Early in the second quarter, after Penn running back Jeff Jack was stuffed at the Quaker 24, Ortiz ripped at the ball and forced Jack to lose it. He then recovered the ensuing fumble by himself, giving Harvard great field position that it took advantage of with a touchdown pass on its next play.

“This past game against Penn just showed how dominant of a player he can be,” Owusu said. “He always gets to the ball. He’s just been a tremendous leader for us, he’s one of the guys the D-line looks up to, and he’s one of the best players—if not the best player—in the Ivy League.”

Throughout the rest of the contest, Ortiz’s penetration also played a major role in helping the Crimson limit the Quakers to just 24 yards rushing on the afternoon.

“The line of scrimmage was strictly won by their kids,” Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. “We struggled more than any time this year to run the football. We became one-dimensional.”

Ortiz has been making teams one-dimensional all season long, anchoring a Crimson defensive line that is widely considered the best in the league and leads the Ancient Eight in run defense.

“It’s his focus and his work ethic [that are most impressive]­,” said captain Alex Gedeon of Ortiz, who can bench 450 pounds.

But things came close to not ending up this way. The senior remains thankful for the coaches who pushed him to come back after his sophomore season, and who have since helped him fulfill his vast potential.

“God hasn’t blessed me with a lot of the things a prototypical three-technique tackle has,” Ortiz said. “I’m not 290 pounds, but what I have been blessed with, I feel like the coaches have been able to squeeze out.”

Saving his best performance for the biggest game of the year is something Ortiz has become accustomed to, as the tackle has racked up 18 tackles in Harvard’s past two wins in The Game. Last year, he had 1.5 sacks, forced a fumble, and blocked a key punt in Harvard’s 28-21 victory.

With four wins in four tries over Yale during the course of his career, Ortiz has no plans of falling short in his final collegiate game on Saturday.

“You just get so involved in [the rivalry] that you can’t lose to Yale,” Ortiz said. “You will do whatever it takes.”

One thing’s for sure: the Bulldog offensive line was certainly not hoping to hear that this week.

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