Grid Squad Mashes Penn On Rebound

Harvard's football team finally put on its Dr. Jekyll face Saturday, exploding for four second-half touchdowns and a 34-0 Ivy League victory over Penn.

There were soft spots in the Harvard game, but the team bore little resemblance to the gang that got battered by Dartmouth, 48-0, a week ago. It had to be admitted too, that last-place Penn didn't look much like Dartmouth.

It became obvious the first time Penn got the ball that Harvard had the edge in this one. On the first Quaker play, Bruce Molloy ran around right end and lost three yards. Then Molloy ran off right tackle for seven yards. Then Molloy ran around left end and was spilled for a four-yard loss. Then Molloy punted.

"It looks like Penn will rely on Molloy today," said Penn's student-radio announcer, aware that two other first-string Quaker backs were out of action.

Molloy carried on eight of nine Penn plays in the first quarter. He didn't get a first down, but Harvard couldn't score, either. A fumble stopped one drive, a clipping penalty nullified a dazzling 33-yard punt return by Wally Grant, and the quarter ended 0-0.

Harvard didn't get on the scoreboard until Molloy tried a quick kick from his own eight-yard line late in the half. The play fooled the Harvard defenders, but the ball got caught in the 25 mile an hour wind and rolled out at the Harvard 32.

Dave Poe sipped off left tackle to the 20, then Grant and Tom Bilodeau took it to the four in four plays. Grant took it over from there, finding a big hole at left guard, spinning, and going into the end zone backwards.

7-0 wasn't much of a halftime margin over a team that hasn't scored in Ivy League play yet this year. But Harvard increased it quickly after Molloy had punted to his own 46.

Bilodeau sent Grant to the 40, then fired a down-the-middle pass to right end Frank Ulcickas, who took it at the 12 without breaking stride, and walked into the end zone for Harvard's second score.

"Here we go again," said Penn's radio announcer, remembering an earlier 55-0 loss to Princeton and a 33-0 defeat by Cornell.

Penn tried to come back as Molloy carried six straight times for 13 yards. A third-down pass hit end Harrison Clement in the stomach, but he dropped it.

"I think Penn's receivers are so surprised that the ball is coming to them that they're having trouble holding on to it," the voice of the Quakers said.

Harvard had no such trouble. Dockery took a pass from Bilodeau and carried 12 yards to the Penn 39 late in the quarter. A minute later Dockery caught a fourth-down pass at the 25. Bobby Leo ran to the 12, then Dockery whipped over the middle, took Bilodeau's pass at the five, and scored.

After the kickoff, Quaker end Bill Laurence caught a pass from Chuck Kennedy at the Penn 21. Jerry Mechling's tackle detached Laurence from the ball and Steve Diamond fell on it for Harvard at the 19.

"The Penn basketball team will open its season in just five weeks," said the Quaker radio announcer.

Mechling took over at quarterback for the touchdown drive, and turned in its biggest play himself, a seven-yard bootleg for a first down. Dockery scored moments later on a five-yard dash off left tackle.

For the first time all day, Penn moved into Harvard territory on an 11-yard run by Molloy to the Crimson 45. They promptly got dumped back again when Pete Hall nailed Molloy for a five-yard loss.

Now Grant, the day's leading runner with 91 yards in 15 carries, turned in the most exciting run of the afternoon.

He took the handoff on a double reverse, raced to the right sideline, then reversed his field and sprinted to the left side behind a block by third-stringer Joe O'Donnell that took out two Quakers. He was finally pushed out on the left side, 42 yards downfield on the Penn 3.

A penalty moved the ball to the four, and Mechling took it over on three sneaks. Jim Babcock's first conversion (he had missed one previously after injured Maury Dulles kicked three) closed out the scoring.

Finally, trailing by five touchdowns, Penn tested Harvard's suspect pass defense. The Quakers had thrown just three times in the first half. Now Kennedy marched them to the Harvard seven, completing five passes. But his sixth throw went to Harvard linebacker Bob Barrett, who looked like he might pull a Dockery-style return before Molloy nailed him at the 20.

It was Molloy's last play on a day that saw him carry 28 times for 55 yards, punt nine times, throw a pass, catch two, and return two punts and a kickoff. It was a courageous performance, but a futile one against a Harvard line that turned off Penn's running attack like a faucet. Molloy was thrown for losses half a dozen times.

The win moved Harvard into third place in the Ivy League at 3-1. Penn dropped out of sight, losing its fourth straight league game.

"It looks like the gods are against us," said the Penn radio announcer, wrapping it up.TOUCHDOWN--Above, WALLY GRANT falls over the goal for Harvard's first touchdown.