Brown Falls To Harvard, 53-27, In Ivy Opener

Saturday, September 26

Boston, Mass.

7 pm

Brown University

0-2

Harvard

2-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Brown

Harvard

Brown Falls To Harvard, 53-27, In Ivy Opener

9/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football

Box Score

Boston, Mass. – Brown ran into a Crimson juggernaut Saturday evening, falling to Harvard by a 53-27 margin at before a crowd of 15,804 at Harvard Stadium to open the Ivy League season. The Bears fall to 0-2 on the young season, while Harvard improves to 2-0, winning its 14^th straight game.

"I have no explanation of what happened out there," said Brown head coach Phil Estes. "Everything that could go wrong did go wrong."

The Bears, who hadn't won at Harvard Stadium since 1999, were held without a first down for the opening 20 minutes of the game as the Crimson built a 30-0 advantage. Junior quarterback Kyle Moreno (Pleasanton, CA) came into the game in a relief role midway through the second quarter and played well enough to get the Bears' offense out of hibernation.

"We needed to create some offense and Kyle can run and scramble," added Estes. "He went out there and performed."

Moreno finished the game by passing for 307 yards overall, completing 20-of 31- passes, while running for two touchdowns and throwing for two more. Senior Brian Strachan (Wellesley, MA) led the Bears' receivers with 8 catches for 87 yards, while senior Troy Doles (Saratoga, CA) racked up 119 receiving yards.

Crimson quarterback Scott Hosch saw all of his action in the opening half, completing 12-of-19 passes for 151 yards and three touchdowns. Tailback Paul Stanton rushed for a game-high 89 yards, all in the first half.

Defensively, senior linebacker Will Twyman (Sudbury, MA), senior free safety Zach Gillen (Mt. Brook, AL) and junior outside linebacker Ryan MacDonald (Falmouth, ME) had big games for the Bears. Gillen had 12 tackles, Twyman 11 total hits and MacDonald 10 tackles.

Harvard struck first, putting together a six-play, 61-yard scoring drive on its second possession, capped off by a 25-yard touchdown strike from Hosch to Jack Stansell with 9:12 left in the opening quarter.

The Crimson opened a 14-0 lead when Sean Ahern sacked Bears' quarterback Marcus Fuller (Ashland, OH), jarring the ball loose. Harvard linebacker Jacob Lindsey picked up the loose ball and ran into the end zone for the score.

Harvard blocked a Brown punt at the goal line and a heads up Bears' junior Brandon Davenport (Murfreesboro, TN) knocked it out of the end zone, preventing a Crimson touchdown, but giving up the safety to give Harvard a 16-0 advantage with 1:57 left in the first quarter.

Back-to-back early second quarter touchdowns by the Crimson put the Bears in a 30-0 hole with 12:43 remaining.

Moreno pumped some life into the Bears offense, entering the game at the 10-minute mark of the second quarter. Moreno guided the Bears to their initial first down of the game and drove the Bears down to the Crimson three-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.

Harvard led 37-0 at the half and built a 46-0 advantage with 9:50 left in the third quarter.

Moreno guided the Bears to its first score of the game with 8:03 left in the quarter, running the ball into the end zone from 11 yards out for his first career touchdown, capping a four-play, 59-yard drive.

After another Harvard score that gave the Crimson a 53-6 lead, Moreno led the Bears to another touchdown. This time, Moreno scored on a 12-yard run late in the quarter to cut the Crimson lead to 53-13.

Moreno tossed his second touchdown pass, this time to sophomore Oliver Bucka (Athertown, CA), who hauled in his first career TD pass and cut Harvard's lead to 53-20 in the fourth quarter.

Moreno connected with Doles on a 79-yard scoring play with 8:41 left in the game to pull the Bears to within 53-27 of the Crimson.

Brown returns home on Saturday, October 3, 2015, to face the University of Rhode Island under the lights at Brown Stadium in the 100^th renewal of the Governor's Cup football game between the two Rhode Island colleges. Both Brown and URI will be presenting 10-15 Honorary Captains at halftime, recognizing former players and friends, who have contributed to their respective football programs. Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo will present the Governor's Cup to the winning team at the completion of the game. Kick-off is 6:00 pm.