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A LEAGUE OF ITS OWN

A 37-20 victory over two-time defending league champion Penn Saturday afternoon at Harvard Stadium gave the Crimson its 14th Ancient Eight title with one week remaining in the 2011 schedule

Defensive tackle Josué Ortiz played a major role in limiting the Quaker offense. The senior was dominant in the first quarter, recording two key sacks—his eighth and ninth of the year.

Early in the second, after Penn had scored to go up, 7-0, and Harvard had gone three-and-out on its ensuing drive, Ortiz singlehandedly swung the momentum of the game when he forced Penn’s Jeff Jack to fumble at his own 24, then recovered the loose ball.

“I was double-teamed by the center and guard, and I tried to push the pile back,” said Ortiz, who finished with 10 tackles on the afternoon. “I just ripped at the ball; I didn’t think it would come out.”

The turnover gave the Crimson great field position, which Winters took immediate advantage of, hitting sophomore tight end Cameron Brate over the middle on the next play for a 24-yard game-tying touchdown. From there, the Crimson offense never looked back, scoring 37 unanswered points on its way to the title.

“It feels great,” Winters said. “This was definitely a game we marked on the schedule, hoping we’d be in this position, being able to play for the championship. It means a lot and personally it means a lot to beat Penn, since they’ve taken it from us the past couple of years.”

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GROUP HUG

GROUP HUG

“[The best part] is definitely coming back in the locker room and being able to share it with your teammates, who you’ve worked hard for it with the whole year,” captain Alex Gedeon added.

As soon as the public address announcer reported the Dartmouth win, a roar rippled through the 11,000-person crowd Harvard Stadium and the players—with about 10 minutes still remaining in the game—began to celebrate the inevitable.

They knew they had succeeded where their two predecessors had failed. They had toppled the mighty Quakers, who had received 12 first-place preseason votes in August, while Harvard had gotten just two.

“We played the better team today,” Bagnoli said. “They dominated play—they deserved to win.”

For Winters and Ortiz, the victory gave vindication to a decision made months ago to return to Harvard as fifth-year seniors, solely for the purpose of winning another ring.

“You put all the work in, and this makes it worthwhile,” Ortiz said. “This is the pinnacle; this is what you always want to do as a Harvard football player.”

But for Gedeon, Winters, and Ortiz, the championship marked somewhat of a bittersweet moment, as it also marked the last game the trio—as well as 18 of their senior teammates—would play at Harvard Stadium.

“We practice there every day, and we’ve now played 20 games in that stadium,” Gedeon said. “It’s always going to be something special, getting the win in that last one.”

After winning a title as freshmen in 2008, the win brought the seniors’ careers full circle.

“I think it’ll set in a little deeper after the Yale game next week,” Winters said. “But it was a great feeling to be able to run out of the tunnel through the line of guys, knowing it’s your last game. I had a moment to kind of look out and just play through my five years here and really take that second to realize the journey I’ve been on.”

It was the preseason All-American who had the final word.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Ortiz said. “At practice Thursday, that’s when I’ll take our last lap with the lights off—that’s our tradition. Once that’s over with, I’ll look back.”

“It’ll maybe be emotional,” he added. “But I’m not making any promises.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.

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