“It hurts the drive every time you get a penalty or a turnover—especially against a good defense,” Winters said. “It’s hard to make it back up.”
Hard as it was, the Crimson tried.
With 2:58 left in the third quarter, Harvard finally broke through against the Penn defense when Winters launched a deep ball that landed in junior receiver Chris Lorditch’s hand for a 45-yard touchdown to make it a 17-7 Quakers lead.
But the Crimson’s comeback trail ended there. Harvard failed to generate any offensive opportunities throughout the fourth quarter, until Winters drove the ball down the field late in the frame, only to fall short by a matter of inches.
“Our kids I thought played extremely hard,” Murphy said. “I’m really proud of their effort, but Penn made more plays than we did, and they made a few less mistakes, and, as I said, they deserved to win.”
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—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.