CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard used a three-touchdown surge in the final 12 minutes of the first half to pull away from Cornell for a 35-22 victory on Saturday afternoon at Harvard Stadium. The Big Red dropped its third straight (1-3, 0-2 Ivy), while Harvard captured its third consecutive victory (3-1, 2-0 Ivy).
Harvard's Jake Smith tossed for 217 yards and three scores, while Devin Darrington carried 21 times for 94 yards and a score. Defensively, Harvard had 16 tackles for loss and six sacks, intercepted a pass and broke up seven passes in the win. In all, the Crimson limited the Big Red to 287 yards - just 36 coming on the ground on 38 carries.
Co-captain
Jelani Taylor made a game-high 12 tackles and added an interception, three pass breakups and a half-tackle for loss to spearhead a defense that limited Harvard to 336 yards, including 94 after halftime. Cornell had six tackles for loss and four sacks of their own, forced a pair of fumbles and recovered two. Mo Breadford chipped in seven tackles and forced a fumble with sack and
Jake Stebbins added seven tackles with 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble. Both
Lance Blass and
Demetrius Harris recovered fumbles.
Offensively,
Phazione McClurge had a breakout game at receiver, hauling in five passes for 137 yards and a third quarter touchdown from
Richie Kenney. Kenney ended the day 15-of-32 for 251 yards and two scores.
Harold Coles ran for a score, while Eric Gallman II pulled in a 10-yard touchdown pass. On special teams,
Nickolas Null connected on a career-long 49-yard field goal, tied for the sixth-longest kick in school history.
Gallery: (10/12/2019) Football vs Harvard, 10.12.19
First Quarter
• Cornell's first drive petered out and the Big Red was forced to punt, but the bouncing kick grazed a Harvard player and sophomore
Demetrius Harris pounced on the ball at the Harvard 17.
• The Big Red converted a fourth down on a Kenney sneak, then hit on a third-and-goal from the 10 for the initial score with Gallman hauling in the score.
• Neither offense was able to do much over the next six minutes before the Crimson took over with 4:26 left in the quarter.
• Harvard embarked on a quick-strike drive that culminated in Smith finding Jack Cook from 16 yards out with 2:17 left.
• A 28-yard completion from Kenney to
Alex Kuzy brought the ball out near midfield on the ensuing possession, but three plays later Cornell punted the ball back to end the quarter.
Second Quarter
• The Big Red defense made the play of the game to that point early in the second, with
Mo Bradford's strip-sack forcing a Smith fumble that was recovered by
Lance Blass at the Harvard 28.
• The offense wasn't able to do anything with it, however, and Null came out to attempt a 49-yard field goal.
• The senior, attempting his first field goal of the season, split the uprights to help Cornell regain the lead at 10-7 with 12:09 left before the half.
• From there, it was all Crimson.
• The Crimson had scoring drives of 75, 33 and 71 yards in the final 12 minutes of the half, beginning with a 22-yard run by Darrington.
• The junior seemed to be bottled up behind the line of scrimmage, but snuck out, found a hole and marched the distance to help Harvard regain the lead.
• Two plays later, Harvard intercepted a pass at the Cornell 33 and was in the end zone three plays later when Smith hit Cody Chrest from 32 yards out with 8:03 remaining.
• The Big Red had two long pass connections from Kenney to Gallman, but one was called back because of a hold and the second was wiped out by a sack and a penalty to force a punt.
• On the ensuing drive, went 71 yards on 11 plays, sucking much of the final 4:09 off the clock with B.J. Watson going into the end zone from 3 yards out to make it 28-10 at the break.
Third Quarter
• Harvard got the first possession of the second half with all the momentum, but after marching 48 yards just outside of the red zone, Taylor came up with the interception for the Big Red at the Cornell 8.
• Neither team posted more than 14 yards over the next two alternating drives.
• The Big Red ended with the ball with 3:50 to play and moved down the field, assisted by a roughing the passer call on Harvard.
Fourth Quarter
• Kenney hit junior classmate McClurge on a 34-yard jump ball in the end zone that the Big Red won to get within 28-16 with 14:06 remaining.
• Neither team could get much going,over the next eight minutes until the home team all but put it away, taking advantage of a sack and a blocked punt to get the ball back at the Big Red 33.
• Four plays later, Smith connected with Ryan Reagan from 12 yards out to extend the lead to 35-16 a minute later.
• Cornell struck back quickly, with Kenney hitting McClurge twice for 59 yards sandwiched around two runs by
Harold Coles that ended with a 6-yard scoring burst up the gut with 4:03 left.
• The Big Red defense ultimately forced a punt after the defense caused a 10-yard loss, but couldn't do more damage in the final 2:20.
Notes to Know
• Junior
Phazione McClurge posted his first career 100-yard receiving game, and his 137 yards was the most by a Cornell player since
Lucas Shapiro had 165 against Princeton in 2014.
• Junior
Richie Kenney has thrown for multiple touchdowns in each of his first two career starts.
• With his interception and three pass breakups, senior
Jelani Taylor has 22 career passes defended - just two shy of joining the school's top 10 list.
• Senior
David Jones broke into the top 10 on that list with a pass breakup, giving him 24 (No. 9 all-time at Cornell).
• With his 19-yard kickoff return, Jones became the 11th player in school history to surpass 1,000 kick return yards in a career.
• With 34 yards on 15 carries, senior
Harold Coles moved to No. 12 on the school's career rushing list with 1,600 yards - surpassing Jeff Fleischmann '51 (1,573) and Tony Baker '85 (1,579), who was in attendance watching his son Billy.
• Senior
Nickolas Null's 49-yard field goal was the longest by a Cornell player since
Brad Greenway '12 booted one from the same distance against Dartmouth in 2010.
• Cornell's defense forced three turnovers after coming up with just three in its first three contests.
Next Up
• The Big Red will kick off a three-game home stand when it welcomes Central New York rival Colgate on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 1:30 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.
• Cornell will attempt to win its 50th game against the Raiders (49-48-3), the defending Patriot League champs who advanced to the FCS quarterfinals.
• The game will be the team's final non-conference contest before playing its final five games against Ivy opponents.
