FOOTBALL WINS IVY CHAMPIONSHIP

PHILADELPHIA—It wasn’t supposed to be this easy.

After the hype and build up for the biggest Ivy showdown since 2001 faded away, the Harvard football team stormed Franklin Field today and left no doubt who deserves to wear the 2004 Ivy crown. The No.15 Crimson dismantled the No. 17 Penn Quakers 31-10, winning in Philadelphia for the first time since 1980 and securing at least a share of the Ivy title. The league championship is the second for Harvard in four years and 11th overall.

The victory also snaps Penn’s streak of 20 consecutive league victories stretching back to 2001.

“It’s great to beat Penn because they have set the standard for the last two decades,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “We knew…that if we were going to be a championship caliber program we would be playing some big games late in the November against Penn.”

Harvard’s offense moved the ball with ease all day. Despite fumbling for the first time in 396 rushing attempts, sophomore running back Clifton Dawson paced the Crimson offense, rushing for 160 yards and a touchdown.

Captain Ryan Fitzpatrick also had a solid day, throwing for 186 yards and two touchdowns.

“They are very explosive,” Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. “I think they showed why they are very explosive as a team and I thought their kids came up big.”

Already leading 24-3 with just over two minutes to go in the third quarter, the Crimson (9-0, 6-0 Ivy) turned to a fake field goal to put Penn away. After lining up for a 35-yard attempt, junior holder Robert Balkema took the snap and rolled left, hitting senior linebacker Bobby Everett who was all alone in the left flat. Everett turned up field and dove just inside the left pylon for the score.

“It was a great play,” Everett said. “It worked out exactly how I planned it—getting a chance to score. It felt very weird when it happened.”

Harvard held an edge right from the start, with Penn’s starting quarterback Pat McDermott remaining sidelined to start the game with an injury to his collarbone. His replacement, freshman Bryan Walker, strode onto the field with zero career collegiate passes under his belt.

But Walker looked comfortable on his first drive and directed the Quakers (7-2, 5-1) into Harvard territory. With running back Sam Mathews touching the ball seven times on the 11-play drive and Walker completing his first three pass attempts, Penn pushed the Crimson down to its own 7-yard line before kicking a 24-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead.

That would be the last time until the game was well out of hand that Penn would threaten the Crimson end zone. Both Walker and McDermott—who would enter the game briefly to begin the third quarter—failed to move the ball effectively following that first drive.

Harvard’s defense shutdown the Quakers’ attack all day. Penn managed only 263 yards of total offense and the Crimson front seven held Mathews to just 57 yards on the ground. Harvard forced three turnovers and surrendered just 195 yards in the air.

“I kind of goaded our defense the last week and all week kept saying, ‘How bout that Penn defense?’ because they’ve had such a tremendous defensive team in general,” Murphy said. “And our guys really rose to the occasion and played extremely hard and extremely well.”

Harvard’s first scoring drive came late in the first quarter. Taking over on its own 23, the Crimson pushed the ball into Quaker territory. Faced with a fourth-and-3 at the 38, Murphy elected to go for it rather than punt. With Penn’s linebackers crowding the line, Dawson took a pitch left, broke two tackles at the line of scrimmage and dove forward for a first down. Four plays later, Fitzpatrick hooked up with Brian Edwards to give Harvard a 7-3 lead after cornerback Michael Johns slipped at the 10-yard line.

“It was a double move,” Fitzpatrick said of the Edwards touchdown pass. “It was a slant and up. And he’s the type of athlete that nine times out of 10 he’s going to be open.”

As the first half wound down, Harvard extended its lead. On the second play of the series, Dawson took a handoff from Fitzpatrick and took the ball straight ahead for 11 yards. Two plays later Fitzpatrick found freshman receiver Joe Murt on the left sideline down to the Penn 15. After four consecutive running plays, Dawson dove over the pile at the goal line to give the Crimson a 14-3 lead with 17 seconds left in the half.

The Crimson added a 43-yard touchdown pass to sophomore receiver Corey Mazza on the opening drive of the second half and freshman kicker Matt Schindel made a 32-yard field goal midway through the third quarter to secure a 24-3 lead. And on its next possession, Harvard’s trickery put the game out of reach.

Penn added a meaningless touchdown with two minutes left in the game, but it was much too late to have an impact.

“They were due,” Bagnoli concluded following the game. “And they took advantage of it.”

—Staff writer David H. Stearns can be reached at stearns@fas.harvard.edu.