Undefeated Crimson Travels to Cornell

In its last two games, the Cornell defense has given up an average of 40 points, with both ending in a loss. The Harvard football team has, in contrast, put up more than 40 points in all three of its games thus far—all wins.

This Saturday, when the Crimson (3-0, 1-0 Ivy) travels to Schoellkopf Field, it will attempt to extend its unbeaten record to four games and notch its second Ancient Eight win against a struggling Big Red (1-2, 0-1 Ivy) team.

Despite the Crimson’s unblemished record, the team has been plagued by slow starts.

“We just need to really focus and just get into a better rhythm,” coach Tim Murphy said. “There’s just focus and execution, because at the end of the day, if you execute extremely well, you tend to stay on the field longer offensively and get off the field quicker defensively.”

If not for the Crusader quarterback Peter Pujals’s propensity to fumble the ball—four times during the game, with one leading to a defensive touchdown—and last-minute heroics by the offense to tie up the game in the waning seconds of regulation, last week’s contest against Holy Cross might have ended earlier than the three overtime periods it took for Harvard to win.

After sitting on the sideline for much of the game with a hyperextended knee and then being unable to create offense after coming back in during the third quarter, junior quarterback Conner Hempel seemed to find a rhythm in the nick of time.

With three minutes remaining, Hempel kept an 84-yard drive alive by scrambling for a crucial first down before finding double-covered senior tight end Cameron Brate in the back of the end zone for the tying score to take the game to overtime.

“Through the years, I tell my quarterbacks, ‘If nothing’s open, force it to Brate,’” Brate said. “Hempel’s taken it to heart a little bit, but that was a great throw last week, and for whatever reason it landed in my hands.”

Three extra periods later, the Crimson finally emerged with a hard-earned victory, 41-35. A large part of the offense’s success in overtime—and throughout the game, while the quarterback situation remained unclear—was due to running back Paul Stanton Jr. The sophomore tallied 158 total offensive yards and scored two of the three overtime touchdowns.

But with Hempel still uncertain for Saturday due to his knee, according to Brate, the defense will have to step up again in Ithaca. While Harvard has been exceptional at forcing turnovers—racking up 11 over its three games—the passing defense has been spotty at times, most notably in Worcester, where it allowed Pujals to throw for 345 yards, four touchdowns, and no picks.

Pujals, a freshman quarterback who was in just his second career start for Holy Cross, almost certainly would have led his team to a win if Hempel and company had not converted on the final two-minute drive. Despite sacking Pujals six times, the defense was still unable to find a way to stop the freshman until the final drive.

Against Cornell’s Jeff Mathews, the Crimson will look to get more pressure on the quarterback. The senior, who is now the Ivy League’s all-time leading passer, is on multiple award watch lists and is projected to be an NFL draft pick.

“I have no doubt that he’ll be an NFL player,” Murphy said. “[Cornell has] got a good scheme, they’ve got one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and because of that, they’re a streaky, very dangerous team…. It’s one of those games where you never feel like they’re in control.”

Cornell, which hired David Archer to coach the team following last year’s disappointing sixth-place finish, has lost its last two games by at least two scores. One of those came against league rival Yale, which managed to put up 28 points in the second half to pull away from the Big Red.

One week later, Cornell gave up a halftime lead and allowed Colgate to score 24 unanswered points. The Big Red would end up surrendering that contest as well, 41-20.

But in a season where a league win can mean the difference between the championship and second-place, no team can be counted out.

Last season, Princeton, then in first place, having upset conference favorite Harvard and in control of its own destiny, was knocked off the top by none other than Cornell.

“Every Ivy League game is a tough, physical game, so we’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game,” Brate said. “They’re 1-3 but they’ve played some tough teams to start off the year. They have Jeff Mathews at quarterback, and he’s got an unbelievable arm, so they can really put points on the board. It’ll be a challenge for our defense, and offensively, we just need to execute to our full potential.”

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samantha.lin@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @linsmanity.