Harvard Notes

The Yale Bulldogs defeated the Harvard Crimson 45-28 in one of the most complete victories of the Reno era.

The Yale offense made a very early appearance in The Game after an amazing strip by Webster gave the Bulldogs the ball in great field position. The Elis wasted no time in scoring with Santiago hauling in a reception and breaking tackles on his way to the end zone. Yale was up 7-0 in the blink of an eye and never relinquished the lead. Dante Reno made impressive throws as he completed 15 of 19 passes for 273 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Pitsenberger racked up 143 yards and 3 touchdowns with physical runs to keep the chains moving. Daal averaged 5.0 yards per carry on 7 carries as a great change of pace back. Brown torched the Crimson’s secondary for 189 yards and a receiving touchdown including a 64-yard bomb that he broke a tackle on for a score. Santiago was simply too fast and physical for Harvard with 5 catches for 68 yards and a touchdown. Anderson took a short flip from Reno into the end zone on a beautifully designed 12-yard touchdown play. The offensive line did not allow a sack and kept the ground game churning all afternoon. It was a dominating offensive display against a talented defense that will go down in history as a clutch performance to not only secure a share of the Ivy Championship, but also earn the first automatic qualifier to the FCS Playoffs.

Webster set the defensive tone of the afternoon by securing a tackle on a wideout while stripping the ball on Harvard’s first drive. Webster’s solid contest did not end there as he was constantly in tight coverage and led the Bulldogs in tackles with 8. Grant had 7 stops in the contest and was a key factor in slowing the Crimson’s offensive assault. Craig was held to just 27 completions on 50 attempts as heavy pressure was generated and defensive backs stayed close to receivers for the most part. Gonzalez, White and Barkley-Smith all made clutch plays in lone coverage. Kamara was impactful with 6 tackles and the biggest hit of the day on a Harvard running play. Schmidt had 6 tackles, half a sack and a key pass breakup but did struggle at times in coverage. Tarver bounced back after allowing an early touchdown strike to have a nice contest in coverage. Along the defensive line, there were once again a number of standouts including Larry, Shaber, Jackson-Bass, Tate, and Yang among others. Larry led the pass rush with one sack while Jackson-Bass added half a sack. There is still room for improvement on fourth down situations and stopping runs from the quarterback, yet fans have to be thrilled with how the defense held up through Ivy League play all season. 

Piper nailed a 40-yard field goal and Keeney averaged an impressive 43.8 yards per punt. Melik Williams delivered a huge hit on kickoff coverage in one of the highlights of the day.

Congratulations to all the players and staff members on a championship season! For the first time in history, the Bulldogs are on to Youngstown State!