"The offensive line made its blocks all day," Palazzo said. "The wide receivers, fullbacks, it was a real team effort to run the ball today. We had to run the ball, to make a statement that we can."

Though Palazzo had nothing but praise for the offensive line, it had some difficulties in the first quarter. Lafayette senior defensive tackle Mike Levy got lots of penetration through the middle of Harvard's offensive line through the first quarter and disrupted much of what the Crimson was trying to do on offense.

Junior center Jason Hove, the backup through the first two games of this season, started this game and had lots of trouble. Senior center John Kadzielski replaced Hove and stabilized the offensive line for the remainder of the game.

Defensively, the Crimson was lucky as well as good. In the second quarter Ritchie overthrew several receivers who had gotten open deep, and Harvard was unable to mount much of a pass rush.

In the second half, Ritchie was benched in favor of freshman Marko Glavic. Glavic was intercepted twice, once by Fried and once by Niall Murphy.

The Crimson had a much more effective pass defense in the second half up until the waning moments of the fourth quarter when much of the second string defense was playing.

Harvard was very tough against the run, giving up only 26 yards on 25 rushing attempts for Lafayette.

In the second half, Lafayette narrowed the lead to 21-13 on the strength of a 4 play, 52-yard drive. The drive consisted of three completions, the final one to junior tight end Stewart Kupfer for a 24-yard touchdown strike. Lafayette botched the snap on the point after, leaving the score 21-13.