COMEBACK OF THE YEAR: Trick Plays, Pizzotti’s Return Surprise Lehigh

Just days prior to the Crimson’s Sept. 30 showdown with Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa., Harvard had a glaring question to answer: who would be its quarterback?

With junior Chris Pizzotti nursing an injured knee and sophomore Jeff Witt out with an injured shoulder, the eventual surprise start by Pizzotti was a triumphant comeback in the early stages of the junior’s career as a starter.

But as it turns out, it wasn’t even the best comeback of the afternoon.

That honor went to the collective Crimson squad, a team that reached deep into its bag of tricks to overcome a 17-point road deficit en route to a nail-biting 35-33 road win over the Mountain Hawks.

“There’s going to be adversity at some point,” Murphy said after the win. “We’ve just got to hang in there, just take our time. If we’re poised, stay together, good things will happen.”

But as the old adage goes, things must get bad before they can get good. Bad, as in a Lehigh touchdown two and a half minutes into the game. Bad, as in no more than 15 yards on any of the next three Crimson drives. Bad, as in a 24-7 Mountain Hawk lead with five minutes to go in the first half and a crucial fourth down with an undefeated season hanging in the balance.

But on one play, an inexperienced receiver began to make things good again. On fourth-and-four, in his second career start, where would Pizzotti go? He’d go 42 yards downfield to a streaking Matt Luft, who made his defender miss before beating everyone to the endzone.

“Chris hit the young freshman on a shallow cross on what we call a smash route,” Murphy said. “Matt Luft made the exact adjustment.”

Now down just 24-14, a direct snap out of a punt formation on a similar fourth-down situation on the next possession saw sophomore defensive tackle Matt Curtis scamper eight yards past the line of scrimmage, keeping the Harvard offense and the team’s chances for a comeback alive.

“When you’re not controlling the line of scrimmage, you definitely have to be creative,” Murphy said. “It wasn’t comfortable play-calling because it’s a lot more comfortable when you’re controlling the line of scrimmage.”

The payoff three plays later, with less than a minute to play in the half, removed the last ounce of comfort from the 10,680 fans in attendance at Goodman Stadium. That’s when it became clear to Lehigh fans that it wasn’t just the quarterbacks that had the ability to beat them through the air—the wideouts could do it, too. Sophomore receiver Chris Sanders proved that on a 32-yard fake reverse touchdown pass to Corey Mazza with 28 seconds to go before the intermission.

“They always have a trick or two up their sleeve,” said Mountain Hawks coach Andy Coen. “The timing of the calling of those plays is obviously very important, and they did a great job with that.”

The Crimson would score on its first drive of the second half, taking a 28-24 lead that it would never relinquish. And though Lehigh did allow Ivy sensation Clifton Dawson to score three times and move into third place on the league’s all-time rushing touchdown list, Coen’s defense did keep the senior tailback under 100 yards for the first time in 2006.

For a time at least, it made the Mountain Hawk front four look a lot like the stout Harvard D-line, but it was the trickery that had the Lehigh coach wishing he’d stolen another page from the Harvard playbook.

“I wish I called a few more,” Coen said of the misdirection plays.

The win catapulted the Crimson to a blistering 5-0 start, which would not have been possible without the rebirth in Bethlehem.

“We’re good with our backs to the wall,” Murphy said after the game. “The thing we did today is we became a football team.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.