The next time Scales showed up in the play-by-play came with the Crimson holding a 27-24 lead, attempting to run out the remaining 3:19 on the clock. On the first play of that drive, he was called for holding, negating a seven-yard rush by senior quarterback Colton Chapple and forcing the Crimson into a first-and-20 situation. One play later, Scales made up for the error, protecting the football after Chapple fumbled it.
“Those minutes with that start to a drive was kind of rattling,” Scales says. “You think about all those college football games you’ve watched where it’s like epic comebacks in the last few minutes of the game, and you’re like, ‘This cannot be one of those situations.’”
After a three-yard rush set up third and 13 at the Harvard 37, Scales was tasked with making sure Yale wouldn’t have a chance to pull off the comeback. The ensuing play lasted just 10 seconds out of the roughly six minutes of field action Scales estimates he saw weekly, but it would come to define his Harvard legacy.
The play call was “stud right 26 flipback.” It was an inside zone run that highlighted the strengths of the Harvard offense: Chapple keeping the defense honest, the dominant offensive line creating a seam up the middle, and do-everything H-back Kyle Juszczyk coming across to block a charging defender. That left Scales to do the rest.
Breaking through the line, he remembers thinking the run would probably net the team the requisite 13 yards but little more. Yet Scales shook an oncoming defender and junior wide receiver Andrew Berg blocked another downfield, allowing Scales to bounce the run to the outside. When he got there, he was surprised by what he saw.
“After I made that cut to the outside, my eyes bugged,” Scales says. “I was like, man, there is nobody out here. There is not a soul out here…. At that point I was like, well, there is one thing you can do here, and you better not get caught.”
Though the crowd was going crazy at that point, Scales couldn’t hear anything but the rattling of his face mask and his striding legs.
Then he heard the breath of the defender chasing him and felt the diving Yalie clip his heel, sending Scales struggling to keep his balance as he neared the goal line.
When his hearing returned, he was standing in the south end zone of Harvard Stadium, mobbed by teammates and cheered by fans.
“It was one of the greatest runs I’ve ever seen,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy says. “It was unbelievable.”
With his final run as a Crimson football player, Scales had put The Game out of reach, as Harvard emerged victorious, 34-24, after stopping Yale on the ensuing possession.
At the same time, Scales achieved a personal milestone. The back had entered the contest with 825 rushing yards on the season. Joking with Juszczyk pre-game, he made a serious declaration.
“I was telling him, ‘Juice, I have every intention of getting 1,000 yards this season,’” Scales recalls. “‘I have to get it.’”
After Harvard gained its 24-20 lead, Scales was reminded that he had about 60 yards left to achieve the milestone. He remembers thinking it wouldn’t be easy to get there. A few plays later, his final 63-yard carry pushed him over the mark. He finished the season with 1,002 yards.
Ironically, it was Scales’ own mistake, the holding penalty he committed earlier on the drive, that set the team back 10 yards and allowed him to achieve the feat. On that day, everything ended up going right for Scales, as his final chapter ended in storybook fashion.
“It was unreal,” Scales says. “It was really a surreal moment to be a part of.”
—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacobfeldman@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @Jacobfeldman4.