Rose found sophomore wideout Sean Meeker along the left sideline after Meeker had beat two Leopard defenders, and Meeker reeled in the catch with one hand to the Lafayette 11.

The Crimson ground out the remaining yards on the ground. Harvard lined up in a pro set--two backs and two wideouts. Sophomore running back Nick Palazzo gained four yards up the middle on the ensuing play. Rose dropped back to pass on second-and-6 from the 7-yard line but, finding no open receivers, tucked the ball and scrambled to just outside the Lafayette 1.

On third-and-inches at the 1-yard line, Harvard brought in three tight ends and powered through the Lafayette defense on a quarterback sneak for a first down. On first-and-goal at the one-foot line, The Crimson stayed with the ground attack and sent Rose on another sneak for a touchdown to tie the score at 7-7 with 1:22 to go in the first quarter.

Lafayette returned the ensuing kickoff to its 32-yard line and looked to senior wide receiver Phil Yarberough to strike back at the Crimson.

On the Leopards' second play of the drive, Yarberough ran by Harvard junior cornerback Willie Alford and senior strong safety Mike Brooks to get open deep, but junior quarterback Chad Ritchie overthrew him on the play. Yarberough beat Harvard deep again on the next play, this time victimizing sophomore free safety Niall Murphy and reeling in the pass at Harvard's 35-yard line.

Lafayette went to Yarberough for a third time but he caught the pass out of bounds at Harvard's 1-yard line. The Crimson defense toughened and stopped Lafayette on the next two plays, giving up a four-yard run but sacking Ritchie on third down to end the first quarter. The Leopards' ensuing punt sailed into the end zone for a touchback.

Harvard took over at its 20-yard line and started to try and pound the ball on the ground. Sophomore running back Nick Palazzo, a fifth-stringer coming into the preseason and starting because of injuries to Harvard running backs, repeatedly tried running up the middle on this drive, but was stopped on all of them. With Palazzo's running quelled, Rose accounted for most of the yards on the ground on the drive. Of the 16 plays and 80 yards in the drive, Rose ran on six of them for 26 yards. Rose also found senior fullback Grady Smalling on fourth-and-2 at the Lafayette 35-yard line. Smalling, who was uncovered, rumbled to the Lafayette 11-yard line.