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Harvard football outsmarts Colgate on Hail Mary attempt to win game in final seconds

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Gaydos, R. (2026, October 4). Harvard football outsmarts Colgate on Hail Mary attempt to win game in final seconds. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/harvard-football-outsmarts-colgate-hail-mary-attempt-win-game-final-seconds

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Fox News · collected 2026-10-04 · by Ryan Gaydos

Quick Summary

In a dramatic finish, Harvard’s football team defeated Colgate 20-17 when quarterback Charlie Smith threw a lateral that went through several players before Nate Bailey scored a touchdown as time expired. The play came after a false start penalty pushed Harvard out of field goal range, leaving them with one final opportunity. Smith passed for 369 yards and two touchdowns while Bailey had 16 receptions for 197 yards and the winning score.
Written by AI on 2026-10-04, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

In a thrilling game on Saturday, Harvard stunned Colgate with a last-second Hail Mary play, winning 20-17 in Cambridge, Mass. With just four seconds left and trailing 17-14, Harvard quarterback Charlie Smith threw to tight end Teigan Pelletier at the Colgate 5-yard line. As Pelletier was tackled by two defenders, he lateraled the ball to freshman Nate Bailey, who ran it in for a touchdown. Bailey finished with 197 yards receiving, the most by a Crimson player since Kyle Juszczyk's 138 yards in 2012.

Colgate had seemed poised to win after Jake Stearney led a late-game drive ending with his 13-yard scoring pass to Matt Fogler, putting them ahead 17-14 with 27 seconds remaining. Both teams are now preparing for upcoming games: Harvard will face Cornell, while Colgate hosts Georgetown on October 17th.

Written for “Harvard Wins Hail Mary Play” on 2026-10-30, grounded in this article and the 2 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Harvard Wins Hail Mary Play
Sports · 3 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 11% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Harvard completes crazy Hail Mary play to stun Colgate Same event
New York Post
Hedges 0 of 18 claims Outlet record 66/100
Smith completes Hail Mary to Bailey on the final play to lead Harvard past Colgate 20-17 Same event
Toronto Star
Hedges 0 of 10 claims Outlet record 64/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
19
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
11%
2 of 19 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
70/100
Fox News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
3
Sports
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-04 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Fox News · 5977 article(s) · 10 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 10 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Ryan Gaydos
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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 104 articles by Ryan Gaydos →

Topics

Crimson Harvard Raiders the Colgate Raiders the Harvard Crimson

Subjects

Harvard ORG · 4× Bailey PERSON · 2× Crimson ORG · 2× Raiders ORG · 2× Smith PERSON · 2× FOX ORG · 1× FOX News ORG · 1× Jake Stearney PERSON · 1× the Colgate Raiders ORG · 1× the Harvard Crimson ORG · 1×

Narrative

The Raiders thought they had a victory wrapped up when quarterback Jake Stearney threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Matt Fogler with 27 seconds left in the game.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-04
🔮 This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners.
2026-10-04 · Fox News
Harvard football outsmarts Colgate on Hail Mary attempt to win game in final seconds · assertive framing

Claims (19 extracted, 2 hedged)

Sometimes, being at an Ivy League institution matters. asserted
being → matter → institution
A quick-thinking lateral, after a brutal false start, helped the Harvard Crimson defeat the Colgate Raiders on Saturday night 20-17. asserted
Crimson → think → night
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. uncertain
page → contain → partners
If you sign up or place a wager, FOX News may be compensated. uncertain
News → sign → wager
This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom. asserted
that → create → newsroom
The Raiders thought they had a victory wrapped up when quarterback Jake Stearney threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Matt Fogler with 27 seconds left in the game. asserted
Stearney → think → game
The Crimson had more than enough time to do something with the football and at least tie the game to force overtime. asserted
Crimson → have → overtime
Harvard quarterback Charlie Smith moved the ball up the field and gave kicker Francisco Moscoso a chance to tie the game with a long field goal. asserted
Smith → move → goal
However, the Crimson special teams committed a false start penalty, causing Harvard to be moved out of field goal range. asserted
Harvard → commit → range
Smith had one last snap. asserted
Smith → have → snap
He took the ball and fired it downfield to Teigan Pelletier, who was well short of the end zone. asserted
who → take → zone
Pelletier tried to carry multiple Raiders defenders on his back before he saw Nate Bailey and tossed him the football. asserted
he → try → football
Bailey rushed the ball into the end zone as time expired. asserted
time → rush → zone
Harvard won the game, moving to 3-0 on the year. asserted
Harvard → win → year
College football fans went wild as the clip went viral across social media. asserted
clip → go → media
Bailey finished with 16 catches for 197 yards and a touchdown. asserted
Bailey → finish → yards
Smith finished with 369 passing yards and two touchdown passes. asserted
Smith → finish → yards
Fogler finished with 12 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown. asserted
Fogler → finish → yards
Colgate fell to 4-2 on the season. asserted
Colgate → fall → season
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