Quakers Smash Crimson's Ivy Hopes, Blowing Out Harvard in 38-7 Debacle

PHILADELPHIA--The University of Pennsylvania today assured itself of at least at tie for its third straight Ivy League football crown by pummeling a visiting Harvard squad, 38-7.

The impressive, come-from-behind victory, before 38,810 under beautiful skies at Penn's Franklin Field, upped the Quakers' Ivy mark to a perfect 6-0 and made them a safe bet to become the first undefeated Ancient Eight champion since 1970.

Penn need only win or tie at Cornell next weekend to clinch sole possession of the crown that it has shared with Harvard the past two years.

With its first Ivy loss of the year, the Crimson fell to 5-1 in league play, and, as a result, lost control of its own destiny.

At best, Harvard can only tie Penn for a piece of the title, but that would take a Crimson victory next weekend over Yale in The Game, and a Penn loss to 2-4 Cornell.

That's because the host Penn squad, the most balanced team to hit the Ivies in years, today completely shut down the league's top two runners--tailback Robert Santiago and fullback Mark Vignali--and turned a 10-7 halftime advantage into an insurmountable lead by the end of the third period.

The Harvard offense never seriously threatened after its first scoring drive, thanks in part to the twisted right knee of junior quarterback Brian White--who left the game at the start of the second period and did not return until the second half--and thanks in part to the swarming, aggressive play of the far more talented Penn defense.

The Quakers recorded four interceptions on the day, grabbing two off White and two off senior Dennis Vecchi, who replaced the injured junior in the second period.

The Quaker offense, meanwhile, scored 28 unanswered second-half points en-route to racking up the highest total against Harvard all year.

Things did not look so bleak for Harvard at the start, however.

The Crimson wasted no time, taking the opening kickoff 62 yards on 10 plays in a workmanlike drive that ended with a six-yard scoring scamper by Vignali.

The key play was a 20-yard bullet from White to Vignali that set Harvard up first and goal from the six.

On the next play, Vignali took the handoff and burst through a hole for the opening score. Junior Rob Steinberg's point-after put Harvard up 7-0.

Penn quarterback John McGeehan came out firing, but the Harvard defense stopped the Quakers on downs.

That was the story of the next three drives--two by Harvard and one more by Penn--as the Ivy League's two top-rated defenses took control.

But with time winding down in the first period, the Quakers put together their first semblance of offense. Behind the strong running of sophomore Rich Comizio--the Red and Blue's leading rusher--Penn moved downfield in a hurry.

On first and goal from the three, Comizio threw the key block, helping reserve fullback Stan Koss throw his weight over the surging Harvard defense.

His final lunge with two seconds left in the opening period put him into the end zone, capping an eight-play, 42-yard Quaker scoring drive.

The point-after left things deadlocked at 7 after one.

Harvard's offense continued to sputter early in the second period, giving the ball back to the hosts in good field position.

On its first possession of the second period, Penn moved from midfield to deep in Harvard territory. A key sack by Harvard's senior tackle Barry Ford, however, pushed the Quakers back to the Crimson 32 From there, Quaker kicker Tom Murphy just missed a 49 yard field goal.

With White on the bench nursing his injured knee, Vecchi took over, but on his first pass from scrimage, the senior signal-caller hit Penn's Peter Gallagher squarels in the numbers.

Lucky for Harvard, though, Penn coughed up the ball on the first play after the interception and the Crimson 's Ken Tarczy recovered.

But Vecchi, a little used quarterback whose only previous varsity experience came in 45 seconds of mop up action at Columbia and Dartmouth, wasted no time giving the Quakers another shot on his second pass of the day, he found Penn's All American safety Tim Chambers.

The senior defender returned Vecchi's errant toss to the 41, but a clipping call put the ball at the 26.

The league's most productive offense then moved down the field with all the power of a steamroller and all the precision of a non Ivy marching band.

The Quaker drive finally stalled at the Harvard 24 after a series of penalties negated a Penn touchdown but from there Murphy connected on a 41 yard field goal with 3:36 left in the first half.

Vecchi did move his club with only seconds remaining, but Steinberg missed two field goal attempts as time ran out. The half ended with Penn up, 10-7.

To compound matters, Penn's Steve Ortman took the opening kickoff 92 yards-after bobbling it, dropping it, and then picking it up-to put the Quakers up by 10 with an entire half still to go.

With his squad's title hopes hanging by a thread, Harvard Coach Joe Restic called on the injured White.

But on this toss of the second half, the noticeably limping White underthrew an open tight end Steve Abbott, connecting instead with Penn's Rosss Armstyrong. The two squads then traded punts, but with time winding down in the third quarter, the Quakers put the game out of reach.

White 3:35 left in the stanza, Penn's Mike O'Neil scooted in from the 2 yard line to cap a 12-play, 55-yard drive that put the hosts on top 24-7.

After that, Harvard folded and Penn took control with two efficient scoring drives.

The first score came six seconds into the final quarter, when Quaker Pal Buchler took an 18-yard scoring strike from McGeehan in the endzone.

Up 31-7, Penn continued to dominate and closed out the day's scoring with 8:10 left, as running back Steve Olekszyk capped an 11-play, 70-yard drive with a 7-yard jaunt up the middle.

THE NOTEBOOK--There are no tickets left for The 101st Game against Yale next weekend, which almost assuredly will be televised locally by Channel 2. Harvard now leads its series with Penn, 35-18-2. In the last several minutes, Restic used third-string senior quarterback Greg Kouvelas, who completed one of three tosses.