Princeton, Cornell Win Narrowly In Bad Weekend for Ivy Big Shots

It was a rainy Saturday in the East, and a few shining faces, as well as football fields, turned into mud by the end of the day.

The Jolly Green Giant had fallen, Princeton was muddied but still standing, and Yale was totally submerged. That left only Cornell untainted among the pre-season football powers of the Ivy League.

Of course, there's still Harvard and Penn to be considered, but neither has encountered a team worthy of the name opponent." While Harvard was scoring 45 points and holding Tufts to two first downs, Penn was defeating Brown by the surprisingly comfortable margin of 20-0. Quaker quarterback Bill Creeden, completing 15 of 27 passes, set a Penn record in passing for 208 yards.

The game that raises one's eyeball is not the Dartmouth 7-6 loss to Holy Cross, nor the Princeton 14-12 grease job over Columbia. It is Cornell's 15-14 triumph over Colgate. Colgate, you remember, is the team that humiliated Columbia last week, 38-0, and blanked Boston University the week before, 34-0.

Colgate quarterback Ron Burton and halfback Marva Hubbard carried the ball on all but two plays gainst Cornell. The 160-pound Burton, unbelievably, carried the ball himself on all but three occasions in the second half.

Cornell, in contrast, presented a balanced running and passing attack behind quarterback Bill Abel, Pete Larson, Ed Zak, and Mike More. The Big Red picked up 226 yards on the ground, compared with 110 for Colgate, and Abel completed 10 of 19 tosses for 121 yards. It could spell trouble for the Harvard defense two weeks from now. This Saturday Cornell faces Penn in its Ivy opener.

Dartmouth, the team with the dazzling offense last year, demonstrated again against Holy Cross that it hasn't got the offensive line for a big attack this year. The lone Dartmouth touchdown came on a 30-yard drive following a Holy Cross fumble.

As against Massachusetts last week, the Dartmouth defense was strong, even though Holy Cross outgained the Green on the ground, 190 yards to 65. Holy Cross did not complete a pass during the entire game, however.

Maybe Dartmouth was thinking about this Saturday's contest against Princeton before the Holy Cross game. At any rate, by the fourth quarter with Dartmouth still scoreless, the Indians had something distasteful to think about fo rthe first time in 11 games.

Although Princeton edged Columbia by two points, the game was closer than he score indicates. The margin of victory was Columbia's two-point conversion attempts, both of which failed.

No Punch

Princeton's offense, especially in the line, lacked any kind of consistent punch and was far outclassed by Columbia in statistics. Columbia had 12 first downs to Princeton's nine, and the Lions gained 389 yards to 128 for Princeton. The Tigers managed to complete only two passes during the game, while Columbia's Rick Ballentine completed nine of 23. Harvard will not be facing the anticipated pushover when it travels to New York Saturday.

Yale, in its 17-14 loss to Rutgers, had the misfortune of losing its quarterback in the first quarter and the ball in every quarter. The Elis fumbled 10 times, five of which were recovered by Rutgers. Worse, sophomore quarterback Brian Dowling suffered a severe leg cramp late in the first period of play and was forced to sit out the remainder of the game. Dowling is expected to be ready for this Saturday's game against a weak Brown team.