Dawson trounced the opposition once again, rushing for over 100 yards, with 172, for the ninth straight game, and bringing his season total to nine touchdowns, challenging less than a third of the way through the season a Crimson record he would eventually break.

“He’s such a great player,” Fitzpatrick said of his backfield mate, “not only with his speed and his physical ability, but just his attitude and his mentality out there on the field.”

Harvard came home to Cambridge the following Saturday to square off against the Big Red of Cornell and its formidable defense, ranked eighth in I-AA entering the game. In a surprisingly close contest he Crimson prevailed by the score of 34-24.

For the first time on the season, Dawson failed to break loose, tallying a mere 64 yards as the Cornell defense loaded up to stop the run.

“It’s absolutely frustrating when they’re putting eight or nine guys in the box and not allowing me to get the carries and yards,” Dawson said. “But that’s really where our balance comes in.”

That balance came in the form of the aerial assault. Fitzpatrick operated the bulk of the offense, finding his receivers on deep routes or running the ball himself. He accumulated 419 yards of total offense, 317 passing and 102 rushing, the majority of those in the air going to sophomore Corey Mazza, who caught nine balls for 194 yards in a breakout performance.

Brian Edwards, Harvard’s other top receiver, displayed the full range of his versatility in the win, returning a kickoff 92 yards for a score and throwing a touchdown pass to Mazza on a reverse.

The Crimson truly achieved midseason form in its fifth game, destroying No. 19 Northeastern 41-14 in a ballyhooed showdown between the local rivals.

Although Fitzpatrick threw for over 200 yards and Dawson ran for over 100, it was the ball-hungry defense that proved crucial to Harvard’s rout of the Huskies. They forced three fumbles and stole two interceptions, giving the offense short fields to work with and score.

The Crimson poured it on in the second half with three third-quarter scores, while the defense dominated. Of the team’s 131 points allowed on the year, only 45 of those have been surrendered in the second half.

THE IVY STRETCH

That statistic turned out to be crucial in the Princeton game the following week, the first of five straight Ivy League tilts. Facing a 14-3 first-quarter deficit, Harvard reeled off 36 unanswered points to capture the Jersey joust 39-14.

“We’ve never been a dominant team,” Murphy said. “We’ve just been an extremely resilient, mentally tough football team.”

Dawson wrote the headlines once again, running for 201 yards and two scores, to make him the Crimson single-season record holder for overall and rushing touchdowns. His exploits included a characteristic 80-yard touchdown sprint late in the fourth quarter.

A quick glance at the Harvard schedule following that win showed two upcoming contests against perennial Ivy League doormats Dartmouth and Columbia, a pair of easy revenge games against teams that spoiled the Crimson’s title hopes in 2003 with upsets. The clash with the Big Green in Hanover, though, proved anything but easy.