Harvard University is among the most prestigious institutes of higher learning in the world, and its football team is equally as intelligent as the rest of the student body. That was on display during Friday night’s college football game against Brown.
The Crimson, which will play only 10 games alongside the rest of the Ivy League, entered into the weekend at 1-0 after a win over St. Thomas. The Bears were coming off of a hard-fought win over Bryant.
There is a lot of season left, but Harvard is expected to be the best team in its prestigious conference. It is currently the only Ivy League program to be ranked in the FCS top-25 and the school’s 4.18 GPA admission requirement likely has something to do with its success.
The Crimson jumped out in front early. The Bears punched right back. It was a four-point game at halftime, but the momentum was in favor of the home team.
Although the visitors continued to keep things close, Harvard always had an answer and took a 10-point lead on a slippery touchdown with about 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Once again, Brown fought back and cut it back to three with a late touchdown. And then it was time for the Crimson to put the game away. It drove down the field and put itself in position to back up by 10 with 90 second left.
Harvard did not score a touchdown on purpose.
Running back Shane McLaughlin used his superior intelligence to ice the game and secure the win. He took off up a seam, broke a tackle on the second level and had nothing but open field in front of him.
However, he chose not to find pay dirt.
A touchdown would have given the ball right back to Brown, which had just one timeout. Thus, McLaughlin hit the turf at the one-yard-line to keep the clock running with a fresh set of downs.
Because of McLaughlin’s heads-up play, the game was over. Harvard took three-straight kneel downs and won the game 34-31.