Holding a 35-9 lead, the Crimson was in total control, but Princeton then started to fight back.
On the next Tigers possession, a 23-yard gain on a double reverse—Princeton tried multiple flea flickers and reverses on the afternoon—set the Tigers up at the Harvard two, and Wornham rushed it in to cap a 62-yard scoring drive.
Harvard scored again to go up, 42-16, on a Winters 17-yard screen to freshman Zach Boden.
But the Tigers scored two more times before the end of the quarter. After a 42-yard Dibilio touchdown run, Princeton succesfully executed an onside kick that the Harvard return team was not prepared for. On Princeton’s ensuing possession, a major breakdown in the Harvard secondary allowed Wornham to find a wide-open Matt Wilkinson for a 36-yard touchdown, and after a Wornham-to-Wilkinson two-point conversion, the Crimson lead was cut to 42-31 heading into the fourth.
“Princeton’s a great offense and we knew that coming in,” captain Alex Gedeon said. “There were missed tackles today, just fundamental breakdowns that weren’t happening in past games. Part of that was their pace, but a lot of it was they have good players and we weren’t getting in the positions we needed to make plays.”
In the final period, Wornham scored on a one-yard sneak under two minutes in, and another Tigers two-point conversion sliced the Crimson advantage to 42-39 with 13:09 to go.
But from there, the Harvard offense got back in its groove, with Scales scoring on a one-yard run after the running back had a key 17-yard pickup on 3rd-and-12 screen on the previous play.
Wornham was intercepted by captain Alex Gedeon on Princeton’s next drive—the fourth straight game in which Gedeon has been involved with a turnover—giving the Crimson the ball back in Princeton territory.
On a third-and-nine from the Princeton 27, Winters hit Sarkisian short of the marker along the right sideline, but the senior fought off a would-be tackler to pick up the first and keep the drive going. On his next pass, Winters hit sophomore tight end Cameron Brate over the middle for his fifth touchdown pass to put the game away.
“They’re a terrific team,” Surace said. “We’re trying to get to that level—they have a ton of talent, and it shows ... You’ve got to give them credit.”
The teams combined for 1,116 yards of total offense, as the Crimson gave up 267 yards on the ground a week after a dominant performance in which it allowed minus-five yards rushing to Bucknell. Junior linebacker Josh Boyd, who had 17 tackles for Harvard, was one of the few defensive standouts on either side.
Winters finished with 403 yards on 34-for-42 passing on the day—making him just the fourth Crimson QB to ever throw for more than 400 yards and the second to complete 34 passes in a game—and Harvard scored 40 or more points for three straight contests for the first time since 1932.
After the impressive performance, Murphy said Winters would be his starter moving forward.
“We certainly had a decision to make, but it really came down to this—Collier’s done a great job for us,” Murphy said. “He got hurt; he didn’t get beat out.”
Though 544 games took place between Harvard’s first five-touchdown passing performance—by Carroll Lowenstein in 1953—and Chapple’s last week, Winters needed just one contest to etch his name in the Crimson record books.
“There’s still a lot of things to work on,” the senior said. “But a win is a win, and I’m happy with that.”
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.