In the first half Harvard’s offense was forced to punt four consecutive times and turned the ball over twice, once on downs and once on a Rose interception.

Morris was virtually silent as he gained negative-1 net yards going into halftime. In fact, the Crimson was held scoreless for the entire first half for the first time since the ’98 Harvard-Yale contest.

“Neither team wanted to lose the game,” Murphy said. “It was like two boxers who didn’t want to get hit by the knock-out punch. You just didn’t want to screw it up.”

The Yale offense performed well early, mounting an impressive 76-yard drive on 13 plays late in the first quarter.

Sophomore tailback Robert Carr capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown dash, but the Elis botched the extra point, giving themselves a 6-0 lead.

On a day when the weather was less than ideal, bobbled snaps and botched punts were aplenty as a myriad of special teams mishaps characterized a gritty game.

“Obviously, early it was hard to adjust to that kind of wind,” said Yale tight end Nate Lawrie. “We got back on track but it was too little, too late.”

With the Crimson comfortably ahead 20-6, Yale drove for 56 yards on nine plays, capped off by a 24-yard touchdown toss from Bulldog quarterback Jeff Mroz to junior wideout Rob Benigno. Sophomore John Troost kicked the point-after, putting Yale within seven.

Harvard was unable to counter on its next few drives but did shave a considerable amount of time off the clock and stymied the sputtering Eli offense.

With 42 seconds left in regulation, Yale had one final chance, starting on the Harvard 20-yard line.

The Bulldogs advanced to their own 35 after a pass interference call on sophomore cornerback Brian Niemczak, and Yale’s hopes of victory glimmered just 65 yards away.

On the next play, however, Harvard junior cornerback Benny Butler drove the final nail into the Elis’ coffin, intercepting a Mroz pass and dashing any hopes of a Yale comeback.

“I thought our defense did a tremendous job,” Murphy said. “Our defense made them do what they weren’t as happy doing, that is, throwing the football.”

The Game was over. Harvard 20, Yale 13.

Even this victory was bittersweet, however, as Penn defeated Cornell today to seize sole possession of the Ivy Crown.

“We set out to win the championship,” Morris said “We came up a little short, but we ended on a high note. We beat Yale.”