Box Score Pictured: Gino Gordon led the Crimson offense at Cornell
Saturday with 137 rushing yards and 149 total yards to go with a
touchdown.
Photo: Courtesy Dave Silverman.
ITHACA, N.Y. - In a battle of Ivy League
unbeatens, freshman defensive back Brian Owusu picked off two
passes and freshman running back Treavor Scales scored two
touchdowns as Harvard downed Cornell, 28-10, Saturday in Ithaca,
N.Y.
Senior running back Gino Gordon paced the offense with 137 yards
on 22 carries (6.2 yards per carry) and one TD while Scales added
92 yards and two short scoring runs for the Crimson, which improved
to 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the league. Cornell dips to 2-2 and 1-1
in the Ancient Eight.
Harvard gained 251 yards on the ground with 4.6 yards per carry
while rushing for four touchdowns. However, it was defense that
marked the win in Tim Murphy's 100th coaching victory at
Harvard as the Crimson limited Cornell to just 62 rushing, 182
total yards and nine first downs on the day.
Punter Thomas Hull played a big role as well, pinning three
kicks inside Cornell's 10-yard line and two inside the five in his
return to Ithaca after booming a pair of 50 yarders there two years
ago. He was aided by cover man Dan Minamide, who made two sparkling
coverage tackles on Bryan Walters, one of the top return men in
league history, statistically. Cornell ended with one return yard
on punts.
Harvard struck on its opening drive, asserting the ground game
with Gordon during a 54-yard drive and finishing it with a
five-yard scamper from Scales.
Mistakes plagued the Crimson on the afternoon however, as a
missed 25-yard field goal led to a 47-yarder for the Big Red and an
illegal shift penalty negated a 38-yard TD run by Gordon in the
second. Harvard broke through with 3:12 left thanks to a 22-yard
pass from Collier Winters to Marco Iannuzzi on
4th-and-10 from the Big Red 30. Two plays later it was
Gordon with an untouched nine-yard scamper to make it 14-3 at the
break.
Late in the third, another critical mistake by the Crimson
negated a Cornell punt and gave the home side possession at
Harvard's 29 following an illegal participation call. Cornell
capitalized as Ben Ganter found Shane Savage on a 17-yard pass and
catch to make it 14-10 with 1:46 left in the third.
Harvard's defense made some important stop in the fourth and set
up the final scoring drive, a seven-play, 37 drive capped by a
three-yard plunge from Scales with 6:39 left. The final score came
late in the game as Winters carried it in from 15 yards out.
Collin Zych led the defense with eight tackles (seven solo)
while four players had a sack and the Crimson had seven pass
breakups. For Owusu, his interceptions came on the second and third
defensive downs of his young career.
