Pizzotti's Big Day Keeps Crimson Perfect in Ivies

The Book of Matthew says, “Let the light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.” Saturday gave new meaning to that verse, as the clouds broke and ths sun shone on Harvard’s 27-10 pounding of Princeton (2-4, 1-2 Ivy).

In the 100th meeting between the two teams, the Crimson (4-2, 3-0) avenged two straight defeats in the series.

Senior quarterback Chris Pizzotti went 25-of-35 for a career-high 365 yards—the fourth-highest single-game output in school history—and two touchdowns. Pizzotti was able to make a number of key plays rolling out of the pocket.

“I work on it each week, and the receivers were doing a great job of getting open when I scrambled out,” Pizzotti said. “It definitely helps, having confidence in the receivers, knowing they’re going to make the right adjustment when I start scrambling, and they were in the right spot each time.”

Sophomore Cheng Ho paced the Crimson’s ground game, which netted only 27 first-half yards, with 113 yards on 24 carries.

The Harvard secondary held the Tigers to only 10 completions and 84 passing yards, and limited top receiver Brendan Circle to two catches for 31 yards. Last year, Circle burned the Crimson for 114 yards. Senior cornerback Steven Williams grabbed two interceptions, leaving him just one pick shy of the Harvard career record of 15.

“They have some tremendous athletes in their secondary,” Circle said. “Steve [Williams] and Andrew [Berry] are tremendous athletes, and [Doug Hewlett]...They certainly disrupted some things and they had a great game.”

The game also clarified the Ivy League title picture with four games remaining. The defending co-champion Tigers now have little chance of repeating after suffering their second conference loss of the season—no team with two losses has won a share of the crown since Harvard, Penn, and Dartmouth split it in 1982. The Crimson preserved its undefeated Ivy record and remains tied for first place with Yale, which eked out a 26-20 victory over Penn in triple overtime.

Harvard wasted no time getting on the board in the first quarter, finishing a quick five-play drive when Pizzotti connected with senior wideout Corey Mazza for a 41-yard touchdown pass just 1:45 into the game.

On the Crimson’s third possession, Pizzotti’s pass to sophomore wideout Matt Luft was deflected into the nearby hands of junior tight end Jason Miller for a 19-yard completion. Sophomore Patrick Long put Harvard up, 10-0, with a a 23-yard field goal.

Princeton’s offense woke up in the second quarter, running the option effectively and leveling the score at 10. But a defensive breakdown allowed a 59-yard pass play from Pizzotti to Miller that set up a 28-yard field goal by Long, giving the Crimson a 13-10 advantage going into halftime.

Injuries plagued the Tigers’ comeback bid, as Foran was sidelined with a concussion midway through the second quarter and backup quarterback Greg Mroz had to leave the game with a nagging hand injury.

“Greg [Mroz] injured his hand—it’s an old injury—and he couldn’t grip the ball,” said Princeton head coach Roger Hughes. “And it was pretty evident as we started the second half, some errant throws are just not like him. Something was going on, and finally we diagnosed he just couldn’t grip it, and that’s when we went to Brian Anderson.”

After a 34-yard punt return by Matt Lagace to begin Harvard’s first drive of the second half, Harvard worked its way down to the Tigers’ 1-yard line before Ho found the endzone to extend the Harvard lead to 20-10.

Anderson began his first drive with back-to-back runs of eight and four yards, but the charge was cut short when senior defensive end Brad Bagdis forced a fumble that was recovered by junior Glenn Dorris.

On Princeton’s next drive, three costly false start calls prevented the Tigers from progressing past their own 10-yard line.

“It kind of gives you a sense of how fragile offense is,” Hughes said. “There’s got to be 11 guys together all the time, good timing, getting the snap count, getting the motions right, getting the play called. And little things you take for granted, you have to pay a lot more attention to.”

The Crimson cemented the win with a six-play, 48-yard drive that culminated in a 20-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Mike Cook and expanded its lead to 27-10.

Next up on Harvard’s three-game homestand is Dartmouth, fresh off a 37-28 victory over Columbia.

“All we do is get ready for the next game, and that’s what we’re good at,” Murphy said. “We’re a solid team, but we have a lot of places where we need to improve.”

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.