Lightweights let this one slip away

Bill Wagner was in his tiny office Friday night, quietly getting his things and preparing to go home. He had just seen his Penn lightweight football team lose, 8-7, in a game it should have won. To Princeton, no less. On a fourth-quarter touchdown and two-point conversion. It was not easy to swallow. "It's a tough game to lose," Wagner said. "It's a very tough loss to take." The Quakers had dominated almost the entire game. The Penn offense moved the ball up and down Franklin Field all night, racking up 258 total yards. And the defense had played superbly. The Tigers had more punting yardage than total offense, 237 to 154. Still, with just more than five minutes left in the game, Princeton had a first and goal at the Penn 1-yard line. The Quaker defense stuffed Tiger tailback Dan Wu for no gain on two consecutive plays. But on third down, Wu took the ball and finally burst untouched up the middle into the end zone. Princeton, with only 4:02 left in the game, decided to go for the two-point conversion and the 8-7 win. Wu took a pitch and sprinted across the field toward the left corner of the end zone. Finally, as he neared the sideline, he turned upfield. As the Penn defense closed in, Wu just barely managed to get the ball inside the front pylon. The Tigers took the lead and eventually won. "We knew they were going to go for the two points if they scored," Wagner said. "We even thought they would run that option. We defensed it real well. Everybody hit everybody, and they gained two yards and one inch." While Wagner spoke, Penn defensive end and co-captain Victor Hsu entered the office. "You played one hell of a game," Wagner said. "You were all over that field. You played great. The whole defense played great. The offense just couldn't put the ball in the end zone." That was the story of the game for Penn. Five times the offense had the ball inside the Princeton 30-yard line, but only once could the Quakers score. On a fourth down at Princeton's 28-yard line early in the third period, Penn quarterback Greg Small heaved the ball high and deep down the right sideline. Tailback Rich Miller, who beat his defender, waited for the ball to lazily come down. Miller caught it and then ran over another defender to score. "He put it right on the money," Wagner said. "It was in the right spot. Rich made a great catch and made a great effort to get it in." The other four Penn trips into scoring territory ended in frustration. The Quakers were stopped in every way possible. Quarterback Loren Mendell was stopped at the Princeton 9 on fourth down. Kicker Bill Goebel missed two field goals, including one that hit the crossbar and bounced back toward the field. And there were three interceptions by Penn quarterbacks. "We moved the ball all night," Miller said. "It's just the mental mistakes that killed us. It's a real tough loss, a heartbreaker. We dominated the game. We should have put up at least two or three more scores." Instead it was the Princeton offense that responded. After being held to only two first downs in the first half, the Tigers started to run the ball effectively midway through the third quarter. Wu, who gained the majority of his 88 yards in the second half, began to take pitchout after pitchout and tear off five or six yards a clip. "At halftime, we really got chewed out," Wu said. "We just got psyched up and finally decide to move it. It was all mental." At the end of the third period, Princeton had moved from its own 35 to the Penn 8. Even though the Quaker defense held for three straight plays and Hsu recovered a fumble on fourth down at the 5-yard line, the Tigers had shown the ability to move the ball by pitching outside to Wu. The play worked again on the Princeton scoring drive. "We had success with that," Wu said, "so we stayed with it. We were getting the corners so we just decided to stick with it." Back in his office, Wagner was talking to Hsu. "It was too much pressure," Wagner said. "You held them seven out of eight plays inside the 10-yard line. And they get two yards and one inch on the two-point conversion." After Hsu had left, Wagner sifted through his belongings and said: "Defensively, they were all over the field. They gave this offense so many opportunities to score, it's a shame."