Game of the Year, Runner-Up: Princeton 39, Football 34

When the scoreboard displayed Harvard 34, Princeton 10 with 13 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, it seemed as if the football game was all but over.

But the Tigers never quit. On Oct. 20 at Princeton Stadium, the home team ran off 29 straight points, including a 36-yard touchdown pass with 13 seconds to go to take the lead for the first time all game.

The desperation throw from the Tigers’ second string quarterback, Quinn Epperly, capped a 90-yard drive that gave the then-No. 20 Crimson its first defeat of the season.

“I was standing on the sideline as if I was a fan watching the game,” senior running back Treavor Scales said. “It was surreal how everything was happening and how everything they did was working and how everything just fell into place.”

Harvard left a number of potential points on the field, as miscues such as a blocked 22-yard field goal, a blocked extra point, and a fumble in Tigers’ territory would come back to haunt the Crimson.

“It was one of the worst bus rides I’ve ever had in my entire football career, like from little league all the way up to now,” Scales said. “Dead silence; nobody spoke the entire way home. We were all awestruck; we didn’t understand what had just happened.”

The Harvard defense shut out its opponents in the first half, holding the Tigers to only 51 yards while the Crimson amassed 415 yards of its own to secure a 20-point lead heading into the break.

But the momentum completely reversed in the fourth quarter, as Princeton scored touchdowns through the air on four consecutive drives to take the lead.

Despite senior quarterback Colton Chapple throwing for a program-record 448 yards—192 of which went to tight end Kyle Juszczyk—the Crimson offense gained only 78 yards in the fourth quarter and could not keep the Tigers off the field.

“I feel like I was too conservative in my play calling in the four-minute drill,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “It was kind of textbook play calling…. But whatever your gut tells you, you need to do in that specific situation. So at the end of the day, very simply, it’s all on me.”

What seemed to be an easy win for the Crimson turned into a season-defining loss as the Tigers offense became unstoppable down the stretch.

“I don’t even like to talk about it,” Murphy said. “I couldn’t eat for two days. I was just sick to my stomach, as sick as I’ve ever been because it was just one of those ones that you’ll just never forget.”

—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at dsteinbach@college.harvard.edu.