Bears Fall To Crimson, 45-31, In Home Opener

Saturday, September 22

Providence, R.I.

4:30 pm

Brown University

1-1 , 0-1

Harvard

2-0 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Harvard

Brown

Bears Fall To Crimson, 45-31, In Home Opener

9/22/2012 12:00:00 AM | Football

Box Score

NBC Sports Highlights

Providence - A crowd of nearly 14,000 packed Brown Stadium in the third ever night game played at the historic field on the East Side of Providence. Brown and Harvard battled under the lights with the Crimson coming out on top of a 45-31 decision.

The excitement of Brown's opening home game, a festive crowd and a new video scoreboard drew a partisan Bruno crowd in a classic matchup of Ivy heavyweight contenders.

Brown took the opening kickoff and drove 78 yards in eight plays to grab an early 7-0 lead. Senior tailback Spiro Theodhosi capped the drive when he bulldozed his way into the end zone from one yard out with 11:01 left in the first quarter. The big play in the scoring drive was a 43-yard pass play from quarterback Patrick Donnelly to senior wide receiver Jonah Fay.

Harvard also scored on its next possession with David Mothander booting a 22-yard field goal with 5:25 left in the opening quarter to trail, 7-3.

The Crimson took a 10-7 lead when Trevor Scales dove into the end zone from the one yard line with 10:26 left in the second quarter, capping a 98-yard scoring drive.

Following a Brown fumble, Harvard went to the zone on its first play from scrimmage with quarterback Colton Chapple throwing a 30 yard touchdown to a diving Sietu Smith with 9:14 left in the second quarter, giving the Crimson a 17-7 advantage.

Brown took possession at the Harvard 17 yard line when junior Brett Polacek forced a Harvard fumble that was recovered by senior Patxi Colburn. Junior kicker Alex Norocea booted a 42-yard field goal to cut Harvard's lead to 17-10 at the half.

Harvard grabbed its biggest lead, 24-10, with 5:12 left in the third quarter when Treavor Scales scored on a 10 yard run to cap an 81-yard scoring drive.

The Bears came back again when Donnelly tossed a 12-yard scoring pass to Fay with 2:17 left in the third quarter to trail, 24-17. But the Crimson answered to extend their lead to 31-17, early in the fourth quarter.

Once again, Donnelly engineered a Brown scoring drive, throwing a 16-yard touchdown pass to Alex Viox with 12:56 left in the game, to trail, 31-24.

Harvard's Scales scored again, this time on a 36-yard run with 3:45 left, to play to give the Crimson a 38-24 advantage.

Donnelly threw his third touchdown pass of the day, a 12-yard strike to sophomore Stian Romberg following an 80-yard scoring drive to account for the final score, 45-31.

Donnelly passed for 336 yards and completed 27 of 40 passes. His favorite target was senior Tellef Lundevall, who made seven receptions for 70 yards.

Theodhosi accounted for 146 yards of total offense, rushing for 85 yards and catching four passes for 61 yards.

Defensively for the Bears, seniors AJ Cruz and Reed Watne made 10 tackles each, while sophomore linebacker Daniel Giovacchini registered nine tackles.

Chapple had a big day for the Crimson, completing 30 of 40 passes for 351 yards. Scales led all runners with 136 yards on 18 carries, scoring four times.

The Bears are back in action again next Saturday, September 29, traveling to Washington, DC to face the Georgetown Hoyas.