Dom Amore: Dante Reno made the daring throws to lift Yale to victory in ‘The Game’

NEW HAVEN — There aren’t usually mysteries to unravel when Yale and Harvard arrive at The Game. These are ancient rivals that stalk on another throughout the season, all the chips pushed into the pot on that certain Saturday in November.

So if Yale was going to pull an upset Saturday, they would count on their senior captain, seemingly indestructible running back Josh Pitsenberger pounding the line of scrimmage with the football, chewing up yardage and time.

Harvard knew that, and Yale knew that Harvard knew that. Yale also knew it would need something else.

“We grew better over the last week knowing there would be a lot of man-to-man (coverage) and they were going to try to load the box to stop the best running back in the country,” quarterback Dante Reno said. “So we knew I had to beat them on the outside, and our receivers had to beat them on the outside. Our offensive coordinator said this week, ‘no risk it, no biscuit.'”

Reno, in his first year at Yale, had biscuits in his hands and he delivered them piping hot, completing 15 of 19 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns as the Bulldogs stunned Harvard, 45-28, to tie for the Ivy League championship and take the conference’s first-ever FCS playoff berth.

“We want to compete against the best in the country, and we’re not just competing for us, we’re competing for the Ivy League,” Reno said.

Yale and Central Connecticut, which captured the NEC’s automatic berth with a victory over Mercyhurst, will learn their playoff assignments on Sunday.

“It’s cool to be the first Ivy team to do that, but it’s a great opportunity that presents itself,” said Nico Brown, The Game’s receiving star with eight catches for 189 yards. “We’re going to celebrate this one tonight, but we’re ready to get back to work tomorrow.”

For the first 149 years of this rivalry’s existence, the winner celebrated this one for forever, then got ready for the real world when the cheering stopped. Now there is more football, and that made this an elimination game. Yale grabbed it by the throat in the first quarter, taking a 17-0 lead. Once Harvard’s offense got going, quarterback Jaden Craig was all he was advertised to be, throwing three TDs, running for the other and catching a two-point conversion.

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But Yale was 10 1/2-point underdogs at home, and despite rain early in the day, 52,497 filled The Bowl and huddled for warmth in the cold and the damp. The Bulldogs had all the answers all game long, matching Harvard touchdown for touchdown, to tuck it away.

“We had a different mentality, we know they were going to score and we knew we had to score,” said receiver Nico Brown said. “We opened it up, and when plays needed to be made, they were made.”

Pitsenberger added 150 yards, on 38 carries, and three touchdowns to his impressive season and career totals, which now include 1,245 yards this season, and 37 career touchdowns. No alignment of defenders bunched close to the line proved able to do more than prevent breakaway runs, and that played to Yale’s advantage, in time of possession.

Yale, however, believed it would need at least 40 points to win, and that meant Reno, the son of coach Tony Reno, who transferred from South Carolina to get playing time at Yale, could not function as simply a game manager. He’d have to lace up the big boy QB1 cleats and try to win the game with his arm, as well as his eyes and his head.

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“We knew they were going to play ‘Cover I, Cover 2’ defense, try to let me beat them,” Dante Reno said.

Yale set the tone immediately. On the first play from scrimmage, cornerback Brandon Webster wrestled the ball out of the grip of Harvard’s Dean Boyd, giving the Bulldogs possession deep in Crimson territory. Yale’s first snap, Reno hit Jaxton Santiago for 21 yards and a TD.

As the Bulldogs opened up a 17-0 lead, Reno threw mostly short passes, sideways, to the flat. When Craig started flinging, Reno answered. Harvard scored, then Reno threw one over the top to Brown, who made an over-the-shoulder grab and completed a 64-yard touchdown.

“I just threw it, I knew Nico would be down there, somewhere,” Reno said.

“When he throws the ball in the air, it’s usually in the right spot,” said Brown, who has 52 catches for 789 yards this season. “I’m thankful to have a guy like him delivering me the ball. It’s just chemistry and trusting each other.”

Harvard scored again, and Reno went up top to Brown for 33 more, setting up a touchdown to make it 31-14 at halftime. Reno averaged 18.2 yards per completion, and with his high completion percentage, 14.4 per throw to get his season high in yardage.

“That’s the best I’ve seen him throw the deep ball,” Harvard coach Andrew Aurich said, “giving his guys a chance to come down with it. Those are fly-over yards, 50-yard passes, now they don’t have to get first down, first down, first down, they ate up a chunk of yards.”

For Reno to be the man of the moment was fitting in more ways than one. He grew up, often at his father’s side, watching The Game. Now, this one was his.

“It feel great,” he said. “It’s a little bit better now, you’re playing.”