On the first play of the drive, Rose rolled left and threw across his body for a 14-yard gain to Morris, a candidate for the Payton Award as the best offensive player in Division I-AA.

Just two plays later, Rose and Morris hooked up again. This time, Morris had a step on his defender downfield and Rose put the ball right on the money for a 60-yard touchdown play. The Crimson led 14-0 with just 1:09 to play in the quarter.

It was Morris’s fifth career reception of 60 yards or more and his 21st career touchdown catch.

After Holy Cross fumbled at the Crimson 23-yard line early in the second quarter, Harvard seemed to be in great position to take a commanding, three-touchdown lead. But Rose was intercepted in the end zone by Crusader linebacker David Dugan, swinging the momentum to Holy Cross.

The Crusaders then ripped off an 80-yard scoring drive, capped by a 28-yard touchdown strike from senior quarterback Brian Hall to Adam Martin, closing Harvard’s lead to 14-7 with 6:42 to play in the half.

Harvard, though, responded the way it had to—a methodical, 14-play, 78-yard march down the field that consumed 5:29 and included a gutsy 4th down attempt on the Crimson’s own 32-yard line—a huge show of confidence in the offensive line on the part of Murphy.

The drive culminated with Rose’s third TD pass of the half, a 5-yarder to sophomore receiver Rodney Byrnes, who caught six passes in the game—just three less than he had during all of last season.

That gave the Crimson’s a 21-7 lead heading into halftime.

After Harvard couldn’t make much of its first possession of the second half, Holy Cross senior Andrew Simons made a huge special teams play, breaking through the interior of the Harvard line and blocking Adam Kingston’s punt. The ball rolled to the Harvard 5-yard line, where the Crusaders took possession with 13:21 to go in the third quarter.

The Crimson defense held strong, though, stopping Hall on two running plays and batting away his 3rd down pass. Vella did make a 21-yard field goal, however, to make it 21-10 Harvard.

Later in the quarter, the Crimson used trickery to add to its lead. On first down from the Holy Cross 34, Byrnes went in motion and took a pitch from Rose. But instead of heading upfield, Byrnes—a former high school quarterback—set up just outside of the tackle box and heaved a pass toward Morris, who was well behind the Crusader defensive backs.

“I can’t throw with my [receiving] gloves on,” Byrnes said at the postgame press conference. “So I just threw it as hard as I could.”

“And as wobbly as I could,” he added, laughing.

Spiral or not, Morris hauled it in for his second score of the day, giving the Crimson a 28-10 lead with six minutes to play in the third.

Holy Cross began the ensuing drive with great field position, as the dynamic Ari Confesor took Kingston’s kickoff all the way down to the Harvard 23-yard line. The Crusaders came away empty-handed, though, when—after losing five yards on 2nd down—Vella’s 45-yard field goal sailed wide right.