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Harvard beats Colgate with game-winning Hail Mary and lateral for touchdown
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- Harvard beats Colgate with game-winning Hail Mary and lateral for touchdown
Harvard beats Colgate with game-winning Hail Mary and lateral for touchdown originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
If you're going to catch a Hail Mary short of the end zone and have no way of making it across the goal line, you might as well lateral it to someone who has a chance of scoring.
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That's what Harvard tight end Teigan Pelletier did on Saturday night as the Crimson beat Colgate 20-17 on a touchdown with four seconds to go.
Pelletier caught Charlie Smith's long pass short of the end zone and was in the grasp of a Colgate defender. As it was obvious he wasn't going to get into the end zone, he pitched the ball back to wide receiver Nate Bailey, who sprinted to the left corner of the end zone.
It was a play similar to the one when Boise State beat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Facing a 4th-and-18 with just 18 seconds left in regulation, Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky connected with Drisan James, who lateralized the ball to Jerard Rabb for a miraculous 35-yard touchdown to tie the game at 35-35. The Broncos took home a victory over the Sooners.
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The win pushed Harvard to 3-0 and dropped Colgate to 4-2. The Crimson are looking to get back to the FCS playoffs for a second straight season after the Ivy League rescinded its postseason ban ahead of the 2025 season. Harvard made the playoffs last year despite losing its season finale to Yale, but lost 52-7 to Villanova in the first round of the postseason.
