Win Assures Shot at Ivy Title on Nov. 17

NEW YORK—For a brief while Saturday, it appeared that the Harvard band’s rendition of “Jump On It” had become the new Crimson fight song.

The “it” was Columbia quarterback Craig Hormann, and the jumping was done by a Harvard defensive line that registered seven sacks and hit Hormann on almost every play, making Sir Mix-A-Lot proud on the way to a 27-12 Crimson victory in front of 2,283 fans at Wien Stadium in New York City.

Columbia (1-7, 0-5 Ivy) struggled to stave off an aggressive Harvard (6-2, 5-0 Ivy) pass rush and was unable to move the ball on the ground against the stingiest rush defense in the Ivy League. Running backs Ray Rangel and Jordan Davis combined for just 22 yards on 10 carries, and the Lions finished the day with -5 net yards rushing.

“I thought offensively we played very bad, very bad,” said Columbia head coach Norries Wilson. “I thought the offensive line play left everything to be desired.”

Initially, however, it didn’t appear that the Lions would need a running game to give the Crimson a run for its money. Columbia took its opening drive 49 yards, aided by a personal foul facemask penalty that converted a third down, to the Harvard 29 before an incompletion on fourth-and-9.

The Crimson responded with a 13-play, 71-yard touchdown drive that ended on a six-yard touchdown toss from senior quarterback Chris Pizzotti to senior wideout Corey Mazza, Mazza’s team-leading sixth touchdown catch of the year.

The Lions worked their way back into contention with a pair of field goals by kicker Jon Rocholl to cut the Crimson lead to 7-6. Wide receiver Austin Knowlin, last season’s Ivy Rookie of the Year, tallied three catches for 48 yards on the way to the first field goal, then contributed two more catches for 18 yards before the second kick.

Knowlin finished the day with 10 catches for 123 yards and a late touchdown, despite being covered primarily by preseason All-American junior cornerback Andrew Berry.

“Obviously he’s a really good receiver, and he does a good job of finding space in the defense,” Hormann said. “A couple of those he did a good job of finding me when I was kind of scrambling a little bit, and I was able to get the ball to him.”

But from that point, the Crimson took over. Sophomore running back Cheng Ho capped off the ensuing touchdown drive with a nine-yard touchdown run. Ho carried the ball on seven of the drive’s 12 plays, picking up 34 yards against a Lions defense that came in ranked 115th (out of 116) in the nation in rushing defense.

A missed extra point by sophomore kicker Patrick Long, his fourth miss of the year, left Harvard up, 13-6.

The teams traded punts until halftime, but the Crimson opened the second half with an efficient 10-play, 68-yard touchdown drive that ended with a Pizzotti sneak on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line, his third rushing touchdown of the season.

He finished the day 23-of-29 passing for 217 yards and a touchdown through the air.

From that point, the Harvard defensive line starting jumping—the defense allowed just 68 total yards in the second half. Hormann faced intense pressure, directly leading to two fourth-quarter turnovers. Trailing 20-6 with 13:38 to play, Columbia was on the move, reaching midfield before Hormann was sacked by sophomore defensive tackle Chuks Obi, forcing a fumble that was recovered by junior defensive end Peter Ajayi, ending the last serious Lions threat of the game.

“If you look at most of the pressure in the second half, it came from our defensive linemen,” said Crimson head coach Tim Murphy. “It wasn’t a ton of blitzing there.”

“We came out after halftime, and Coach Hall, our defensive line coach, just laid the challenge out there and said, ‘You guys gotta have a better second half,’” said senior defensive end and captain Brad Bagdis. “I think athletically we were a little more prepared than they were, and we weren’t using our advantages in the first half.”

The fumble led to a short field and a 48-yard touchdown drive, punctuated by Ho’s second touchdown run of the day. Ho finished with 119 yards on 24 carries as well as the first multiple-touchdown game of his career.

“Honestly, our offensive line did an awesome, phenomenal job, as they have been the last few weeks,” Ho said. “If you put any back in that backfield, I can honestly say that they would have had the same production if not more, so all the credit goes to the offensive linemen.”

That score put the game out of reach at 27-6, though Columbia would add a meaningless nine-yard touchdown pass from Hormann to Knowlin with 5:33 remaining. Rocholl missed the extra point, leaving the final at 27-12.

The victory assures Harvard a chance at earning at least a share of the Ivy title in The Game on Nov. 17. Yale’s 17-7 win over Brown left both the Crimson and the Elis at 5-0 in league play.

“Our goal was to be undefeated, 5-0, and in first place in the Ivy League tonight, so mission accomplished,” Murphy said. “We’re a type of team where our kids play extremely hard and we don’t make mistakes...We feel like we could beat anybody. But, the caveat to that is we have to be a mistake-free football team to do it.”

—Staff writer Brad Hinshelwood can be reached at bhinshel@fas.harvard.edu.