Penn football's comeback falls short at Harvard, 38-30

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — What a shocking first half. And what a comeback fallen short.

A 31-0 Harvard lead at halftime, which grew to 38-0 in the third quarter, was enough of a cushion for the Crimson to withstand a furious Penn comeback in the fourth quarter, sealing Penn’s mathematical elimination from a shot at even a share of the Ivy crown en route to a 38-30 Harvard victory Saturday.

Harvard (8-1, 5-1 Ivy) pulled most of its starters with the start of the second half. Trailing 38-7 going into the fourth quarter, Penn (4-5, 3-3) took advantage.

The Quakers notched a one-yard touchdown run by freshman quarterback Adam Strouss 41 seconds into the period. Penn followed that up with a nine-play, 61-yard touchdown drive in 4:25, capped off by a six-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Ryan Becker to sophomore fullback Ben Challgren. That cut Harvard’s lead to 38-22 after a two-point conversion.

“To have that kind of first half unfold, at halftime we’re just trying to get our guys to take it one play at a time,” Penn coach Al Bagnoli said.

Then with 4:30 left in the game, Becker found senior wide receiver Conner Scott in the end zone to cut the Crimson lead to 38-30 with another successful two-point conversion, completing a seven-play, 70-yard drive in just 2:32.

Penn very nearly erased that 38-point third-quarter deficit completely. Aided by a fifth-straight three-and-out after they cut the lead to one possession, the Quakers got the ball back at their own 30 with 3:57 left, subsequently driving all the way down to the Crimson 20 before three incomplete Becker passes gave the ball — and the game — to Harvard.

“When your offense struggles, we all just come together,” said junior defensive back Mike Laning, who led all defenders with 11 tackles. “Everyone does their job, everybody does it physically. When that happens, we fly around and make plays and get three-and-outs, turnovers.”

Junior quarterback Conner Hempel led the way for the Crimson, completing 20 of 24 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to leading his squad with 65 rushing yards.

Becker led Penn’s fourth-quarter offensive awakening, completing 12 of 20 passes for 133 yards and two touchdowns. Scott anchored Penn’s offense with six catches for 88 yards and one touchdown.

“We just stuck together and knew it was gonna be a dogfight in that second half,” Becker said. “We knew we were gonna have to crawl our way out. Everybody was challenged by the coaches to just dig deep.”

The first quarter didn’t foreshadow the large lead the Crimson would soon build, as Harvard’s only score of the period was a 15-yard touchdown grab by Crimson tight end Cameron Brate. But Harvard exploded in the second quarter, outscoring the Quakers 24-0 in the period. Hempel rushed for a touchdown 39 seconds into the quarter, setting up a stunning finish to the half for the Crimson.

“That first half, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong,” Bagnoli said. “We were flat, we weren’t playing hard, we weren’t chasing the ball.”

Hempel engineered a 10-play, 62-yard scoring drive in 5:05 to put the Crimson ahead 17-0 with 3:01 left in the first half, and a Paul Stanton touchdown on the Crimson’s next drive put them up, 24-0.

Penn then gave Harvard a gift. Instead of kneeling down with 40 seconds left in the half, Penn senior quarterback Billy Ragone went play action and was promptly picked off by Joshua Boyd, setting up another Crimson touchdown two plays later with just 13 seconds remaining in the half.

“We dug ourselves a very deep hole,” Bagnoli said.

The win marks Harvard’s second in the last three games in the series. Penn’s season finale is set for next Saturday against Cornell at 1 p.m. at Franklin Field.

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