Unlike the offense, Harvard’s defensive unit was mostly intact this week. Like the offense, the defense struggled.

Despite the loss of standout senior quarterback Peter Pujals to a lower leg injury, Holy Cross had no problem putting points on the board.

Led by sophomore signal caller Geoff Wade, who threw for 244 yards on 23 for 35 passing, the Crusaders capitalized on a lack of turnovers to score two touchdowns and kick two field goals on offense. Wade was sacked five times, but he did not fumble or throw an interception.

Both teams seemed to slow down offensively in the second half, and it took a crucial play in the third quarter to put Holy Cross up by a touchdown.

With a fresh set of downs on the Crusaders’ 40, Wade tossed a deep bomb to senior wideout Jake Wieczorek. Wieczorek hauled in the ball in stride to pick up 53 yards without facing significant pressure from Harvard’s secondary.

“Just miscommunication on the back end,” captain Sean Ahern said. “Just not being on the same page. We had a gameplan in place and we just didn’t execute, simple as that.”

Despite a false start and two rushes for losses, the Crusaders tacked on three points on a field goal from senior kicker Zane Wasp.

Senior and freshman wide receivers Brendan Flaherty and Domenic Cozier were the main offensive weapons for Holy Cross.

Cozier is listed as a wide receiver, but he filled in at running back and performed admirably, running for 112 yards on 16 carries. Flaherty accumulated 96 yards on eight catches with a touchdown, and he ran for some significant gains on end-arounds.

“These [Harvard] guys aren’t used to losing,” Murphy said. “I’m sure they would look at it as adversity. We just didn’t do the things you needed to do to beat a good football team.”

—Staff writer Jack Stockless can be reached at jackstockless@college.harvard.edu.