DeRosa plays despite the pain

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Mark DeRosa was in pain all week. After tearing ligaments in his thumb on his throwing hand, he was unable to throw a football until Thursday. But even after that carefully guarded performance, the coaches were not sure he was ready for Saturday. He didn't have the zip he usually has on his passes. He couldn't throw a tight spiral. And he was in extreme pain. He just wasn't himself. But Saturday meant too much. It was for a second consecutive perfect season. It was a Division I-AA record 21 straight wins. It was the last game in the seniors' careers. "It hurt," DeRosa admitted after the Quakers' 18-14 win Saturday over Cornell. "The decision was up to me of whether I could throw the ball, and I figured I had to at least go and find out. You're so caught up in the emotion of the game, you don't have time to let things bother you." DeRosa refused to let his thumb or the cast bother him Saturday. Even though he is having his right thumb operated on 8 a.m. today, he just wouldn't give in to the pain. Every time he went to the sideline, coach Al Bagnoli asked him about his thumb, but DeRosa would not come out of this game. "He's a tough kid to get a straight answer out of," Bagnoli said. "He kept saying, 'Feels great.' " Bagnoli made sure backup Steve Teodecki stayed ready on the sideline. And as Teodecki watched, DeRosa stenciled his name into the annals of Penn history as he threw for 360 yards, the most ever for a Red and Blue passer. DeRosa took every blitz, every knockdown and every sack Cornell could muster. And for more than 45 minutes, it appeared as if Bagnoli was making a mistake. In Penn's first series, DeRosa threw a slow pass behind Leo Congeni that was intercepted by Chris Hanson. His passes were continually batted down on the line. He missed Miles Macik open in the end zone. The passes were overthrown, underthrown and intercepted. And when he did complete passes, it just wasn't the same. DeRosa lofted passes he used to be able to bullet into his receivers. He found Felix Rouse behind the Big Red defense, but Rouse had to stop and wait for the ball -- a sure touchdown was turned into just a long completion. But DeRosa just kept coming. Regardless of the hits, he stayed in the pocket as long as he could. And finally, in that final period, he found his old high school teammate. Mark Fabish ran a post pattern, beat Andrew Slocum, and high-stepped into the end zone. "In high school, we always ran the post route," DeRosa said. "He's probably the fastest kid on the team. He can get behind anyone. We needed a big play to ignite us." And after DeRosa found Congeni to convert the the extra point, Penn found itself down by just three points with 14 minutes, 17 seconds remaining. After stalling six times in Cornell territory, the Quakers finally put an end to the drought. But the high-school connection was not done. With 4:20 left, Penn got the ball back with one last chance to win the game. After DeRosa was sacked, the Quakers faced a seemingly impossible third and 19. Fabish was supposed to cut across the middle. He was supposed to set up a short fourth-down play. But when Fabish saw the middle was clogged, he decided to run deep. "He made a beautiful read," DeRosa said. "I was looking for him across the middle. When I saw him take off, there was no hesitation. I had to go to him." After holding the ball for as long as he could, DeRosa finally let it go. As Fabish tucked it away, he landed on the one-yard line. The pain it took DeRosa to throw that pass wasn't even noticeable. The memory of the crushing blow delivered just one play earlier was forgotten. For a moment, DeRosa forgot he was wearing a cast on his hand. He ran down the field, and was too winded even to call the next play. Nothing was going to stop DeRosa. He called the play. The Quakers eventually fought their way into the end zone to take the lead for good. And Mark DeRosa didn't feel the pain.

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