But with just 40 seconds left in the half, captain Josh Boyd picked off Penn quarterback Billy Ragone over the middle. Harvard needed just two plays to march 40 yards for another touchdown, and the score became 31-0.
“We had great play calls, a great gameplan,” Hempel said. “We were switching it up, and the defense didn’t really know what was coming at them. I think our line brought everything they had today, and it showed a lot up front.”
Hempel was 17-of-18 at the end of the first half, Harvard had 290 yards of offense to Penn’s 56, and it had been seven quarters since the Crimson defense had surrendered a point.
Despite Penn storming back in the final two quarters, 15 productive minutes gave the Crimson just enough to hold on.
FOUR DOWN TERRITORY
At times in the second half, it seemed that the Harvard defense had stifled the Penn attack. But the Quakers repeatedly bailed themselves out of tough situations by converting on fourth down attempts.
In the third quarter, Penn converted a fourth-and-five and then a fourth-and-three the very next possession. Both of those drives resulted in touchdowns.
Harvard, on the other hand, was much more conservative. Up 16 points and faced with a fourth-and-inches in his own territory, Murphy elected to punt. While the Crimson did not go for a single fourth down all game, Penn converted on four out of five attempts.
“I’m thinking…we’re going to stop them,” Murphy said. “End of story. If you don’t believe, you go for it.”
Penn’s fourth down fortunes continued on its final drive of the game. Down just eight points and faced with a fourth-and-three, Becker’s pass deflected off his intended target directly into the hands of another receiver to move the chains. A few plays later with just over a minute remaining, a wideout hauled in another fourth down pass.
But the Crimson defense finally stopped the Quakers on fourth down with 27 seconds left when Boyd deflected a Becker pass. Once the ball hit the ground, Harvard fans could finally exhale safely.
—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at david.steinbach@thecrimson.com.