Football Team Faces Cornell Today

Cornell tailback Ed Marinaro is the nation's leader in rushing average, but the Big Red may need a little more this afternoon if it hopes to dump Harvard's resurgent football team at Ithaca.

Cornell will have a traditional home field advantage-Harvard has won there only once in its last five attempts-and Marinaro will be a severe threat to the Crimson's tough defensive unit, but it may not be able to overcome the inexperience that an unseasoned line and non-veteran backfield produce.

Quarterbacks Bill Arthur and Rick Furbush offer a limited passing attack, and if Harvard can close the air lanes, the Big Red will be forced to go to Marinaro. They've done it often in their first three games, and the sophomore has gained 562 yards. But Marinaro is all Cornell has, and he's carried on 105 of the Big Red's 166 rushing attempts. Stop Marinaro and you stop Cornell. Colgate, Rutgers

and Princeton all have.

Harvard-Cornell games have recently been low-scoring encounters, and the Crimson was lucky to pull out a 14-12 victory when it last visited Schoelkopf Field. But the usually strong Big Red defense is somewhat porous this fall and seems equally susceptible to both ground and air attack.

Cornell has given up 191 yards per game on the ground. They've yielded 196 through the air. And Marinaro's forte is line busting, so it takes the Big Red some time to score.

The Crimson is still sub-par physically with linebacker Gary Farneti and safety Fred Martucci nursing injuries. Offensively, Drew Czulewicz is still missing. But Harvard's defense was only slightly hampered last week when it was subjected to a much stronger passing threat than Cornell can offer, and it seems doubtful that Marinaro will break away very often.

Last Saturday's Explosion

Last Saturday's explosion against Columbia has proven that if the offense moves consistently, the defense can allow two touchdowns, as it did in the B. U. game, without fear of losing.

Quarterback Dave Smith called an extremely intelligent game last week, and the team seemed to gell efficiently under his leadership. With end Peter Varney and tackle Fritz Reed returning to the starting lineup, the Crimson will have the left side of its offensive line intact once again, and Smith can run the power sweep to either side without worrying about its reduced effectiveness.

Smith can open the attack with deep passing to Bruce Freeman or sophomore Denis Sullivan, or if he can hit Varney with effective turn-in passes, he should be able to exploit Cornell's short-coverage problems.