Football Team Surprises Penn; Foster Engineers Potent Attack

Harvard's football team rolled out of a post-Dartmouth depression and over a surprised Penn team, 38-23, at Harvard Stadium Saturday to raise its season record to four wins and two losses.

A crowd of only 12,000 watched Yovicsin achieve his 75th victory as a Harvard coach and saw Richie Szaro score eight points to pass the fabled Charlie Brickley as Harvard's leading kick-scorer.

"It was a must game for me," sophomore Rod Foster said, referring to his battle with Eric Crone for the quarterback job. Foster passed for 117 yards, ran for 33 more, averaged 40.6 yards a punt, and scored three times.

Ted DeMars, starting in the Harvard backfield for the first time, added some dependability to the attack. "We put Teddy in there to give us more blocking," coach John Yovicsin said. Not only did DeMars do that, but he averaged 5.8 yards a carry for 139 yards and resurrected Harvard's sweep.

Penn's flashy quarterback Pancho Micir, entering the game as the leading Ivy League passer, threw for 188 yards, but rarely came through when the pressure was on. Harvard's aggressive secondary stifled the Quaker air attack as it came up with five interceptions, and safety Brad Fenton knocked down two sure touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to complete a standout performance.

Quick TD

After a quick Penn touchdown following a fumble by Foster, a tough Harvard defense allowed the Quakers only 60 yards of offense. Meanwhile, Foster was directing the Crimson attack to 24 points and 211 yards behind the running of DeMars.

The second half was a different story. A Foster-to-Bill Craven pass at 2:03 of the second quarter put the score at 31-10 to virtually assure the victory. With the pressure off the Harvard defense, the fired-up Penn offense, ran 53 plays to 29 for Harvard in the second half.

Short passes by Micir and good running by halfback Bob Hoffman brought the score to 31-23 before the Harvard defense tightened in the fourth quarter.

Statistics

Penn Harvard

First downs 21 19

Rushing Yardage 124 265

Passing Yardage 188 117

Return Yardage 14 75

Passes 18-41-5 12-21-1

Punts 7-30 5-41

Fumbles Lost 0 5

Yards Penalized 20 48

Plays 86 72

The victory was a costly one for Harvard's offensive line. Center Tom Waldstein suffered a severe knee injury and was operated on Saturday evening. It appears he will miss the rest of the season. Starting guard Skip Starck was moved to center, and Frank Veteran moved up to starting guard.

Inauspicious

Harvard got off to an inauspicious start as Foster fumbled the opening kickoff on his 30 to set up a quick Penn touchdown. Micir's pinpoint passing seemed to indicate a long day for the Crimson, but Harvard responded with an impressive drive DeMars ran six of the 13 plays and kept the crowd on its feet on his second-effort running. But Harvard had to settle for a field goal.

More great running by DeMars set up the first Harvard touchdown, a sneak by Foster up the middle. After a Penn field goal, DeMars pounded out a touchdown minutes later, and Foster ran the option into the end zone at the end of the quarter for a 24-10 lead.

"Our first TD was lucky; in the first half we were standing around looking at each other," Penn coach Bob Odell said. So in the second quarter he sent in his second offensive team, and quarterback Gary Shue promptly proceeded to throw an interception to Wait Johnson, who returned it 37 yards to set up Harvard's second score.

'Flat as Pancakes'

"We were as flat as pancakes after that loss to Princeton [22-16] last week," Odell said. "We just didn't have the emotion to win, and we had a horrible week of practice. In the half I settled them down: they had been trying too hard for a big play," he added.

The Crimson needed only two plays to score at the beginning of the third quarter: a 17-yard sweep by DeMars an a 24-yard pass from Foster to Craven in the end zone.

Micir brought Penn back into the game by completing 14 out of 26 passes. Hoffman barreled over from the two, and five minutes later, after Foster fumbled a pass from center, Micir hit Pete Luciano with a 19-yard play action pass for a touchdown. Fenton knocked down Micir's pass to Bruce Batch when Penn went for a two-point conversion.

After Foster's score at the start of the fourth quarter, Harvard's defense choked Micir with a Gary Farneti interception and two desperate leaps by Fenton with Penn receivers slightly open.

Penn's secondary had allowed only one touchdown and less than 100 yards a game in passing before coming to Cambridge, but it could only come up with one interception, and that came with the pressure off in the fourth quarter. Foster had his best passing day of the season.

"We are very happy with what Rod did," Yovicsin said. "He engineered points and handled the ball game in fine fashion. His throwing got better as he went along, which made me very happy. We're going to have to throw the ball more if we're going to win some more games," he added.