With one last chance to secure a third straight win over Dartmouth, Harvard looked to its signal caller, Jaden Craig, to get the win.

Craig entered the Crimson’s 117th game with Dartmouth with 100 completions on 151 attempts, good for a 66.2 percent completion percentage that ranked first in the Ivy League. His arm looked unstoppable during the Crimson’s game-winning drive, which Charles DePrima capped with a 30-foot wildcat keeper for a 31-27 victory that spoiled the Big Green’s homecoming Saturday in Hanover, N.H.

Craig completed 5 of 6 passes for 57 yards and DePrima ended the drive with his third rushing touchdown of the day with 27 seconds left. All three DePrima scores (8, 6 and 9 yards) came with the tailback being hit directly.

While the Big Green (6-1, 3-1), No. 22 in the Football Championship Subdivision, faced an early 10-point deficit and shook off early rust with 13 unanswered points, Craig’s 311 passing yards and a completion percentage of 68.3, along with Cooper Barkate’s 124 receiving yards, was enough to overcome a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit.

“I learned a lot about this team in that game,” Harvard coach Andrew Aurich said. “We’ve had close games, but the amount of mental strength it takes to do what they did and focus so hard – we haven’t been challenged in that way yet.”

The Crimson (6-1, 3-1) struck first thanks to a 46-yard kickoff return from Xaviah Bascon. Craig marched Harvard into the scoring zone and DePrima collected his first touchdown.

“The offense does a great job of putting those drives together,” DePrima said. “When coach calls my number to finish, I just have to stay ready. I was very happy with the way we executed it.”

Harvard’s defense, which stacked up as the league’s best unit in rushing and passing with a rushing rate of 314.3 yards per game, held the Big Green to one first down and 30 yards on their first two drives, allowing Craig had plenty of room to capitalize. Kieran Corr scored a 32-yard field goal to give the Crimson a 10-0 lead.

Dartmouth rebounded in the second quarter with 37-year-old Owen Zalc and a subsequent fumble. A career-long 54-yarder for Zalc cut the deficit to 10-6 and Jackson Proctor piloted a 10-play, 70-yard drive to give the Big Green their first lead, 13-10, with 1:47 left in the half. . Grayson Saunier squeezed a 1-TD pass in a tight window to Sean Ward on a run fake to get the job done.

Dartmouth was just 3 of 9 on fourth down entering the game, but converted on fourth and 1 of Harvard’s 45 on the second drive of the third quarter. After running first down, DJ Crowther picked up 31 yards on the ground. Two plays later, Proctor threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Chris Corbo to extend Dartmouth’s lead.

“For us, the key was not to get too high and not too low,” said Harvard safety Ty Bartrum, who had 16 tackles. “Just knowing that we have to do our job and if we do our job at every level, we will come out with the win.”

While Q Jones exploded for 182 rushing yards in Dartmouth’s win against Columbia last week, Crowther looked like the real threat in the backfield on Saturday.

Less than 90 seconds later, Craig hit Seamus Gilmartin on a 29-yard touchdown connection. Proctor then threw a spot to a slant Daniel Haughton, who raced 72 yards for a 27-17 Dartmouth lead after three quarters.

Two fourth-down conversions on Harvard’s penultimate and final drives kept the Crimson afloat, and they scored on both drives to defeat the only undefeated team in the Ivy League.

“I’ve learned that my ultimate job as a head coach is to determine how disciplined we are,” Aurich said. “We weren’t disciplined enough today. The reality is that that game didn’t have to be that close. It is a very resilient group.”