Charlie Dean, Aidan Borguet spearhead Harvard football’s two-pronged attack in rout at Penn

Charlie Dean knows how to use all the weapons at his disposal.

The Harvard quarterback showed his ability to spread the ball in the Crimson’s 37-14 win at Penn on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia by airing it out to nine different receivers for 316 yards and four touchdowns.

“Charlie stepped it up today and played the best game of his career,” said Harvard coach Tim Murphy.

Everything clicked for the Crimson (6-3, 4-2 Ivy League), including the offensive line, which bolstered a running attack that was led by senior Aidan Borguet (20 carries, 117 yards).

Borguet and Dean set up touchdowns and kept the chains moving, something that didn’t happen on the other sideline, as the Quakers (7-2, 4-2) were forced to punt on four of their first five drives.

“We just executed,” Dean said. “We just came out here and did what we had to do, and we got it done.”

The Crimson defense set the tone in the first half, allowing 90 yards and one score, a 2-yard rush by Julien Stokes to tie the game at 7-7. After that, the Quakers never got close.

Dean opened the scoring midway through the first quarter, floating an 18-yard pass to the corner of the end zone for Kaedyn Odermann. After the Stokes touchdown, Dean marched his team down the field early in the second quarter and found Joe Young at the 10-yard line, where Young shrugged off two tacklers and danced down the sideline for a 29-yard score

Jonah Lipel kicked a 42-yard field goal, and Dean closed out the first half with another TD pass, this time to Tyler Neville from 14 yards away, putting Harvard ahead, 24-7.

Dean wasn’t done, however, and came out of the locker room on fire, completing a 26-yard pass to Neville to open the half. Two Borguet rushes got the Crimson to the 6, and Dean hit Haven Montefalco for another score.

The Quakers could only muster another touchdown, a 5-yard pass from Aidan Sayin to Rory Starkey to make it 31-14. Two more field goals from Lipel capped the scoring as the Crimson improved to 5-0 on the road and handed the Quakers their second loss in three games.

“This response,” Murphy said, “just in terms of their intensity, their emotion, and just doing a great job executing our game plan in every phase was about as good as we’ve played in a long time.”