Gridders Edge Penn on Dropped Pass

PHILADELPHIA--It's lucky there aren't many good quarterbacks in the Ivy League this year. Last Saturday at Franklin Field, seventh place Pennsylvania, behind a second-string quarterback, picked apart Harvard's defensive secondary for 342 yards and four touchdowns passing, and came within a dropped pass of sending the Crimson back to Cambridge with a 2 and 4 record.

And if it hadn't been for the slippery hands of Penn's Mike Brumbach and five turnovers by the Quakers. Penn might have walked over Harvard.

Brumbach Blows It

Brumbach did everything he possibly could to lose the game for Penn. With two minutes left in the game and Penn trailing 28-27. Brumbach muffed an easy two-point conversion pass to save the day for Harvard.

Brumbach had put the Crimson in the game to begin with, fumbling a punt snap on the Penn four, after Harvard had fallen behind by a surprising 14-0 score in the first quarter. Harvard cashed in on Brumbach's booted play for a touchdown, and went on to score three more times in the next two quarters, taking a 28-14 lead midway through the third quarter.

Score Narrows

Two of the touchdowns followed fumbles by Penn quarterback Gary Shue, Shue atoned for his mistakes, however, by heaving a 58-yard bomb and an 11-yard TD pass to narrow the score to 28-21. Then, late in the fourth quarter, Penn came within a point of victory on an incredible 76-vard halfback pass to Don Clune, only to have Brumbach blow the conversion.

Clune was also the recipient of two other touchdown passes, a 75-yarder, and a 32-yarder, and finished the day with a staggering 284 yards and eight receptions. Clune was repeatedly wide open, catching his last touch-down pass in a completely open field after Harvard's shell-shocked defensive backs had been sucked in by what appeared to be a simple swing pass to the halfback.

Fortunately for Coach Joe Restic's peace of mind, Harvard's offense made up for the defensive backs' lack of speed and overall bewilderment. The Crimson had a balanced offense for the first time since the Holy Cross game, rushing for 202 yards and passing for 168.

Jim Stoeckel proved once again that Rod Foster belongs on the kickoff return team, completing 12 of 22 passes and scoring twice himself.

Stoeckel favored no single receiver, throwing three times each to Denis Sullivan, John Hagerty and Teddy DeMars.

Recovery by DeMars

DeMars recovered from his Dartmouth game frustrations and added his third 100-yards plus running game to 55 yards in pass receptions.

Both DeMars and Richie Gatto had short touchdown runs, and Gatto picked up 43 yards rushing and 22 yards receiving. The running game relied heavily on sweeps, forsaking the counters and reverses that had worked so well up to the Dartmouth game.

Aside from its inability to keep up with Clune, the defense didn't play too badly. The line shut off Penn's running game and dumped Shue behind the line eight times. And the secondary, despite its porousness, picked off three Shue passes. As usual, Captain Dave Ignacio came up with the biggest interception, dooming the Quakers by grabbing a Shue pass with a minute and a half remaining in the game. Harvard's punt and kickoff coverage was weak, relinquishing 190 yards, but the kickoff return showed breakaway possibilities with the return of Rod Foster. Foster had one unbelievable, twisting 56-yard runback that came within one defender of going all the way. Ivy Football Standings Cornell  4  0 Dartmouth  4  0 Harvard  2  2 Princeton  2  2 Columbia  2  2 Penn  1  3 Yale  1  3 Brown  0  4

Next Saturday's Games

Brown at Cornell

Dartmouth at Columbia

Penn at Yale

Princeton at Harvard   Harvard  Penn First downs  19  19 Rushing yardage  52-202  45-107 Passing yardage  168  352 Passes  12-22-1  13-26-3 Passes intercepted by  3  1 Punts  7-38.7  3-43.3 Fumbles lost  1  2 Yards penalized  5-58  4-53

Next Saturday's Games

Brown at Cornell

Dartmouth at Columbia

Penn at Yale

Princeton at Harvard   Harvard  Penn First downs  19  19 Rushing yardage  52-202  45-107 Passing yardage  168  352 Passes  12-22-1  13-26-3 Passes intercepted by  3  1 Punts  7-38.7  3-43.3 Fumbles lost  1  2 Yards penalized  5-58  4-53