Yale Dominates in The Game, Harvard to Share Ivy Title

Updated November 23, 2024, at 5:15 p.m.

Harvard fumbled its chances at becoming the sole champion of the Ivy League as Yale defeated the Crimson 34-29 in the 140th playing of The Game on Saturday.

With the loss, Harvard (8-2, 5-2 Ivy) settled for a three-way tie atop the Ivy League title for the second year in a row as both Columbia and Dartmouth picked up victories in their respective games.

The defeat to the Bulldogs (7-3, 4-3 Ivy), in front of a crowd of 27,105, marked a disappointing end for the Crimson’s season as hundreds of Yale fans stormed the field at Harvard Stadium to celebrate the Bulldogs’ win.

Head Coach Andrew Aurich acknowledged the shortcomings of his team’s performance in a press conference after the game.

“Reality is, if you put yourself in a position where you have mistakes that we had at different points on both sides of the ball, that it makes it very hard to win a game like that,” Aurich said.

Still, Aurich said he was proud of his team for their effort.

“I told the guys in the locker room. Really proud of how hard they fought to the end,” Aurich said. “That’s a sign of the right type of culture in the program. These guys worked their butts off all season, and I was not surprised that they were fighting to the end in the game.”

The Crimson entered Saturday with a seven-game winning streak, but Yale dominated Harvard from the start on both sides of the ball. Yale’s offense managed to threaten Harvard on nearly every drive while the Crimson’s offense struggled to make an impact.

Yale’s victory — its third straight against Harvard — marked the first time since 2000 that the Bulldogs have dominated the Crimson for three years in a row.

On Yale’s first drive, running back Josh Pitsenberger — who would prove to be a thorn in Harvard’s side all day — picked up 29-yards on one drive, finding a gap in the Crimson’s defense to give the Bulldogs the first dose of forward momentum of the day.

Sophomore defense back Langston Rogers tackles Yale's running back Josh Pitsenberger. By Nicholas T. Jacobsson

After Jordan managed to scramble for a first down, the Bulldogs were set up on Harvard’s 8-yard line. On the next play, Jordan threw up a pass to receiver David Pantelis, who brought it down in the end zone. The Yale crowd, decked out in blue and white, began to cheer, but on the field, the referees were preparing to call the score back.

An ineligible player downfield cost Yale the touchdown, but the team continued to push forward with a series of short rushing gains. The Bulldogs, now knocking on Harvard’s door in the first drive of the game, decided to go for it on a fourth-and-4 instead of settling for three points with a field goal.

Jordan lofted the ball into the endzone intending Pantelis, but sophomore Damien Henderson had other plans. Henderson broke up the pass, allowing Harvard to avoid the early deficit.

In the next drive, Harvard managed to make some headway on the ground, but stalled as soon as it tried passing plays with a pair of back-to-back sacks forcing the Crimson to punt the ball away.

Yale finally managed to put points on the board in the second quarter. The drive came alive for Yale after wide receiver Chase Nenad broke free of his defender and hauled in a 30-yard pass from Jordan to allow the Bulldog’s to set up on the Harvard 30-yard line.

Nenad continued his heroics, catching the touchdown pass from Jordan after a pair of rushing gains from Pitsenberger. This time, the Yale side erupted in cheers and stayed cheering. After the extra point, the Yale Bulldogs took the lead 7-0.

Harvard once again were forced to punt the ball away after a series of incompletions by Craig. The weak performance by Craig came a week after he went down hard after a helicopter tackle and was taken off the field on a stretcher.

Craig denied that the tackle last week had any impact on his performance today.

“I feel healthy,” Craig said.

Still, Craig took responsibility for the loss, saying he felt like he “let the guys down a bit.”

“We left a lot out there offensively,” Craig said. “Bottom line, I got to be better.”

The Crimson’s defense finally managed to pick up a critical stop, forcing Yale to punt the ball away without being seriously threatened by them for the first time all game. The punt kicked off a pair of scoreless drives, as both teams punted the ball away without making it out of their own territory.

Harvard finally found an answer to a dominant Yale performance with a 6:19 left on the clock in the first half. Craig lofted the ball up to Barkate, who brought in the 44-yard pass in the endzone, tying up the game 7-7.

Junior wide receiver Cooper Barkate keeps his eye on the ball moments before he catches the Crimson's first touchdown of the game. By Nicholas T. Jacobsson

Pantelis continued to cause headaches for the Crimson in Yale’s next possession, bringing in a 37-yard pass to allow the Bulldog’s to set up on Harvard’s 37-yard line. Two pass interference calls against the Crimson gifted Yale 30 yards.

Jordan found a hole in the Crimson’s defense and rushed for Yale’s second touchdown, taking the lead once again 14-7.

The Crimson’s inability to bring down Jordan ultimately cost them, with Jordan rushing for 73 yards and Pantelis exploding for seven receptions for 148 yards.

“There were a number of times where the quarterback was able to get out of the pocket.” Aurich said. “And then, you know, Jordan had a really good feel for scramble rules and getting out there and taking off.”

With four minutes left on the clock, the game completely fell apart for Harvard. On the next drive, team captain and running back Shane McLaughlin coughed up the ball, fumbling for just the second time all year after making a similar mistake in the season opener against Stetson.

Senior running back and captain Shane McLaughlin pushes through Yale's defense. By Nicholas T. Jacobsson

Yale took over at the 42-yard line, but after going for it on fourth-and-7, Jordan’s pass to Pitsenberger came up short, giving the Crimson the ball back almost instantly.

