It remains to be seen if this year’s Harvard football team will string together an encore performance of its 2001 Ivy League championship season. But Saturday afternoon’s opening act—a 28-23 victory over No. 23 Holy Cross before 10,107 at Harvard Stadium—was certainly a good way to start.

The Crimson scored the game’s first 14 points, built a 28-10 lead in the third quarter, then kept its composure after the Crusaders surged with two fourth-quarter scores to preserve the victory.

Senior wideout Carl Morris had 11 catches for 210 yards and senior quarterback Neil Rose was a model of efficiency before leaving the game after sustaining a tough hit in the third quarter. The pair led Harvard to its tenth straight win, dating back to last season.

“Our kids played as well as we possibly could’ve expected,” said Harvard Coach Tim Murphy. “You can tell a lot from the first game, and I’m really happy with how we played, especially defensively, with how young we are there.”

Harvard had control of the game from the outset, a mild surprise given the Crimson’s youth on its offensive and defensive lines. Holy Cross Coach Dan Allen, though, thinks the talent on this year’s Harvard team is “very comparable” to what it was last season.

“That’s the best Harvard team I’ve seen in a long time,” said Allen, whose team came into Saturday’s contest with a 2-0 record, which included a road victory over Division I-A entry Army.

Holy Cross cut into the Crimson’s 18-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, as quarterback Brian Hall led the Crusaders on a five-play drive that culminated with a 24-yard TD pass to Ari Confesor. That made it 28-17 Harvard with 9:16 to play.

Harvard got the ball back, but made just one first down before the Crusaders forced them to punt. As it turned out, the punt was all Holy Cross needed to make another dent in Harvard’s lead.

Confesor fielded Kingston’s punt at his own 15-yard line, started left, picked up a couple blocks and headed up the sideline. After weaving his way through traffic near midfield, he went untouched to the end zone.

“The punt return was just a great team effort,” said Confesor, who finished with an eye-popping 318 all-purpose yards on the day. “I just caught the punt, and everyone made some great blocks for me. I hit the hole, and the rest was history.”

The score brought the Crusaders to within just one possession of the lead. Harvard, though, was able to seal the game by eating up the final five minutes of the clock, thanks to two critical first-down rushes by sophomore Ryan Fitzpatrick, who relieved Rose, and another by Morris, who gained nine yards after he lined up in the shotgun as the quarterback.

“We needed to stop them and get the ball back to win,” Allen said. “But they made the plays down the stretch that they had to.”

Earlier on, Harvard’s first drive of the game was reminiscent of its championship form, with its no-huddle offense running as efficiently as ever.

Rose completed five of six passes to four different receivers, the final one a 7-yard scoring strike to tailback Nick Palazzo, giving Harvard a 7-0 lead with 7:12 to play in the quarter.

After the Crusaders’ subsequent possession halted in Crimson territory, Rose set to work again.