore cornerback Tom Hurley, giving Princeton great field position at the Crimson 29. His throwing miscue was one of four for the squad on Saturday.

Although the Harvard defense would hold the team to a field goal, a botched fake punt by the Crimson led to another Tiger touchdown and a score of 17-7 at the end of the first quarter.

“The bottom line is they made more plays than we did and we made too many mistakes,” Murphy said. “That was the game in a nutshell.”

After a 14-yard Princeton punt, the Crimson lined up with O’Hagan on the Tiger 29 and capitalized, as Dawson scored his first rushing touchdown of the day. But Princeton was not done yet.

Harvard knocked Terrell out of the game after a hard, clean hit by sophomore linebacker Eric Schultz, and junior backup Bill Foran took over and led the squad 50 yards to a score and a 24-14 lead with 0:58 remaining.

“We ended up scoring when probably Harvard thought, ‘Ah we got [Terrell] out of the game now,” Tiger coach Roger Hughes said. “Maybe they relaxed a little bit, I don’t know.”

The Crimson responded on both sides of the field after the break.

On Harvard’s first drive, O’Hagan marched the offense 93 yards downfield and Dawson punched it in from the one, bringing Harvard within three.

The Crimson had only two drives in the quarter, but it made them both count. On the next drive, O’Hagan connected with senior wideout Corey Mazza on a 15-yard score, taking the lead with 3:55 remaining.

The Crimson would hold that lead for nearly 15 minutes, but the tough and controversial fourth led to Circle’s touchdown and the Princeton victory.

“There’s plenty of responsibility, starting with me, to get some things fixed,” Murphy said. “We didn’t play well enough to beat a really good team.”

—Staff writer Madeleine I. Shapiro can be reached at mshapiro@fas.harvard.edu.