Harvard football beats Dartmouth with fourth quarter comeback

With one last chance to secure a third straight win against Dartmouth, Harvard looked to its signal caller Jaden Craig to deliver.

Craig entered the Crimson's 117th game against Dartmouth with 100 completions on 151 attempts, a completion rate of 66.2 percent, tied for first in the Ivy League. His arm seemed unstoppable on the Crimson's winning drive, capped by Charles DePrima's 9-yard Wildcat keeper for a 31-27 victory that spoiled the Big Greens' homecoming Saturday in Hanover, NH.

Craig completed 5 of 6 passes for 57 yards and DePrima capped the drive with his third rushing touchdown of the day with 27 seconds left. On all three DePrima scores (8, 6 and 9 yards), the tailback received a direct snap.

While the Big Green (6-1, 3-1), ranked 22nd in the Football Championship Subdivision, faced a 10-point deficit early on and shook off early rust with 13 unanswered points, Craig tallied 311 pass yards and one Completion percentage of 68.3, along with Cooper Barkate's 124 receiving yards, was enough to overcome a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

“I learned a lot about this team in this game,” Harvard coach Andrew Aurich said. “We've had close games but that's how much mental strength it takes to do what they did and concentrate so hard – we haven't been challenged like that before.”

The Crimson (6-1, 3-1) scored first thanks to a 46-yard kickoff return by Xaviah Bascon. Craig brought Harvard into the scoring zone and DePrima scored his first touchdown.

“The offense does a great job of putting these attacks together,” DePrima said. “If coach calls my number to end this whole thing, I just have to stay ready. I was very happy with our implementation.”

Harvard's defense, which was the league's best rushing and passing unit with 314.3 yards allowed per game, held the Big Green to one first down and 30 yards on its first two drives, giving Craig plenty of room to maneuver had to capitalize. Kieran Corr hit a 32-yard field goal to give the Crimson a 10-0 lead.

Dartmouth rallied in the second quarter with a 37-yarder by Owen Zalc and a subsequent fumble recovery. A career-long 54-yarder for Zalc cut the deficit to 10-6 and Jackson Proctor engineered a 10-play, 70-yard drive to give the Big Green its first lead, 13-10, with 1:47 left in the game halftime. Grayson Saunier pushed a 1-TD pass in a tight window to Sean Ward on a fake run to finish the job.

Dartmouth was just 3 of 9 on fourth down early in the game, but converted on fourth-and-1 from Harvard's 45 on its second drive of the third quarter. After running up the belly for the first down, DJ Crowther gained 31 yards on the ground. Two plays later, Proctor threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Chris Corbo to extend Dartmouth's lead.

“It was important for us not to get too high and not too low,” said Harvard safety Ty Bartrum, who had 16 tackles. “Just knowing that we have to do our job and if we do our job at every level, we will come out of this with a win.”

While Q Jones exploded with 182 rushing yards in Dartmouth's win over Columbia last week, Crowther appeared to be the true threat in the backfield on Saturday.

Less than 90 seconds later, Craig Seamus hit Gilmartin for a 29-yard touchdown. Proctor then threw a score to a slanting Daniel Haughton, who ran 72 yards after three quarters to give Dartmouth a 27-17 lead.

Two fourth-down conversions on Harvard's second-to-last and final drive kept the Crimson afloat, and they scored on both drives to defeat the only undefeated team in the Ivy League.

“I learned that my ultimate job as a head coach is to ensure how disciplined we are,” Aurich said. “We weren't disciplined enough today. The reality is that the game didn't have to be that close. It’s a very resilient group.”