NEW YORK – Strong special teams play helped lift No. 13/15 Harvard to a 24-16 victory over Columbia Saturday. The Lions trailed 24-3 in the fourth quarter, but rallied with 13 unanswered in the fourth quarter to get back into the game.
The Crimson blocked a field goal, forced a fumble and had a punt return for a touchdown to improve to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in Ivy League play.
Columbia's (2-5, 1-4) defense had a strong day against the run, holding the Ancient Eight's leading rusher, Paul Stanton, to 51 yards on 14 carries. Matthew Cahal led the way with nine tackles.
The Lions were on the brink of taking an early lead, but Harvard applied strong pressure and blocked a 23-yard attempt by Cameron Nizialek with 4:11 left in the first quarter.
On the ensuing possession, Columbia came up with a big special teams play of its own when Tyler Holmes came through to block the punt, aided by a low snap.
The Crimson threatened to break the tie early in the second quarter, moving all the way to the Lions 12. However, Kenny Smart's 29-yard attempt sailed wide left with 11:40 remaining in the half.
After Matthew Panton pinned Harvard at its own 6, the Crimson used a 22-yard completion to Ben Braunecker to get out of the shadow of their end zone. Two plays later, Scott Hosch was looking for Bruanecker again down the right side. Braunecker's feet got tangled with Cahal, who tripped on the play, to get open and walked into the end zone, opening the scoring with 7:44 left in the second quarter.
Harvard added to its lead on its next possession, needing just 1:17 to go 72 yards. Justice Shelton-Mosley made a pair of nice moves to turn a seven-yard reception into a 26-yard touchdown to make it 14-0 with 4:37 before the break.
As time wound down in the second, great punt coverage by the Lions forced a fumble on a fair catch, but Mornhinweg's pass on the next play was picked off by Matt Koran to swing the momentum back to the Crimson.
Columbia's defense responded by forcing a turnover of its own. The ball went off the hand of a Harvard receiver into the arms of Travis Reim to put the Lions in plus territory with 2:23 on the clock.
The Lions moved inside the Crimson 5 and settled for a field goal to break up the shutout bid with 11 seconds remaining in the quarter. After another stalled Columbia drive, Shelton-Mosely broke free for an 86-yard punt return touchdown to extend the margin to 24-3 just seconds into the final frame
Anders Hill took over under center on the next Lions possession and hit a wide-open Cameron Dunn on a career-long 51-yard strike over the middle to cut the deficit to 15 at the 13:00 mark.
The Lion defense came up with two more stops to give the offense the ball back with 5:03 remaining. Mornhinweg came back in and spearheaded a 68-yard scoring drive, capped by a three-yard touchdown pass to John Hunton with 2:13 on the clock to pull within one possession.
An onside kick attempt was recovered by Harvard, but Columbia was able to force a 4th and 4 with 1:08 remaining to potentially get one more chance. However, the Lions were called for too many men on the field to give the Crimson a new set of downs to run out the clock.
Cameron Molina finished with 66 yards on 16 carries and added 42 receiving yards. Hollis made six catches for 57 yards.
Hill was 5-of-6 in his limited action for 91 yards through the air.
The Lions are back in action next Saturday, Nov. 14 at Cornell for a 12:30 p.m. kickoff on the Ivy League Digital Network.
