Harvard Routs Princeton 35-7 Behind Charlie Smith and a Fourth-Down Trick Play

Andrew Aurich played at Princeton and coached at Princeton. He has now beaten Princeton three times in three tries since taking over at Harvard, by a combined 115-34, and the latest one was not close for a single second.

Harvard smothered Princeton 35-7 at Harvard Stadium on Saturday, a Family Day crowd of 14,896 watching the Crimson stay perfect at 6-0 and 3-0 in the Ivy League. Princeton, which came in unbeaten in league play and receiving votes in the FCS polls, left 4-2 and 2-1 with its first Ivy loss and a lot of questions about how to move the football against this defense.

Harvard, ranked No. 15 and No. 17 in the two FCS polls going in, now sits alone atop the Ivy standings. The home winning streak is now eight, and Harvard has not lost in its own stadium since 2024.

A 10-minute opening statement

The tone was set on the first possession. Harvard went 19 plays and burned roughly 10 minutes, leaning on the wildcat with freshman Kise Flannery on short third and fourth downs. Flannery took five snaps on that drive alone. It stalled after an incompletion on second-and-goal, and junior Kieran Corr knocked in a 24-yard field goal. Three points, and Princeton's offense had barely touched the grass.

When the Tigers finally did, they made it to the Harvard 31 before freshman quarterback Eli Friend was stopped on fourth-and-1 by Sean Line and Achilles Anderson. Harvard took that gift and flipped the field in a hurry, piling up 69 air yards in three plays before sophomore quarterback Charlie Smith found freshman receiver Henry Shoemaker from 26 yards out. Shoemaker, all 6-foot-5 of him, hauled it in while falling out of bounds with just under 11 minutes left in the half. It was 10-0.

Princeton went for it on fourth-and-1 again at the Harvard 24, this time with Kai Honda, and got stuffed again. Corr added a 32-yarder, his seventh straight made field goal, and Harvard took a 13-0 lead to the break.

The trick play that broke it open

If there was a moment that turned a solid lead into a rout, it came in the third quarter. Harvard faced fourth-and-2 at the Princeton 18, well inside chip-shot field goal range. Everyone in the building expected a Flannery run. Instead, the power-running freshman pulled up and threw the first pass of his college career, a touchdown to sophomore tight end Teigan Pelletier. Senior tight end Logan Reaska sold it with a key block, and Princeton was caught completely flat-footed.

Aurich then went for two, and the Crimson dipped into the bag again. Nate Bailey took the snap at center, and Smith slipped out to make the catch. Just like that, it was 21-0.

"It's a play that we practice every week, and you're waiting for the opportunity to use the play," Aurich said.

Princeton deserves credit for what came next. The Tigers answered with a 20-play, 75-yard march that converted three fourth-and-1s and chewed up nearly 10 minutes. Wyatt Becker finished it with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Aidan Besselman with about three minutes left in the third quarter. It was 21-7, and for a moment, a comeback felt possible.

That moment lasted about one possession.

Harvard slams the door

DJ Gordon, back from a lower-body injury, opened Harvard's next drive with a 20-yard run. A roughing-the-passer penalty kept things moving, and Smith hit sophomore Tafari Moe for an 18-yard touchdown with just under 13 minutes left to make it 28-7.

Then the Harvard defense put its own stamp on the day. Junior defensive back Xaden Benson came free for Harvard's first sack of the game, stripped quarterback Ty Ciongoli, and junior linebacker Dorsey Benefield scooped it up and raced into the end zone. Senior AJ Lopez added his second career interception with under four minutes to play, and that was that.

The players who made the difference

Smith was the story. He completed 22 of 28 passes for 230 yards and two touchdowns and opened the game 13 of 14. He has now thrown for more than 200 yards in five straight games, with 11 touchdowns and three interceptions in that stretch, and this was his second straight game without a pick.

"He does a great job of preparation, puts the time in and goes out there and plays with a lot of confidence," Aurich said of his young quarterback. Smith was quick to share the credit. "These guys are making plays for me," he said.

The receivers spread it around. Moe and Pelletier each finished with 53 receiving yards and a touchdown, and Shoemaker's falling grab was the highlight reel play of the first half. Gordon gave the offense a jolt in his return, rolling up 81 total yards on 10 touches and averaging better than seven yards a carry.

"I'm just happy to be back and [do] anything I can do to help the team win," Gordon said.

Benson may be the best defensive player in the league right now. His forced fumble gave him seven forced turnovers this season, including six interceptions, a number that leads the nation. And Corr stayed automatic, going 2-for-2 on field goals and 3-for-3 on extra points.

The numbers that tell the story

Harvard outgained Princeton 391 to 219 and averaged 6.3 yards per play to Princeton's 3.5. The Tigers ran 63 plays, one more than Harvard, and got almost nothing out of them. Honda, an FCS midseason All-American, was held to 60 yards on 18 carries, and Princeton managed just 92 rushing yards as a team and 4.5 yards per pass attempt.

Princeton converted 5 of 14 third downs and lived on fourth down all afternoon, which works only until it doesn't. Two failed fourth-and-1 tries in the first half kept the Tigers off the board, and two turnovers in the fourth quarter ended any thought of a rally. Harvard committed zero turnovers and has now forced two or more in six of its seven games, according to Harvard Magazine. Full numbers are in the box score (opens in a new tab).

Princeton rotated Becker, Friend and Ciongoli at quarterback and never found a rhythm. When your best drive takes 20 plays and three fourth-down conversions to score seven points, the margin for error is gone.

What it means

The Ivy League race now runs through Cambridge. Harvard is the only unbeaten team left in conference play, and it still has Columbia at home on Nov. 7, a trip to Penn on Nov. 14 and The Game against Yale on Nov. 21. The Ivy champion gets the league's automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, so every one of those Saturdays carries real weight.

For Princeton, the loss stings but does not end anything. At 2-1 in the league, the Tigers need help. What they need more is an offense that can finish drives without three fourth-down conversions. The defense kept this a 13-0 game at the half, and the offense never repaid it.

And for Aurich, there is the personal subplot he did not dwell on but did not ignore, either. "We're not gonna do it like Princeton, we're gonna do it the way I think is best for this place," he said. Three straight wins over his alma mater suggest his way is working fine.

The last word

Harvard did not just beat Princeton. It out-schemed, out-hit and outlasted the Tigers, then pulled a freshman's first career pass out of its pocket on fourth down for good measure. Aurich summed up his quarterback with one word worth stealing for the whole team.

"He's just got some moxie to him," Aurich said.

So does this team. Six games in, the Crimson look like the class of the Ivy League, and nobody in the league has figured out how to dent them.

Sources: The Harvard Crimson, Harvard Magazine and the FOX Sports box score. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Harvard Athletics.