Crimson Chronicles

Game 8 at Columbia Lions (11/5/11):

On Saturday the 5th, the Crimson traveled to Manhattan for a date with the Columbia Lions at Wein Stadium. The Crimson won the toss and elected to defer until the second half. Starting out at the 33, Sean Brackett led the Lions' offense out to midfield on three short pass completions. Griffin Lowry then carried three straight times down to the 30. Eventually they moved the ball down to the 12 where Lowry rushedin from there to give the Lions an early 7-0 lead. After Luke Eddy's kickoff, the Crimson started out at their 33. Collier Winters hit Cam4eron Brate and Matt Brown for 18 total yards. After a series of false start calls against Harvard, Winters hit Chris Lorditch over the middle for 27 down to the 34. On the next play, Winters found Kyle Juszczyk for 17 more. Two plays later, Winters coinnected with Juszczyk in the end zone and the Crimson tied the score 7-7. On Harvard's next possession, Zach Boden fumbled the ball at the 42 and it was recovered by Mike Waller at the Crimson 36.

The Lions failed to capitalize on the turnover and punted away. After Harvard got the ball back, the easily moved the ball down to the Lions' 16 but Winters' pass was intercepted by Ross Morand and Morand took it 87 yards to the house to give Columbia a 14-7 lead. The CVCrimson directly answered that trouchdown with one of their own. Again, Winters eaily lead the Crimson offense into the red zone where Treavor Scales banged it in from the 5 to tie the score 14-14. Late in the quarter, Brackett led the Lions' offense into Harvard territory but Brackett's pass from the 41 on fourth down fell incomplete.

The Crimson's opening drive of the second half went nowhere and they punted away. On Columbia's second drive of the second half, Brackett's pass was intercepted by Brian Owusu at Columbia's 35. Zach Boden carried twice down to the 1, where Winters rushed in from there to give the Crimson a 21-14 lead. Late in the quarter, the Crimson got the ball back at their 4 following a punt. Juszczyk grabbed a pass from Winters out at the 30. From the 36, Winters carried up to the 40 as the quarter came to a close.

On third down from Columbia's 41, Winters connected with Juszczyk, who raced all the way into the end zone to give Harvard a 28-14 lead. The Lions came right back to score on their next drive. Starting from the 35, Brackett rushed for 20 and then hit Garner for 15 more. On first down from the 19, Brackett scrambled his way into the end zone to tighten things at 28-21. Both teams then traded punts two times. Late in the quarter, Harvard got the ball back at midfield where Winters ground down the clock before Dombrowksi's punt pinned the Lions deep in their territory with 23 seconds left. Brackett completed two desperation passes to bring the ball out to the 40, where time expired. Give credit to Columbia, who has not won a game this year but gave the Crimson one terrific fight and a real run for their money.