Kurt Rawlings threw two touchdown passes in the final 88 seconds of regulation as Yale rallied from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Harvard 50-43 in two overtimes in The Game.
Kurt Rawlings threw two touchdown passes in the final 88 seconds of regulation to rally Yale from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit and beat Harvard 50-43 in two overtimes on Saturday in one of the strangest editions of The Game in its 144 years of history.
After a climate change protest delayed the start of the second half for about an hour, Yale (9-1, 6-1 Ivy League) celebrated its conference title in darkness 15 minutes after sunset in the unlit, 105-year-old Yale Bowl. Fifty-one years after The Tie that was celebrated with The Crimson student newspaper headline “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29,” it was Yale that rallied to tie Saturday’s game, winning when the Crimson were stopped on fourth down in the second OT.
Yale players ran onto the field from their sideline, and those remaining in the stands streamed onto the field — the second time on the day that fans took over the field.
Rawlings threw for 417 yards and three touchdowns, hitting Reed Klubnik nine times for 141 yards and finding JP Shohfi 10 times for 103 yards.
Aidan Borguet ran for 269 yards and four touchdowns, breaking free for scores of 47, 59, 60 and 67 yards for Harvard (4-6, 2-5), which lost its last five games.
Borguet scored on a 67-yard run with 13:03 left in the fourth quarter to give Harvard a 36-19 lead, and Yale responded with only a field goal. But Rawlings moved the Bulldogs on the next drive, converting a third down with a 28-yard pass to Mason Tipton to the Harvard 10 and then hitting Tipton again on the next play for the score with 1:28 left in regulation.
Klubnick recovered a perfectly executed onside kick, and Rawlings marched the Bulldogs to the Harvard 11. After scrambling for six yards, he was hit hard and fumbled — his third of the day. But Cameron Warfield recovered for Yale, and then Rawlings connected with Shohfi for a 7-yard score; the extra point made it 36-all.
Harvard connected on a 25-yard pass from Jake Smith to Cody Chrest to open overtime, but Rawlings found Caden Herring from 9 yards out to tie it. Yale scored on Zane Dudek’s 4-yard run to start the second overtime before stopping Harvard on downs.
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