High school teammates connect

With less than three minutes gone in the second quarter of Saturday's game at Dartmouth, quarterback Mark DeRosa hit wideout Mark Fabish deep over the middle for a 53-yard touchdown. It was only the second touchdown pass DeRosa has thrown for Penn, and only the second one Fabish has caught. But don't be misled -- it wasn't a new experience for either. DeRosa and Fabish have been playing catch on the football field for the last six years. The two Penn sophomores were teammates at Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, N.J., before either had even seen the turf at Franklin Field. So Saturday's play-action scoring strike was simply a matter of reliving old memories. Fabish, whose first touchdown came at Columbia last season, estimated he's caught about 13 touchdown passes from DeRosa over the years, and even hinted the combination had perfected every aspect of Saturday's play months before the Dartmouth game. "During the summer we practiced together at our high school field," Fabish said. "We would practice that exact play -- the deep post. I'd run as far as I could and Mark would throw it as far as he could. Then we'd celebrate the touchdown together in the end zone." As for DeRosa, the signal caller left no doubt his long-time target will always be an option when he looks downfield. "We're both on the same wavelength," DeRosa said. "He knows what I'm capable of doing, and I know where he's going to be on the field. As long as Mark's in there, he's going to see the ball." · Another of DeRosa's favorite targets will continue to be junior wide receiver Miles Macik. Against the Big Green, Macik caught six balls for 47 yards. He was primarily used as a possession receiver. Three of his six receptions resulted in Penn first downs. Macik played at Dartmouth despite severe pain in his right hand. His hand was stepped on during practice last Thursday and Macik had it X-rayed an hour before the team bus left for Hanover. The all-American did not practice yesterday but expected to be back on the field today. "It feels pretty good right now," Macik said. "I took a day to rest it, but I'm kind of anxious to get back out there and get it banged up a little." · Macik and the rest of the Quakers who are recovering from injuries will have some extra time to get healthy. Penn is off this weekend. The team was originally scheduled to play at Richmond, but the Spiders had to drop the game because of conference obligations. Deals with Liberty, Hofstra and St. Mary's (Calif.) fell through, so Penn was left with an open date. The Quakers will have Friday and Saturday off, but otherwise will stick to their weekly routine. · During the layoff, Penn coach Al Bagnoli plans to stress special teams. Against Dartmouth last Saturday, the Quakers made and gave up their share of big plays in this area. Bagnoli said the team worked on special teams for 40 minutes during yesterday's practice, and that this work will continue through next week. The Quaker coach also said he has not ruled out making some personnel changes on special teams before the Oct. 8 Holy Cross game. "As of right now, there's no one new scheduled to move in," he said. "But we are working some new people into the special teams drills." One special teams area Bagnoli and his staff are pleased with is the place-kicking of senior Andy Glockner, who connected on field goals of 33 and 44 yards against the Big Green. "We're happy with Andy's kicking," Bagnoli said, "but we just have to get him some more opportunities." · The open date should also help the Quakers work on some things that often get overlooked with only a week to prepare for each opponent. The coaching staff will have the opportunity to spend time with younger players who would normally get less attention in season. Penn will also have more time to review game films and scouting reports in order to prepare for Holy Cross. "We looked at the film from the Dartmouth and we definitely made some mistakes," Macik said. "But the good thing is that the mistakes seem correctable because they're little things. I think the coaches are going to be a lot harder on us this week and hopefully we'll fix those things."