Mathews was then intercepted by junior Jaron Wilson inside the Crimson red zone on Cornell’s ensuing drive to seal the Harvard win.
“Their secondary shut down of our receivers most of the game,” Big Red coach Kent Austin said. “They got physical on them, they were all over them, and they made more plays in the secondary than our receivers did, period.”
Another costly turnover hurt Cornell early on. After halfback Luke Hagy made a first down reception over the middle on the Big Red’s first drive, he was drilled by senior linebacker Josh Boyd and fumbled the ball, which Boyd recovered at the Cornell 39.
“Anytime you come out [for an] Ivy League game, you definitely want to set the tone early,” Boyd said. “It was definitely huge to provide that spark right off the bat.”
Harvard took quick advantage of the turnover. Following a 23-yard strike to Zorn on the Crimson’s first play from scrimmage, Chapple found Berg over the middle for a 17-yard score just 2:27 into the game.
After a three-and-out, Chapple led Harvard on an 68-yard scoring drive that ended with a nine-yard touchdown pass to Berg, who made a leaping grab over his defender off a lob pass.
On Harvard’s next possession, the quarterback orchestrated an 85-yard series that was capped by a 21-yard strike to senior Kyle Juszczyk and a 15-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Berg to put the Crimson up, 21-0, just 29 seconds into the second quarter. The score gave the Crimson touchdowns on 10 consecutive first-half drives dating back to the team’s previous game against Holy Cross.
“On a few of the touchdowns we didn’t get the defense that we liked,” Berg said. “Me and Colton [were] just on the same page.... We were able to get a lot of plays on coverages that didn’t necessarily play with us.”
Zorn dropped an easy pass on third down at the goal line and David Mothander missed a 30-yard field goal on the next Crimson possession, and Mathews took advantage by leading Cornell on an 80-yard drive capped by a three-yard touchdown pass to Luke Tasker. With 1:11 to go in the period, John Wells added a 25-yard field goal to cut the Harvard lead to 21-10 before the break.
But on its opening drive of the third quarter, the Crimson moved down the field with ease again. Scales had consecutive rushes of 17, 8, and 29 yards to bring the ball into Cornell territory, and the drive ended on a Mothander 20-yard field goal after a Chapple pass went off Brate’s fingertips in the endzone.
Scales finished the game with 106 yards on just 21 carries despite the absence of starting center Jack Holuba and starting right tackle Will Whitman, who had knee surgery yesterday and is out for the season.
“Our ability to run the ball in the second half really helped,” Murphy said. “It had a lot to do with keeping them off balance.”
That was something the Crimson would continue to do for the rest of the half, when it outscored Cornell, 24-3.
“I’m very, very proud of our football team,” Murphy said. “We’re probably running our offense as efficiently right now as we have in a long, long time.”
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.