Junior quarterback Colton Chapple threw for five touchdowns—tying a school record—while the Harvard defense held Bucknell to 140 yards of offense and forced five Bison turnovers in a decisive win at home.

Coming into Saturday’s game, the question of who would start at quarterback loomed large over Harvard football.

But junior Colton Chapple provided the answer, coming up big in his fourth consecutive start of the year.

The Crimson (4-1, 2-0 Ivy) controlled the afternoon, easily beating Bucknell (4-2, 1-1 Patriot), 42-3.

In just over two quarters of play—Chapple was pulled early in the third quarter when Harvard led by 35—the junior quarterback had a performance that landed him in the Crimson’s history books for the second straight week.

Chapple’s five touchdowns tied for the most ever by a Harvard passer in a single game. The first and only other time it happened was in 1953, 544 games ago.

Chapple is also the first quarterback in program history to throw for four touchdowns in back-to-back games.

“Just to be mentioned with some of those guys is unbelievable—so humbling,” Chapple said of the school records. “But I can’t take some of the credit for all that. My offensive line has played great all year long. I have an extremely talented wide receiver core, including tight ends.”

After a prolific first half, sophomore Michael Pruneau came into the game rather than senior Collier Winters, the starter at the beginning of the season who appears to have lost that job to Chapple.

“I told Collier to warm up at halftime, [and] I said I’ll make a decision when we get going,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said of his decision to sit Winters during the second half. “It just came down to [the fact that] he’s coming off a hamstring injury, [and] he hadn’t done anything in about an hour and a half. There was more to lose than there was to gain by putting him in there.”

Harvard’s offense wasn’t the only dominant element of its game. The Crimson controlled on all fronts, nearly holding the Bison scoreless.

At halftime, Bucknell had just 31 yards of total offense, and the team finished the game with -5 net rushing yards.

“I knew we were going to struggle running the ball, and I think everyone else that has played this team has struggled running the ball,” Bison coach Joe Susan said. “We knew that we were going to have to throw the ball to be effective against this team.”

The defensive line arguably had its best game of the season, notching four sacks. The front four also hurried Bucknell quarterback Brandon Wesley five times, and the line broke up six passes and registered eight tackles for losses.

The Bison offensive line looked outmatched, to say the least. On a number of occasions, Harvard’s defensive linemen were able to apply pressure to Wesley despite being double-teamed.

“We came into this game, and we wanted to keep it pretty simple on defense,” said captain Alex Gedeon, who led the team with 11 tackles. “Line up and just be physical up front. I think we were successful in doing that all day, and it starts with the D-line.”