Ivy League Roundup: Penn Keeps Pace

With Harvard’s impressive 26-6 win over Cornell on Saturday, the Crimson remained one of two unbeaten teams in the Ivy League. The Quakers of Penn kept pace with the Crimson, remaining undefeated as they humbled Columbia in New York City.

Pennsylvania 35, Columbia 7

The Quakers remained unbeaten and the Lions remained winless after their game on Saturday. Penn (4-0, 2-0) relied on a balanced offense and stifling defense against Columbia (0-4,0-2).

The Penn defense held Columbia to 242 yards of total offense, with star running back Johnathan Reese amassing a mere 66 yards on 15 carries and quarterback Jeff McCall completing only 17 of 34 passes for 137 yards.

The Columbia defense had no such answers for Penn’s high-octane offense. The Quaker offense, in comparison, compiled 526 yards of total offense, including 244 yards from reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Gavin Hoffman, who threw for one touchdown and ran for another.

Penn running back Kris Ryan added 126 yards on 18 carries, and together they dominated Columbia for the whole game.

Brown 35, Princeton 24

Behind the record-breaking rushing of Michael Malan, the Brown Bears (2-2, 1-1 Ivy) defeated Princeton (1-3, 1-1) on Saturday in Providence.

Malan became the first Brown player in history to rush for more than 200 yards in consecutive games by rushing for 208 against the Tigers. Cameron Atkinson led Princeton’s ground game, amassing 148 yards on 18 carries.

Princeton started off the day’s scoring on a 62-yard score by Atkinson, and led 10-7 in the first quarter before the Brown’s special teams unit turned the game around. With Taylor Northrup, Princeton’s punter lined up near his end zone late in the first quarter, Brown’s Brandon Buchanan blocked the punt and Joe Rackely recovered the ball in the end zone for a Brown touchdown.

Princeton added kicks in the second and third quarters to pull ahead, 16-14.

But the Brown offense came to life in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Tigers 21-8 on the strength of two Malan touchdowns, and pulled away from Princeton.

Holy Cross 49, Dartmouth 17

The Crusader offense was in full gear on Saturday as it pummeled the Big Green. Holy Cross (3-2) won largely on the strength of Brian Hall’s arm, as the quarterback passed for an impressive five touchdowns on 13-of-16 passing.

Dartmouth (1-3, 1-1) lost quarterback Greg Smith to a broken finger on his throwing hand in the first quarter. Smith had entered the game in third place in total offense in Division I-AA, averaging 365 yards per game. After the loss of Smith, Dartmouth was never able to get on track. The Big Green did not score until the game’s fourth quarter, when backup QB Evan Love completed a five-yards TD pass to Matt DeLellis.

Hall, playing despite a broken thumb, completed 10 of his first 11 passes, including touchdown passes of 39 yards to Nick Larsen and three TD passes to receiver David Thompson. Calvin Souder balanced the offense for the Crusaders, finishing with 13 carries for 114 yards.

Yale 36, Fordham 27

Largely on the strength of the rushing efforts of Jay Schulze, Yale (3-1, 1-1) defeated Fordham (2-3)—although the Bulldogs had a surprisingly tough time against the perennial Bronx cellar-dwellers.

Schulze rushed for 147 yards and three touchdowns, both career highs, and took much of the pressure off of backup quarterback T.J. Hyland.

Hyland started in place of Peter Lee, who was sidelined with the flu, and threw for one touchdown and ran another one in.

However, he also threw three interceptions. Fordham’s Dan McGrath intercepted Hyland’s first pass on Yale’s first play from scrimmage, which directly led to the Bulldogs first touchdown, a one-yard run by quarterback Mark Carney.

Hyland bounced back on Yale’s next drive, hitting Keith Reams on a 25-yard TD pass to pull the Bulldogs even.

On the next series, Fordham drove deep into Bulldog territory and looked poised to retake the lead until Eli defensive lineman Jason Lange intercepted Carney and set up the go-ahead score.

Yale would never look back or trail after that, with Schulze pounding the Fordham defense and consuming clock until a pivotal fourth down play with 5:51 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Fordham had the ball on the Yale 14, facing a 4th and 1 but they were stopped in their tracks and went on to lose the game.