Lightweights hit by counter punch

Sometimes in a fight, your strength can be used against you. The Penn lightweight football team found that out in a 17-13 loss to Cornell under the Friday night lights of Franklin Field. The Quakers (1-1, 0-1 Eastern Lightweight Football League) play defense like a desperate boxer, hitting hard and throwing everything they have at the opposing defense. So Cornell (1-1, 1-1) did what any smart fighter would have done -- it let Penn come hard, then it countered. Literally. The Big Red jumped on the massive back of Jon Roth. The junior was the Cornell offense, running for 101 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries. A large percentage of those runs were counters and delays used to take advantage of the Quaker defense. "That's a really good Pennsylvania defense," Big Red coach Terry Cullen said. "The Pennsylvania linebackers are extremely quick. We tried to run at them to start with, but they were too tough. So basically we countered almost the entire game and let them run themselves out of the play." Cornell jumped out to an early lead with a 12-play, 52-yard touchdown drive. Roth carried the ball on nine of those plays, including a one-yard plunge under the pile for the touchdown. "Penn's defense was attacking the line of scrimmage a lot," Roth said. "If we could get through the first hole, it was wide open. The line did a good job busting it up in there." The Quakers tried to catch the Big Red, but the Penn offense struggled throughout much of the first half. The Quakers were unable to get their running game going. The Cornell defense stifled tailback Rich Miller by charging the line and closing up holes almost as soon as they appeared. Still, late in the half, Penn did manage to penetrate the Big Red half of the field. The Quakers had a first and 10 at the Cornell 25 with 1:24 left. But then the Big Red defensive front seven held its own personal sackfest. Linebacker Lou Giampa caught quarterback Greg Small on consecutive rollouts, and on fourth down, lineman Dennis Sagely dragged Small down at the Cornell 45-yard line. "Our offensive line didn't handle a couple of their players, like No. 54 [Giampa]," Penn coach Bill Wagner said. "He just blew right over our inexperienced offensive line. Hopefully, they gained something from it." Cornell took over with 46 seconds left in the half. Instead of sitting on the seven-point lead, Big Red quarterback Paul O'Connor went deep on first down. Wide receiver Nolan Hecht extended himself and made a diving, one-handed catch at the Quaker 29, cradling the ball in his left arm. A roughing the passer penalty moved the ball to the 14-yard line. The drive ended with a 20-yard field goal. After trailing 10-0 at intermission, the Penn offense finally came to life late in the third quarter, when the Quakers began to take advantage of their speed. With Small working the option and Miller running outside, Penn marched from its 31 to the Cornell 16, where it faced a fourth and one. With three runners in the backfield, Small kept it and swept around the right side to the three-yard line. Then, on fourth and goal at the one, the Quaker option struck again. Small pitched quickly to Miller, and with good lead blocking from sophomore tailback Joel Correia, Miller dived into the right corner of the end zone. Cornell's lead shrank to 10-7, with nearly 11 minutes left in the game. "Initially, Penn really had trouble blocking us up front," Cullen said. "But once they figured out they could option and roll out against us, it was a new ball game." Cornell answered by going back to the old ball game and putting the Quakers away. Big Red defensive back Antonio Mastroberardino picked off a pass from Small deep in Penn territory, setting up Cornell at the Quaker 28-yard line. Then Roth took over again. On a third-down-and-eight play, he took the handoff on yet another counter, burst up the middle and then cut right, rumbling to the 17-yard line and the first down. Five plays later, Roth delivered the knockout punch -- a touchdown on another one-yard dive up the middle with less than four minutes remaining. This time, the Quakers were down for the count.