Football Looks To Remain Unbeaten Against Lafayette

Since 2002, the Harvard football team has gone 9-1 against Lafayette. In the two teams’ most recent meeting, the Crimson only surrendered a field goal.

But after giving up the most passing yards in program history last weekend at Cornell and four passing touchdowns the week prior at Holy Cross, Harvard hopes the same lockdown defense that earned it the 31-3 victory two years ago shows up on Saturday.

“The last couple of weeks, we’ve played some outstanding passing teams with outstanding quarterbacks,” Crimson coach Tim Murphy said. “[Cornell’s] Jeff Mathews will go down as one of the great quarterbacks in Ivy League history…. I still think we should be a better pass defense team. We still have the potential to become a quality [one], but we’re not there yet.”

Lafayette (1-4, 1-0 Patriot) will be without junior starting quarterback Zach Zweizig, who suffered an injury in the Leopards’ 27-21 loss to Penn in September and hasn’t taken a snap since. That may take some of the pressure off the Crimson (4-0, 2-0 Ivy) backfield. Lafayette has turned to inexperienced sophomore backup quarterback Andrew Dzurik, who has yielded mixed results under center so far. In his two games as a starter, Dzurik has thrown two touchdowns and five interceptions.

Harvard counters with a backup of its own. With starting junior quarterback Conner Hempel rehabbing a hyperextended knee suffered in the second quarter at Holy Cross, senior backup Michael Pruneau will likely be making his second career start.

“We feel like we can win with either quarterback,” Murphy said. “Now we’re in a position to verify that…. I think we’re in good shape at the position.”

Pruneau prevailed in the David versus Goliath quarterback showdown in his first collegiate start against the Big Red’s Mathews, overcoming an interception on his first set of downs to complete 23-of-29 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns in the Crimson’s 34-24 victory.

“At the beginning of the game, the play calling helped me out,” Pruneau said. “I threw a couple of quick screens, got it out there with easy completions. Then, once the game started getting into its flow and I got hit a few times, I was comfortable.”

But Harvard may not be able to depend on Pruneau and the rest of the offense to continue to bail it out every weekend. The defense, particularly the defensive line, will need to be at its best this weekend to stifle the Leopards’ dangerous running game. Junior Ross Scheuerman leads the Patriot League with eight rushing touchdowns and is second with 5.8 yards per carry.

Ivy League opponents have not been able to stop the tailback either. Scheuerman ran for 162 yards against Princeton last weekend and had two touchdowns on the ground against Penn in week three.

“Lafayette [has] a much different attack,” said senior defensive tackle Nnamdi Obukwelu, who anchored the Crimson defense with two sacks and three tackles for a loss against Cornell. “It’s more based on the running game, and our mentality this weekend is to stop the run and be tough inside.”

According to Murphy, the big men on the frontline are the key to stopping strong running backs such as Scheuerman.

“Having big, strong, athletic, and physical linebackers is certainly helpful, but it all starts up front, and that’s the strength of our defense,” Murphy said. “Guys like Nnamdi Obukwelu, Jack Dittmer, and Zach Hodges—those guys are really outstanding players, and [with them] you can be very physical in style at the line of scrimmage. It makes life a lot easier on everybody.”

When the Lafayette offense does attempt to air the ball out, the Harvard defense will look to minimize its mistakes.

“What we want to do is maintain our game plan of working hard to stop those big plays,” Obukwelu said. “The biggest thing is the big plays. That’s what has killed us most games—the over the head stuff—so we’ll try to stop those, and if we do, we’ll be okay.”

Though the Leopards have only a single win on the season, they have managed to keep close in their two losses against Ivy League opponents. Lafayette trailed, 21-20, at the half against Princeton last weekend before falling, 42-26. Three weeks earlier, the Leopards fell to Penn, 27-21, but outscored the Quakers, 14-0, in the fourth quarter. So although the Crimson has only lost to Lafayette once in over a decade, it still will be taking this weekend’s matchup very seriously.

“It never seems easy against these guys,” Murphy said. “We’ve been very fortunate and just seemed to have played well against this team over the years. When you watch the film [of Lafayette], on both sides of the ball, it never seems like it’s going to be easy—and it never is easy.”