Evading pressure, the senior rolled out and then lobbed a pass to the middle of the field. Senior defensive back Reynaldo Kirton made a break on the ball and came down with it. Harvard’s second interception of the game promptly ended the scoring threat.

But Cornell would be in scoring range again soon. The Crimson went three-and-out before punting from its own end zone, giving the Big Red the ball at the Harvard 44.

A pass interference penalty in the end zone a few plays later gave Cornell a first and goal at the one.  On the next play, Mathews kept the ball himself, diving into the end zone to cut Harvard’s lead to 27-24 with 6:36 left.

Mathews' 472 passing yards is the most ever against Harvard.

"I made the statement after Jeff Mathews' sophomore year that he’d be at least a 3rd round draft pick," Murphy said. "I would absolutely stand by that."

But Mathews had no answer to Pruneau's final touchdown pass to Brate. The Big Red got the ball back with 2:46 left but Mathews was sacked twice and threw two incompletions before turning the ball over on downs.

On the day, Harvard tallied six sacks while Pruneau was only brought down three times.

"I'm just proud of our kids. Nothing has come particularly easy for us this season, but at crunch time we’ve really responded and shown a great deal of character and resiliency," Murphy said. "I think that was the case again today. We found a way to win."

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacob.feldman@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @jacobfeldman4.