Bulldogs, Dartmouth Remain Undefeated

Used to be, anything could happen in Ivy League football.

It wasn't particularly good football, but it was exciting, with any team capable of a win on any day over any given opponent.

But things are a little boring around the Ivies these days. You can pretty much count on two givens: Yale will win, and everyone else will lose to non-league rivals.

Yep, it happened again Saturday, with the Bulldogs whipping UPenn, 24-3, and Brown and Columbia losing to outside opposition. Holy Cross waylaid the Bruins, 34-24, while Colgate bombarded the Lions, 41-3. In an Ivy contest, Dartmouth hobbled a defenseless Cornell squad, 42-7, and remained unbeaten in League play.

Going into next Saturday's games, Yale and Dartmouth are entwined up top the standings with 3-0 League records, with Harvard and Princeton tied for second, with 2-1-1 marks. With everyone else at 1-3, the Dartmouth-Yale matchup should go a long way to determining the Ivy championship.

In New Haven Saturday, Yale's highly-regarded nucleus at the skill positions came through to give the Elis their sixth straight victory without a loss. Senior quarterback John Rogan completed 14 of 22 passes for 166 yards and two touchdowns. Split end Curtis Grieve grabbed seven receptions--including the two touchdowns--to help make Rogan Yale's all-time leading passer, with a career total of 2414 yards.

With the Rohan-to-Grieve Luftwaffe controlling the air, Eli tailback Rich Diana rushed for 153 yards, as Yale drove to a 17-3 half-time lead.

The Bulldogs rolled for 429 total yards, while holding UPenn to 139 of its own.

Dartmouth set the stage for the probable championship shoot-out, with sophomore quarterback Frank Polsinello continuing the magic he used to bounce Harvard last week. Polsinello passed for 120 yards to receivers Jack Daly and Shawn Teevens, and got another big game out of halfback Sean Maher, who rushed for 144 yards.

The Big Green--3-3 overall, out unbeaten in the Ivies--sandwiched two endzone blocked punt recoveries around a 44-yard Rich Lena scoring gallop to take a 21-0 first quarter lead. Maher added a similar 44-yard run to make the halftime score 28-0.

Comeback

In Worcester, Holy Cross continued its mastery of Ivy competition by dumping Brown, upping its League mark to 3-1. The Crusaders dropped a tough 29-28 decision to Yale last month but are otherwise perfect in Ivy competition. The Bulldogs are the only squad to defeat a non-league opponent this year, dumping Holy Cross, Uconn and Navy.

Colgate tailback Stacy Hall showed that the Crimson isn't the only Ivy team to get burned by inexperienced opposing backfields, as the freshman jogged for a Colgate record five touchdowns. Colgate outrushed the Lions 366-13, although Columbia's Witkowski provided some offensive fireworks of his own, passing for 251 yards.