Fortunately for Harvard, the second half was a less lopsided affair than the first.

The third quarter saw the Crimson and the Leopards engaged in a defensive battle, with the two teams trading three-and-outs.

“We hunkered down in the second half—we did a little better job,” Harvard captain Carl Ehrlich said. “But at the same time, it shouldn’t take letting up 28 points in the first half to do that.”

In the fourth, the Crimson offense finally began to show signs of life.

Taking the ball on his own 13-yard line with under 11 minutes left in the frame, Winters marched his team down the field, completing four of his six passes for 48 yards and scrambling effectively, while rookie tailback Treavor Scales provided the run support. The drive culminated with 6:05 left in the game when Winters connected with junior wideout Marco Ianuzzi on a 14-yard touchdown pass.

“I thought Collier played well today, we just didn’t give him enough help,” Murphy said. “He hung in there; he really competed; he made some good throws; he made some good scrambles.”

Lafayette responded with a touchdown of its own to go up 35-10, giving Harvard one more chance to bring the score within the realm of respectability.

Facing a fourth-and-23 at the Lafayette 47, Winters threw up a desperation heave to the endzone. Improbably, the ball fell into the waiting hands of Lorditch. The Crimson converted the two-point conversion to cap off a memorable scoring effort in an otherwise forgettable game.

“I think the biggest takeaway from this is that there’s plenty to improve,” Ehrlich said. “There’s plenty to fix before we go down the Ivy League stretch.”

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.