Yale took advantage of that good field position, putting together a quick drive to set up Thomas with a two-yard run into the endzone with 13 seconds to go, giving the Bulldogs the advantage, 14-7, heading into the break.

The Crimson struck right back, wasting no time in the second half to even the score.

Iannuzzi received the kickoff at the 16-yard line, starting right before cutting left to find a seam. The returner broke far left at the 35-yard line and sprinted untouched into the endzone for his second kickoff return touchdown of the season.

“We were able to make some plays on special teams, where we kind of faltered last week,” Zych said. “That’s what it takes to win big games. For the most part, it’s very physical, very emotional, and there’s those couple of plays in a game where you gain an advantage. And we were fortunate to be on the right side of those today.”

But all of this physicality took a sour turn with 9:41 left to play in the third quarter, when another injury momentarily felled a Crimson star.

Zych laid a hit on Bulldog tight end Chris Blohm, forcing an incompletion, but the helmet-to-helmet blow sent the captain to the sideline. The senior returned late in the quarter.

“Coming off the field, I didn’t know if they were going to let me play anymore, so I wanted my teammates to know that I was still in the game, and I was going to do everything I could to get us the victory,” Zych said. “I was just so happy when they gave me back my helmet.”

Harvard’s defensive line was also ferocious in the third period, finally besting the Yale offensive line on a mid-quarter series.

Senior Josué Ortiz first burst through for a huge sack of Witt and then rushed up with classmate Chuks Obi and got a hand on Greg Carlsen’s punt to give Harvard the ball at the Bulldog 23.

Gordon capitalized with his best drive of the day, using several shifty runs to set up his own two-yard touchdown carry, giving the Crimson its first lead of the day at 21-14.

“I think a lot of it was just emotion,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said of his team’s third-quarter performance. “The big swing on the kickoff return, the big swing on the blocked punt. I mean obviously it gave us tremendous energy, enthusiasm, and we made the most of very few plays...We needed to make big plays, because we weren’t getting many opportunities.”

The Crimson continued to ride its momentum, putting pressure on Witt and not allowing Yale to get into a rhythm on offense.

Special teams continued to plague the Bulldogs, as Carlsen let off a dud punt that junior Dan Minamide returned to the Yale 36-yard line with just over 10 minutes to play in the game.

But another big head-to-head hit—this one coming from Bulldog outside linebacker Jesse Reising on Gordon—put both seniors on the ground. Gordon got up and walked off the field under his own power, but Reising left the field on a stretcher.

“My understanding is that he’s fine,” Yale coach Tom Williams said after the game. “A precautionary measure to take him off the field on a stretcher, but when he left the field he had feeling in all his extremeties.”