Brown Turns Back Holy Cross, 31-25

In Providence there's joy. In Hanover there's ectasy. In New York City, the Lions are hiding. And somewhere in New Haven, a staggering bulldog is about to roll over and play dead.

After six weeks of Ivy League football, two teams--Brown and Dartmouth--have surfaced as serious contenders for the Ivy crown. Meanwhile, the rest of the league has sunk under wild upsets, inconsistent play, and four totally unsatisfying tie games.

In this weekend's biggest shocker, the steadily improving Bruins put the brakes on previously undefeated Holy Cross, humbling the men in purple on regional television, 31-25.

Bruin captain and quarterback Mark Whipple registered the most impressive afternoon of his college career, running for two scores and passing for two more. The Brown defense complemented Whipple's heroics, forcing three costly HC fumbles, and holding the Purple, who had been averaging 230 per game rushing, to just 94 running.

After battling back from a 10-0 deficit, HC saw its visions of a halftime tie fade when Whipple hit split end Barry Blum with a 31-yd. scoring toss. Brown then went on to open up the game to 31-10 before the third period had ended, racking up the points on a 27-yd. Whipple-to-Mark Farnham toss and a one-yd. Whipple run.

In another surprising finish Saturday, Dartmouth shocked the Cornell faithful by putting the cap on Joe Holland, the nation's leading rusher, and following halfback Jeff Dufresne to a 14-7 win.

The Green Machine limited Holland--if you can call it limiting--to 112 yards on the day, well below his 157-yards-per-game average. Meanwhile, Dufresne racked up a career-high 169 yards including the first half's only score, a 4-yd. burst over left tackle to cap a 52-yd., 13-play drive just before the first half ended.

In the Meadowlands of New Jersey, the fans yawned their way through the afternoon as Rutgers buried Columbia, 69-0. From the opening kickoff, the tone of the game was evident, as Rutgers' Dave Dorn took that kick 94 yards for the game's first score.

But if the New Jersey crowd was bored, the Franklin Field crowd was shocked as Penn ran up a surprising 17-3 lead over struggling Yale, only to see its hopes fade into a frustrating 17-17 tie in the closing seconds.

It was Yale's second consecutive tie, coming off a 3-3 sleeper with Columbia last weekend, and an all-but-fatal blow to the Elis' Ivy title hopes. While Yale racked up 202 passing yards, the Quakers ran from the wishbone for the heavy offensive work. Penn backs Dennis Grosvenor and Kevin Blake tallying the two Penn scores.

Yale senior quarterback Pat O'Brien hit end John Spagnola ten times for 154 yards, four of those catches sustaining the last-minute. 91-yd. drive that tied the game.