For the second year in a row, the University of Pennsylvania-Harvard game will likely determine the Ivy League champion. Both schools remain unbeaten in the Ancient Eight.
The Crimson held off a late rush by Princeton to win 24-17, while the Quakers beat Yale soundly 41-20. Brown is still winless, losing 10-7 to Cornell. And Dartmouth drew even with Princeton in the Ivy standings with a 24-23 thriller victory over Columbia.
Harvard 24, Princeton 17
Nick Palazzo of Harvard (4-2, 3-0 Ivy) rushed for three touchdowns while wide-receiver Carl Morris caught six passes for 106 yards. Harvard’s All-Ivy quarterback Neil Rose replaced substitute Ryan Fitzpatrick and led his team on three scoring drives. He finished the game with 170 yards on 13 of 19 passing attempts.
Princeton (4-2, 2-1) was hampered by turnovers as the Tigers lost two fumbles and three interceptions to the Crimson. The last interception, by Brian Garcia, came as Matt Verbit tried to lead the Tigers to their third score of the fourth quarter.
Verbit, who replaced first string quarterback David Splithoff, finished an 89 yard drive with a pass to Chisom Opara to make the score 24-17 with 3:42 remaining. But Verbit could not complete the comeback, and Harvard ran out the clock after Garcia’s interception with 51 seconds remaining.
Cornell 10, Brown 7 (2 OT)
Despite eight Cornell (2-4, 1-2) turnovers, including six fumbles, Brown (0-6, 0-3) could not break the ice in the win column.
Marcus Blanks of the Big Red scored with 52 seconds left in regulation to finally match Kyle Slager’s first quarter Brown touchdown run. The teams entered overtime tied 7-7.
The Bear’s Paul Christian had a 37-yard field goal blocked in the first overtime. His counterpart Trevor MacMeekin kicked a 42-yarder in the second overtime, and Nate Spliter intercepted a Slager pass to seal the victory.
Blanks finished the game with 80 yards rushing on 20 carries.
Brown’s All-Ivy wide receiver Chas Gessner caught 12 passes for 91 yards and moved into seventh place on the Division I-AA career receptions list with 246 total. But Gessner was overshadowed by Cornell’s Keith Ferguson, who snagged 14 passes for 177 yards. Ferguson also rewrote a piece of football record books, breaking the Cornell school record for career receptions with 178.
Dartmouth 24, Columbia 23
Though Columbia (1-5, 0-3) held the lead twice in the final quarter, a 61 yard Dartmouth (3-3, 2-1) drive ended with Mike Giles rushing for the winning score with 2:24 remaining.
Dartmouth quarterback Brian Mann was successful on 26 of his 36 attempts for 288 aerial yards. Eight of those completions went to potential All-Ivy tight end Casey Cramer, who finished with 106 receiving yards.
Special teams was the deciding factor in the contest. Dartmouth kicker Tyler Lavin made three field goals, including a 51-yard attempt in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Columbia suffered a safety in the third quarter when the Lions’ punt team center Brett Hixon snapped the ball through the end zone.