NOTEBOOK: Pruneau, Punts, Penalties All Crucial

EASTON, Pa.—For all the strengths of the Harvard football team so far this year, the health of its quarterbacks hasn’t been one of them.

Since a hamstring injury that senior starter Collier Winters suffered in the first game of the year, he has yet to make an appearance.

His backup, junior Colton Chapple, has played well as a replacement, throwing for three touchdowns in a game and a half at the helm.

But he didn’t return on Saturday at Lafayette after the first half, suffering back cramps that kept him out of the game. By the time he left, Harvard already had a 17-3 lead.

Sophomore third-string quarterback Michael Pruneau filled in for the remainder of the game. Early in his collegiate debut, he looked uncomfortable and nervous, fumbling twice in his first three drives. Though he managed to recover both, he looked solidly outmatched by Lafayette’s secondary to start the third quarter.

“We felt comfortable that we could get the job done with Mike [Pruneau],” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “Our defense was playing so well we felt confident doing it and obviously didn’t want to put Colton in a position of having a serious injury.”

After recovering a fumbled punt, it finally looked like the quarterback settled down—but he caught a few key breaks that certainly helped.

Pruneau completed his first career pass to senior wide receiver Chris Lorditch, and two Leopard personal fouls on the same play put the ball on the Lafayette two-yard line.

On the next play, the Leopards deflected Pruneau’s pass into the end zone, but it landed squarely in the arms of sophomore tight end Cameron Brate for the third-stringers’ first-career touchdown.

The quarterback looked more comfortable in the fourth, but his role remained limited. Pruneau was four-for-six on the day, throwing for 44 yards in addition to his one touchdown.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS

The season is still just a few games old, but the play of Harvard’s special teams has been among the strongest elements of its game so far.

Junior punter Jacob Dombrowski’s performance on Saturday was his best of the year, and it highlighted the strength of the Crimson’s kicking units.

Dombrowski kicked six times, averaging 44.2 yards per punt, including one inside the Lafayette 20. The junior punter has averaged about 40 yards per punt this season.

“We’ve felt since we saw Jake at our summer camp a couple years ago that he had the potential to be a major college punter, and he’s worked really hard on his craft,” Murphy said. “He was banged up last year, and I think he’s just starting to come into his own in terms of feel and confidence.”

But one third-quarter punt from Dembrowski was clearly his most impressive of the day. After a three-and-out, the punter hit a booming 54-yarder from the Crimson 23.

Despite the length of the punt, impressive hang time allowed captain linebacker Alex Gedeon to get to the kick, forcing a fumble.

Junior tight end Kyle Juszczyk recovered the loose ball. Just before he went down, he handed it off to senior safety Matthew Hanson, who ran it in for a touchdown.

The score was taken back just moments later when it was ruled that the handoff to Hanson—who stood a few feet in front of Juszczyk—was an illegal forward pass, but the Crimson kept possession and scored later in the drive.

“I saw [Jusczcyk] looking to hand the ball off to somebody as he was getting tackled, [and I] went for it,” Hanson said. “Honestly, I didn’t know that was a rule that you couldn’t hand the ball forward,” he added as Murphy gave his safety a jokingly incredulous look. “I learned that today, so that’s unfortunate, but I’ll tell my grandkids about that play anyways.”

FLAG BEARERS

For most of the game, it was very clear that Harvard controlled the momentum of the contest.

Lafayette penalties played an important role in shifting momentum towards the Crimson, and the Leopards drew flags in costly situations all day.

In the third quarter, it looked like Lafayette had scored a touchdown to bring the team back within seven points. But the play was called back on a holding call, and Leopard quarterback Andrew Shoop threw an interception to Harvard senior defensive back Dan Minamide two plays later, leaving Lafayette in a 17-3 hole.

Lafayette struggled to maintain its composure after that. After the Leopards’ botched punt return, the home team earned two major penalties on the same play.

After a roughing the passer call on a late hit to Pruneau, Lafayette linebacker Leroy Butler threw his helmet on the ground in frustration, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct call.

The penalty struggles continued in garbage time. After another touchdown with about three minutes left gave Harvard a 30-3 lead, Lafayette committed two more personal fouls on the extra point, one of which led to an ejection.

In total, the team drew 16 penalties for 101 yards.

“We just did a number of things to hurt ourselves: four holding penalties, four false starts, missed tackles,” Lafayette coach Frank Tavani said. “Quite honestly, the way we’re playing right now, there’s no one on our schedule that we can beat.”

—Staff writer E. Benjamin Samuels can be reached at samuels@college.harvard.edu.