Cornell's Loss at Brown Locks Five Ivy Teams in Tie for First

Maybe Harvard should learn from what Brown did this weekend: to ensure victory against Cornell, build a 36-point lead before halftime.

The Brown Bears (4-2, 1-2 Ivy) established their offensive dominance early Saturday and hung on to defeat Cornell (2-4, 2-1 Ivy) 56-40 in Providence.

The Bears rocketed to a 42-0 lead by the middle of the second quarter following six unanswered touchdowns to start the game.

Brown scored with all aspects of its offense in the first half. Senior quarterback Eric Webber threw two touchdown passes in the first half hour, one for 63 yards, while junior tailback Michael Malan recorded rushing touchdowns of one, five and 12 yards and also threw for a touchdown.

Though down by six touchdowns, the Big Red offense finally awoke at the end of the first half when junior quarterback Ricky Rahne connected with wide-receiver Keith Ferguson on a 33-yard touchdown pass.

After the break, a resilient Cornell team pressed on, as Rahne threw two more touchdown passes in the second half, including a 54-yard toss to Ferguson. Trying to close the insurmountable gap, the Big Red also got three short touchdown runs from tailback Justin Dunleavy.

The early six-touchdown deficit cemented Cornell's fate, however, as even the comeback kids from Ithaca could not pull off the impossible. Brown continued their offensive onslaught in the second half, as Webber added two more touchdown passes in the third quarter to extend the lead to 56-21.

Two fourth quarter touchdowns by Cornell made the final score respectable, but the Big Red obviously suffered from a porous secondary and inability to establish its running game early.

Dunleavy, Cornell's leading rusher for the game, finished with only 11 yards on six carries despite scoring three touchdowns.

Even with Rahne's offensive explosion in the second half, he could not compensate for the huge deficit. The quarterback finished the game with 62 pass attempts, completing 29 for 446 yards.

Rahne set a Cornell single-game record in total passing yardage in the game.

On the other side of the field, Eric Webber ended with 422 yards passing, completing 28 of 43 with four touchdowns.

Bears tailback Michael Malan mounted one of the most impressive offensive efforts in all of college football this season and was named Division IAA and Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week. He ended with 234 yards rushing, three rushing touchdowns and one passing TD.

This result, combined with Harvard's victory at Princeton and Yale's win against Penn, places Cornell in a five-way tie for first in the Ivy League with these four teams.

Cornell returns home next week to face the Princeton Tigers with the league lead on the line. Brown heads to Penn to take on the Quakers.

Yale 27, Penn 24

Riding a record setting effort by wide receiver Eric Johnson, Yale (5-1, 2-1 Ivy) took control in the second half to defeat Penn (3-3, 2-1 Ivy) in New Haven.

In the Ivy League's closest contest of the week, Johnson gave the Bulldogs a 7-3 lead in the second quarter when he caught a 57-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Peter Lee.

After Yale returned a blocked punt for a touchdown, Penn closed the first half with two touchdown drives, the last capped by a quarterback sneak from Gavin Hoffman, giving the Quakers a 17-13 halftime lead.

Yale dominated in the second half though, holding onto the ball for over 22 minutes and adding two field goals and a touchdown to take the lead for the remainder of then game. Hoffman added a late touchdown pass to end the day's scoring.

Johnson, with 172 yards on 13 receptions, set a new school record for career reception yards with 1,712, surpassing the mark of 1,554 yards by former Bulldog and NFL receiver John Spagnolia.

Yale attempts to build upon its four-game winning streak on Saturday against Columbia in New Haven.

Columbia 49, Dartmouth 21

With its highest offensive output since 1961, Columbia (3-3, 1-2 Ivy) scored 21 points in the first quarter en route to its first Ivy League victory of the season against Dartmouth (1-5, 0-3 Ivy).

Junior running back Johnathan Reese led the Lions' attack with a school single-game record of 236 yards rushing. He scored four touchdowns of 10, 2, 44 and 72 yards on the afternoon.

Dartmouth rallied back from the early three-touchdown deficit with two scores of its own, courtesy of touchdown runs of 1 and 33 yards by running back Aaron Pumerantz. Columbia responded with the next four scores, including an 82-yard kickoff return and a 59-yard interception return.

Dartmouth tries to score its first Ivy League victory and defend its home turf this weekend against Harvard in Hanover, NH.