Harvard, Dartmouth, Penn Scramble In Wide-Open Race for Grid Laurels

Harvard's last minute win over Penn on Saturday threw the Ivy football race into another end-of-the-season scramble for the title.

No Heads-On

With a record of three wins and one loss, Harvard shares the lead with Penn and Dartmouth. Each of the three has beaten one of the others this season, so there will be no head-on confrontations deciding the title.

"If we continue to play as well as we did in the last half against Penn, we will get a piece of the title," said coach Joe Restic, "but to win, we will need some help. I look to Cornell to be the spoiler."

Both Dartmouth and Penn still have to face Cornell, the pre-season favorite and 44-14 victor over Columbia on Saturday. Restic sees Penn, which still has to face a solid Yale team, as having the tougher schedule, but also the better team. He offered no predictions about the outcome of the Ivy title race.

Looking ahead to Harvard's final three games against Princeton, Brown, and Yale, Restic said, "We'll have to play them one at a time. We haven't beaten Princeton since I became coach, and they will be wanting badly to salvage their season."

Easy Final Three

Barring upsets, Harvard looks to be in a strong position to capture the title, coming off an impressive victory over Penn with a comparatively easy schedule for the rest of the season. Yet any loss will all but put the Crimson team out of the race.

All of the contending teams are going into the stretch without serious injury problems. Harvard's offensive shuffling should end with the expected return of Alky Tsitsos to the line-up next week.

The return of defensive back Joe Sciolla is still uncertain, but he seems to have a more than adequate replacement in John Clarke, who caught an interception in an outstanding performance on Saturday.