Ivy Round-Up: Harvard, Penn On Top

In a weekend featuring four league match-ups, Ivy football fans were treated to a little of everything. The conference’s only two undefeated teams—Harvard and No. 22 Penn—each won, but in vastly different ways, while previously winless Columbia held on to an early lead to upset Dartmouth 27-20.

The Crimson (5-0, 3-0 Ivy) escaped with a 28-26 victory over Princeton when Tiger placekicker Taylor Northrop’s field goal attempt from 49 yards went wide left with seven seconds remaining in the game. The Quakers (5-0, 3-0) posted a more convincing win, pounding Yale 21-3 for their ninth consecutive victory.

Brown rolled past Cornell 49-21 to hold onto the No. 3 spot in the league, and the Lions’ victory moves them into a four-way tie for fourth place in the league. With 1-2 conference records, Dartmouth, Yale and Princeton are all in fourth place as well.

Cornell remains the only Ivy team without a conference win.

Penn 21, Yale 3

The always potent Penn offense was overshadowed by the might of its defense, which posted 10 sacks and held Yale (3-2, 1-2) to -19 yards rushing to lead the Quakers to victory at Franklin Field on Saturday.

Yale’s only field goal was set up by a 32-yard pass from backup quarterback Alvin Cowan to wideout Billy Brown on a fourth-and-one fake punt from Yale’s 32. Following the score, which came on Yale’s first drive of the game, the Penn defense shut out the Elis for the remaining 54:42 of the ballgame.

Led by senior defensive tackle John Galan, who recorded a career-best 3.5 sacks to earn Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week honors, the Quakers harassed Yale senior quarterback Peter Lee all afternoon. With the running game shut down, Lee completed just 19-of-44 passes for 245 yards and no touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Penn senior quarterback Gavin Hoffman was efficient as usual, completing 18-of-26 passes for 235 yards. On the ground, though, Penn didn’t fare much better than Yale.

Quaker tailback Kris Ryan was the game’s leading rusher with 79 yards, but needed 29 carries to reach that mark. Each of Ryan’s two touchdowns came on one-yard runs.

In between Ryan’s scoring plunges, Galan forced a fumble that was returned by senior defensive back Kunle Williams 41 yards for a touchdown.

The win was the 150th of Penn Coach Al Bagnoli’s 20-year career, and his 63rd at Penn.

Penn will travel to Brown on Saturday, while Yale will visit Columbia.

Brown 49, Cornell 21

Brown senior quarterback Kyle Rowley completed 22-of-34 passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Bears (3-2, 2-1) past Cornell (0-5, 0-3) in a shootout that saw a combined 937 yards of total offense at Cornell’s Schoellkopf Field.

Rowley’s favorite target, All-Ivy junior wideout Chas Gessner, had seven catches for 113 yards and two touchdowns, while junior tailback Joe Rackley rushed for 122 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown run to round out the score with 4:46 to play.

In the loss, Cornell senior quarterback Ricky Rahne moved into fourth place all-time in the Ivy record book with 6,886 career passing yards. Rahne completed 22-of-42 attempts for 226 yards on the afternoon. If Rahne remains on his current pace, he should move ahead of Princeton’s Doug Butler (’83-’85)—who stands third with 7,291 yards—within the next two games.

A one-yard touchdown run by Cornell senior tailback Evan Simmons with 8:29 remaining in the second quarter cut Brown’s lead to 10-7, but the Bears reeled off 25 unanswered points to clinch the victory. Two third-quarter fumbles by Cornell helped catalyze the Brown attack. The Bears converted on both plays for touchdowns, with junior defensive back Hunter Young returning the second one 82 yards for a score.

The Bears will next host Penn on Saturday, while Cornell will travel to Princeton in search of its first win of the season.

Columbia 27, Dartmouth 20

Senior quarterback Jeff McCall completed 23-of-34 passes for 213 yards and two touchdowns to key the Lions’ first victory of the season and their first road win in 12 consecutive games. McCall earned Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week honors for ending his team’s eight-game losing streak.

The victory looked certain for Columbia (1-4, 1-2) early, as the Lions jumped out to a 24-7 lead with 2:12 remaining in he third quarter. But the Big Green (1-4, 1-2) seized the game’s momentum when freshman Steve Jensen, the Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week, returned the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown to narrow the score to 24-14.

After Columbia’s Sam Warren knocked in a 33-yard field goal with 8:33 remaining, Dartmouth freshman quarterback Evan Love completed a 20-yard scoring strike to senior tailback Michael Gratch to bring the Big Green within a touchdown, 27-20, with 2:46 left.

With three timeouts remaining, Dartmouth decided against an onside kick, opting to give the Lions the ball back. On third-and-eight, needing a first down to clinch the victory, Lion wide receiver Doug Peck picked up the critical yardage and the new set of downs on a pass from McCall, allowing Columbia to run out the clock.

Love’s start, the first by any Dartmouth rookie quarterback since freshmen became eligible for varsity play in 1993, came in place of senior Greg Smith. Smith is sidelined for the season with a broken throwing hand. Love was 12-of-26 for 102 yards and two touchdowns on the day.

Gratch posted his second straight 100-yard rushing game, running for 131 yards on 25 carries to surpass the 1,000-yard mark for his career. Gratch now has 1,047 yards.