Reising’s injury put a damper on the proceedings, and both teams committed a series of penalties in the plays immediately after the hit. The Crimson eventually settled down, though, and Winters found junior Alex Sarkisian from 12 yards out for the 28-14 lead.

Harvard made a huge stop on a fourth-and-nine conversion that came up inches short but immediately coughed up the momentum when sophomore Treavor Scales fumbled the ball on the first play of the offensive series.

Yale took over at the 19-yard line, and the Crimson defense—spurred by senior Ryan Burkhead’s third sack of the afternoon—seemed to have stopped the Bulldogs short when junior Alex Gedeon picked off Witt at the goal line.

But the interception was nullified by a roughing the passer penalty, and Thomas notched his third touchdown of the game with a one-yard run to the right to make it a one-score game with 3:15 to play.

Although Yale threatened in the waning minutes, an offensive pass interference call effectively killed the visitors’ final drive, and Harvard sealed its 28-21 victory with a stop on fourth and long.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” Williams said. “We had expectations of winning the football game, and that’s why stats are misleading. You look at the stats, and we dominated in every area except on the scoreboard, but we did things that lose football games.”

The Bulldogs outgained the Crimson, 337 yards to 178, and had 19 first downs to Harvard’s 10. But the Crimson was a perfect three-of-three inside the red zone while holding Yale to three scores on seven chances inside the 20.

It was the fourth straight win in The Game for the Crimson, whose seniors graduate as the first class in Harvard history to go undefeated against Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth over four years.

“It’s just been a world of emotions this past week, knowing you’ve been doing something since you were eight or nine years old, and it’s finally coming to an end,” Burkhead said. “To go out the way I did is a dream come true, and I’ll always remember the end of my career, of this game today.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.