Lwt. Football to do battle with Cornell

"We'll worry about the rest of the season once we get past Cornell." That was Penn lightweight football coach Bill Wagner using the ever-so-popular "one-game-at-a-time" cliche to describe the general attitude of his players this week – concentrating on the task at hand, and not worrying about the past or the future. Tonight (Franklin Field, 7:30 p.m.) the Quakers open play in the Eastern Lightweight Football League (ELFL) against Cornell (0-1-1). So far this season, the Big Red played to a 6-6 tie with Princeton (a game in which Cornell had two touchdowns called back). Remember just two weeks ago Penn trounced the Tigers 28-6. In its other game, the Big Red got hammered by Army 36-0. Meanwhile, Penn (1-1) is coming off of a tough 27-6 loss at Navy, where the Quakers had a decent shot at coming up with the upset but could not capitalize in key situations late in the game. But that's ancient history now. All that matters is Cornell. And, frankly, Cornell is no Navy. But don't get the wrong idea – this will not be an easy game by any means. "Cornell is a better team than Princeton," Wagner said. "To beat them, we'll have to play as intensely as we did against Princeton and for three quarters at Navy." Of course, the team will have problems if the offense is as anemic as it was against Navy. Junior quarterback Carmine Greco threw two interceptions as the Quakers could only manage 125 yards of total offense. The Cornell contest could be the one in which Greco turns his season around, though. He now has two tough games under his belt, and Cornell is one of the weaker foes on Penn's schedule. At any rate, the team is confident that Greco is the best man for the job. "We, as a team, have complete confidence in Carmine," freshman wideout Clinton Schmidt said. "We know that he's a great quarterback, and he's our leader without any question. We're really pumped to play Cornell, and Carmine's the man who will help us rack up the points that we couldn't score at Navy." But to add in another cliche, it's not over 'til it's over. The Quakers still have to play the game. In doing so, they must be careful to avoid mistakes and turnovers. And the defense, as it did against Princeton and in some cases against Navy, must step up and make big plays. If not, the Quakers could end up 1-2, facing the prospect of another losing season in the ELFL. Furthermore, this game should be a sign of the team's maturity and ability to bounce back from a heartbreaking loss. It is possible that Penn will mull over the Navy game and drive itself to distraction. But the Quakers are not worrying about the loss to Navy. Rather than stewing over the win-that-could've-been, the players are using the game as an Alamo-like rallying point. "The guys know that they have a good football team," Wagner said. "They know they did pretty well against Navy, they just ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. They realize they had the opportunity to prove they're contenders – they'll just have to prove it by beating Cornell."