Ivy Title on the Line as Harvard Meets Penn

The Ivy League championship goes on the line at 1 p.m. today in the Stadium as Harvard hosts Penn.

A Penn victory would give the Quakers their fourth straight league crown, while a Harvard victory would deadlock the two teams in a tie at the top with one week left in the season.

Penn (6-1-1 overall, 5-0 Ivy) needs to win only one of its remaining two contests to clinch a share of the title, but the Quakers stand to clinch their second consecutive outright championship if they can get by Harvard today.

For Harvard (6-2, 4-1), there is no tomorrow. An earlier loss to Princeton at the Stadium has left the Crimson a game behind the Quakers in the Ancient Eight standings, and turned today into a must-win.

If Harvard wins today and then goes on to defeat Yale next weekend in The Game, the Crimson will snare at least a share of its first league crown in two years. If Harvard wins its last two games and Penn loses its final two, the Crimson will claim its first outright title since 1975.

But a Crimson victory today will not come easily. Penn has won a record-tying 13 consecutive Ivy League contests since Harvard shut out the Quakers, 28-0, in 1983, and a win today will give Coach Jerry Berndt and his troops a record-shattering 14th.

And Penn--coming off a 27-27 tie of highly touted Colgate--is red-hot. The Quakers were behind 17-7 in last week's game before reeling off 20 unanswered points.

But Penn's greatest comeback this year came a week earlier against Princeton. Playing a Tiger squad coming off its come-from-behind victory over the Crimson, the Quakers fell behind 21-0 at halftime, only to roar out of the locker room and score five straight touchdowns on their way to a 35-21 win.

Harvard itself is no stranger to comeback victories. The Crimson staged its greatest fourth quarter rally ever last week at Holy Cross, scoring 21 points in 41 seconds to defeat the Cross, 28-20.

Besides comeback capability, however, about the only thing the two teams have in common is a great running back.

Harvard's Robert Santiago had the fifth best rushing day in Crimson history last week, running for 185 yards and one touchdown. He also threw the game-winning scoring strike in the fourth quarter.

Santiago has been the Crimson work-horse all year, carrying the ball 126 times for 657 yards--nearly half of Harvard's ground total--for a 5.2 average.

Although he started slowly this season, the senior halfback has improved with each game, and last week's performance was as good any he put on last year--when he led the lives in rushing.

But Santiago doesn't lead the league in rushing this year; Penn's Rich Comizio does.

Running behind an excellent veteran line, Comizio has fulfilled the promise he showed at the beginning of the year before he went down with a pulled hamstring in the pre-season.

The junior tailback has 697 yards on 146 carries this year and has scored five touchdowns (four rushing, one receiving). Against Yale he led the Quakers to a surprisingly easy 23-7 win by rushing for more than 200 yards and scoring two touchdowns.

Tailback Chris Flynn--who doubles as a punt returner--and fullback Mike O'Neill shore up the Penn attack which, like the Crimson's runs on about two-thirds of its plays.

When the teams take to the air today, it will be strength against strength and weakness against weakness.

Harvard quarterback Brian White has had flashes of brilliance this year--including a five-for-five performance on a critical drive last weekend--but his overall statistics (63-for-142, 1025 yards, 5 tds., 5 ints.) betray his inconsistency.

Meanwhile the Penn defense--which has probably the best front seven in the Ivy League--is weakest in its secondary where several quarterbacks, including Princeton's Doug Butler, have been able to punch holes.

Quaker signalcaller Jim Crocicchia (88-for-171, 1059 yards, 9 tds., 9 ints.) is second only to Butler among league quarterbacks. Although he isn't the ground threat that White is, the senior provides an excellent balance to Penn's Comizio-led ground game.

But in the Harvard secondary, Crocicchia faces his stiffest test of the season. Led by cornerback Lee Oldenburg and safety Cecil Cox (each with five interceptions), the Crimson defensive backfield is the main reason Harvard has a chance to share the title.

The Crimson is plus-12 in the giveaway-takeaway ration, and the defense's 15 interceptions are the main reason why.

Harvard's defense has been, above all, opportunistic, and it is opportunism that has characterized the entire Crimson squad--allowing it to outgain its opponents by a total of just four yards on the season while compiling the 6-2 record.

And that intangible opportunism is Harvard's best chance to derail the Berndt express this afternoon.