Ferrara, Hu Lead Team, Earn Awards

To the victors go the spoils, a famous victorious general once said.

So it should come as no surprise that two Harvard football players, junior quarterback Vin Ferrara and sophomore tailback Eion Hu, won Ivy League honors this week after the Crimson's 35-12 drubbing of Dartmouth.

Hu, by virtue of his 38-carry, 166-yard, two-touchdown performance, earned his fourth Ivy League Rookie of the Week award.

"Doing well is never really up to me," Hu said. "It's really up to the linemen. They really did the job Saturday."

As the man workhorse in the Crimson ground attack, Hu ran for his fourth 100-yard game of the season, leaving him one shy of the school record.

"I don't think I'm getting stronger or faster as the season goes on," Hu said. "I am developing as a player, though. I'm seeing the holes faster and making better use of the line."

Hu, who hails from Ridgewood, New Jersey, has carried the ball 153 times this season for 705 yards (.4.6 per carry) and has a team-high nine touchdowns.

Ferrara, another New Jersey native, completed 19 of 22 passes for 302 yards, including three touchdowns, to earn the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week and the Coca-Cola Gold Helmet Award as the top Division I player in New England.

"I felt much more comfortable than before," Ferrara said. "Our whole offense was working as a unit--the line, the backs and the receivers--that's what we're capable of."

"I was disappointed after the Princeton game," Ferrara said. "Against Dartmouth I just tried to stay poised and make it seem like a practice."

The strong running game provided an extra boost to the air attack.

"When you run the way we did Saturday," Ferrara said, "passing is a lot easier. The ground game and passing game really go hand in hand."

"We tried to run the ball a lot and when we did pass Vin was perfect," Hu said.

Well, not perfect--but almost, Ferrara lobbed touchdown passes of 58, 33, and 17 yards, and at one point completed 16 consecutive passes.

"I had no idea I had 16 completions in a row at the time," Ferrara said. "I think I play better when I'm not conscious about things like that."

Ferrara's career high 302-yard performance is the sixth-best in Crimson history.

This week's award winners are no strangers to each other, having played against each other in high school.

"I played against Vin in my first start at varsity in high school," Hu said, as he tried to capture the innocence of youth and the vitality of New Jersey athletics in one breath--tainted though it was. "I played defensive end that game. All I remember is that Vin threw all over us and his team killed us."

"I remember playing against Eion in high school," Ferrara said. "He was a really strong runner and I was excited to hear he was coming to play at Harvard."

This weekend the two ex-rivals put their high school loyalties behind them and teamed up with their Crimson teammates for an impressive win.