But at that point, the Leopards began to beat themselves. A holding penalty and a false start took away a Lafayette touchdown and set the squad back to a 3rd-and-goal from the 13. Senior Dan Minamide then easily intercepted a Shoop pass in the end zone—his second straight game with a goalline pick—to keep the Leopards off the scoreboard.
After a three-and-out on its next drive, Harvard sent junior Jacob Dombrowski out to punt. Dombrowski sent away a booming 54-yarder that was fumbled by Leopards returner Darius Safford after a hit from senior captain Alex Gedeon. Juszczyk recovered the fumble, setting Pruneau up with great field position.
“Jake got off a really great punt, a lot of hangtime which allowed me to get down the field,” Gedeon said. “As the returner was coming around I was able to get a hand on the ball and then [Juszczyk] was able to pick it up ... It really all started with Jake.”
After Scales got nowhere on back-to-back runs, Pruneau managed just a short completion to Lorditch on a 3rd-and-14 from the Lafayette 22.
But Leopards linebacker Leroy Butler was called for both roughing the passer and unsportsmanlike conduct on the same play, setting the Crimson up with a first-and-goal from the Lafayette two. Pruneau then rolled out and hit sophomore tight end Cameron Brate off a deflection for the quarterback’s first career TD, putting Harvard up, 24-7.
The defense would hold down the fort from there, stopping the Leopards on a fourth-and-six from the Crimson 25 on Lafayette’s ensuing drive.
The Leopards recorded just 57 total yards in the final quarter, while Harvard freshman running back Zach Boden joined Pruneau with his first career collegiate touchdown on a powerful 43-yard scamper with 2:46 left in the game.
It was the Crimson’s second rushing score of the contest, after Scales gave Harvard a 10-3 lead with a four-yard run 8:20 into the second quarter.
At the end of the match, Lafayette had scored just three points in a contest for the first time since 1990, and the Crimson had held a road opponent without a touchdown for the first time in 24 games.
“I thought we did what we had to do offensively,” Murphy said. “It wasn’t pretty all the time, but if you play hard, and your defense plays that well, you have a chance at least to beat anybody ... today was just our day, it was one of those days.”
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.