The Crimson’s offensive collapse continued on the next drive, as an energized Yale team managed to get a hand on a Harvard punt and recovered the bouncing ball at the Harvard 35.

Neither team managed to score in the rest of the half, but despite only leading by seven points, the messy play from Harvard and the team’s inability to make any real offensive impact made the deficit feel nearly insurmountable.

Harvard took the field in the second half, but if the roaring Harvard crowd hoped that the team would come out of the break with renewed force, it was sorely disappointed.

On a third-and-short under pressure from a Yale defensive line that had been racking up sacks all day, Craig threw an unwise pass that was handily picked up by Yale defender Abu Kamara. The Harvard side of the stadium looked on in stunned silence as Kamara ran through open field into the endzone, bringing the score to 21-7 and silencing the Crimson’s sidelines.

After another punt from Harvard, the Bulldogs quickly moved down the field, courtesy of a 28-yard scramble from Jordan. Following several rushing plays that took significant time off the clock, the Bulldogs knocked a 30-yard field goal to extend their lead to 24-7 with just 57 second remaining in the quarter, capping off a nearly seven minute drive.

With its backs against the wall, the Crimson offense quickly got to work. As time expired in the third quarter, Craig escaped pressure and found Barkate down the field for a 48-yard gain, igniting the crowd and giving Harvard a fresh set of downs at Yale’s 28-yard line to start the final quarter.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Craig found senior wide receiver Scott Woods II for a 28-yard touchdown. Aurich left his offense on the field and Craig found DePrima, slotted at wide receiver, for the two-point conversion to narrow the lead to 24-15 as the crowd roared back into the game.

As the two storied schools found themselves in yet another tight game in the fourth quarter, the crowd rose to its feet on a crucial third down. From his own 27-yard line, Jordan found Pelantis for a 45-yard gain into Harvard territory. However, a taunting penalty from Pantelis following the play set Yale back 15 yards to the Crimson’s 43-yard line with 13:45 left in the game.

On third-and-6, Jordan completed a pass short left over the outstretched hand of a Harvard defender to Pitsenberger.

Pitsenberger spun and ran right, making man after man miss on Harvard’s defense and sprinting all the way across the field to score Yale’s fourth touchdown of the game. With the Bulldogs extending their lead 31-15 and 12:41 left in the game, the touchdown essentially crushed any hope of a Harvard comeback.

Despite the hopeless situation, the Crimson pushed on its next drive, finding its offensive footing when it was too late to save the game.

A 35-yard pass from Craig to Barkate reignited the roommate connection that the Crimson has often relied on. A few downs later, facing a third-and-12, offensive coordinator Mickey Fein called a run for Xavaiah Bascon. Once again, Harvard’s running game went nowhere, but an unnecessary roughness call saved the Crimson.

DePrima, now in as Harvard’s signal caller, used his signature speed to rush for 11 yards and followed up the play with a pass directly into the waiting arms of Barkate for a touchdown.

Senior utility man Charles DePrima weaves through Yale defense to sprint down the field. By Nicholas T. Jacobsson

After Woods caught the ball in the end zone to grab two more points for Harvard, the crowd came alive again. With the score 31-23, Harvard was only one scoring drive away from potentially tying up the game.

Despite another 30-yard pass to Nenad that brought Yale into Harvard territory on the following drive, Harvard’s defensive line rallied to get a critical stop on fourth down. Harvard took over at its own 33-yard line, but after a failed fourth down conversion of its own, victory once again slipped out of reach for the Crimson.

A 36-yard field goal from Yale on the next drive was the final nail in the coffin. Fans on the Harvard side began trickling out of the stands, not wanting to wait around in the cold to see their team lose.

With time running down and, with it, the Crimson’s hopes at a solo title, Harvard put together one more scoring drive, spurred along by yet another pass interference call. Thompson looked to be in disbelief after the call as Barkate twirled the flag in his fingers.

The next few downs showed flashes of Craig from earlier in the season as he found Bascon and Barkate for passes that moved the Crimson down the field.

On third-and-5, Bascon found a gaping hole in the Bulldog defense to bring the score to 29-34, with Yale still leading. The Crimson was forced to go for two points to stay within field goal range of the Bulldogs, but a pack of defenders swatted down DePrima’s attempted pass to Woods.

The Crimson pinned its hopes on an onside kick from Kerian Corr, but as the stadium waited on with baited breath, it was the Bulldogs who came up with the ball.

A Harvard team that had been hoping for a miracle in the fourth quarter finally had to concede defeat as Yale kneeled down to end the game. Yale fans began making the perilous jump down to the Harvard field to celebrate the win with their team.

Aurich said he’ll have to “look internally” after this game to figure out how to better help his team to a solo Ivy title.

“I didn’t come here to share titles,” Aurich said. “I came here to win outright titles.”

“This was too talented a team,” he added. “We shouldn’t have shared this thing with anybody.”

Craig, who appeared frustrated both with himself and the outcome of the game in the postgame press conference, said that hanging yet another banner for a shared title is particularly painful after a strong season.

“That’s not the type of team we were this year,” Craig said. “That’s why this hurts so bad.”

—Staff writer Praveen Kumar can be reached at praveen.kumar@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Jo B. Lemann can be reached at jo.lemann@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @Jo_Lemann.