Football Roundup: Harvard, Yale Win in Weekend Ivy Contests

Following the cancellation of last weekend’s games, a full slate of college football was played this week. Every league squad played its season opener, while four teams began their Ivy schedules.

Harvard and Yale jumped out to an early lead in the Ivy standings by claiming victories in the only two League matchups, with the Crimson edging Brown 27-20 at Harvard Stadium and the Bulldogs overpowering Cornell 40-13 at the Yale Bowl.

Penn was the only other victorious Ivy team, amassing 471 yards on the way to crushing the visiting Lafayette Leopards, 37-0.

YALE 40, CORNELL 13

Yale quarterback Peter Lee threw for 279 yards and four touchdown passes to lead the Bulldogs past the Big Red. Lee, who was 23-of-31 on the afternoon, connected with wideout Billy Brown for three of the scores in an impressive season-opener in front of 20,269 fans at the Yale Bowl.

Lee finished the game with no interceptions and Brown caught nine passes for 177 yards.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Bulldogs broke onto the scoreboard first. Lee found Brown from 22-yards out to give Yale a 6-0 lead with 9:57 remaining in the half. Senior Justin Davis’ extra point raised the score to 7-0.

The Big Red pulled the score to 17-6 after Yale tailback Robert Carr’s fumble was recovered by Pete Combe to set up a 23-yard Peter Iverson field goal, but could never threaten as Yale rattled off 17 unanswered points. With the score 34-6, Cornell finally reached the endzone on a 21-yard touchdown pass from senior Rahne to classmate Tim Herman.

Cornell continues action next week at Colgate, while Yale travels to Holy Cross.

PENN 37, LAFAYETTE 0

Kris Ryan rushed for 159 yards and Gavin Hoffman threw for three touchdowns to lead the Quakers to a season-opening victory at Lafayette’s Fisher Field. The defense, led by senior Fred Plaza’s career-high 11 tackles, helped pitch Brown’s first season-opening shutout since 1982.

Penn jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead on a six-play, 62-yard drive just 4:46 into the game. A Hoffman touchdown pass to Ryan Murray capped the 59-second drive.

The Leopards threatened later in the quarter, but Martin Brecht’s 34-yard field goal went wide left, and the remainder of the game was dominated by the Quakers.

Ryan, who eclipsed the 2,000 yard mark for his career with his 128th yard on Saturday, scored his first touchdown of the season on a six-yard jaunt with12:04 remaining in the fourth quarter. Ryan becomes only the seventh Quaker to hit that plateau.

The Leopards, who will face off at Harvard on Saturday at 1 p.m., were held to only 40 yards rushing and 178 yards of total offense. Penn will travel to Dartmouth at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday to open its Ivy schedule.

LEHIGH 34, PRINCETON 10

The Tigers were overpowered in a 34-10 loss to the No. 10 Mountain Hawks in front of 10,893 at Lehigh’s Goodman Stadium Saturday.

Despite sophomore quarterback David Splithoff going 31-of-39 passes for 228 yards and a touchdown, the Tigers could only reach the endzone once in the season-opening loss.

The Mountain Hawks (2-0) were led by quarterback Brant Hall. Hall, who threw for 213 yards on 12-of-17 passing and rushed for an additional 115 yards, helped the Lehigh offense dominate Princeton.

The Tigers will begin their Ivy League schedule by hosting Columbia at 7 p.m. Saturday.

UNH 42, DARTMOUTH 38

With four seconds remaining in the game, New Hampshire quarterback Ryan Ray tossed the game winning 24-yard TD pass to Brian Mallette to down Dartmouth in its season opener in Hanover on Saturday.

The No. 21 Wildcats (3-0) remained undefeated on the season behind the heroics of Day, who engineered the 60-yard, 1:53 second drive that capped the come-from-behind victory. Day was 17-for-28 while passing for 249 yards on the day while rushing for 109 more.

Down 35-14 at the half, the Big Green battled back, scoring 24 consecutive points. Dartmouth tied the game up at 35-35 after a 23-yard TD reception by Jay Barnard and two rushing scored by Michael Gratch. With 1:57 left in the game, Tyler Lavin knocked in his first career field goal from 25-yards out to give Dartmouth the lead, 38-35.

Dartmouth will next host Penn in the Ivy opener for both teams.

BUCKNELL 23, COLUMBIA 20

In just the fourth overtime game in Columbia history, Bucknell’s Chris Lundberg drilled a 32-yard field goal and Columbia’s Sam Warren missed a 47-yarder wide right as the Lions dropped in its season opener.

For the second straight season, the Lions let a fourth quarter lead turn into a loss against the Bison. With Columbia leading 20-10, a 27-yard Lundberg field goal cut the lead to a touchdown with 6:30 remaining in the third quarter. Bucknell then engineered a 90-yard, 18-play drive that ran 8:51 seconds off the clock. The Bison tied the game on a Jabu Powell one-yard plunge with 3:32 remaining to cap the drive.

Powell rushed from 110 yards on 27 carries for the Bison.

Jeff McCall was 16-for-25 with two TDs and an interception for the Lions, while Jonathan Reese led the team in rushing with 99 yards.

UNC 41, FLORIDA STATE 9

Though not an Ivy League game, the biggest upset of the week came as the Tarheels (1-3, 1-1 ACC) took advantage of five Florida State turnovers to stun the 34-point favorite No. 6 Seminoles (2-1, 1-1).

In what was just Florida State’s third loss in 74 Atlantic Coast Conference games, North Carolina handed the Seminoles its worst loss since a 52-20 thrashing in the 1996 national championship game against Florida.

With Florida State leading 9-7 at the half, the Tarheels came out and dominated in the third quarter. Backup quarterback Darian Durant tossed two touchdown passes and North Carolina held the usually potent Seminole offense to 224 yards while shutting it out in the second half, as the Tarheels coasted to the victory.

Florida State, which had made an appearance in each of the last four national championship games, likely has seen its 2001-02 national title hopes evaporate, since it still has games remaining against the top two teams in the nation—No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Florida.