GREAT GAMES IN PENN HISTORY '84: Penn rips Big Green for crown

Nov. 21, 1983, The DP -- He never doubted. Not in the beginning, when he became the head coach of a team that had won one game in three years. Not after his first season, the 1-9 season, when it seemed that his players would never learn how to win. And not going into this season, when a championship had been won and there was still so much more to do, so much more to accomplish. He didn't doubt on Saturday either, when in the first quarter at Franklin Field his team did little to show it was concerned with winning the Ivy League title. The Quakers gained a total of 17 yards in their first two series. They punted twice. "We were going to be a little conservative at the beginning," said Berndt, whose Quakers will share the Ivy title with Harvard. "We just didn't want to create a turnover situation. We just said we'd go out and dominate up front." "It was in the game plan that we would sputter," Penn co-captain Marc Hembrough added. "Because even if we did, we knew sooner or later we'd put it together." So the Quakers sputtered on those first two drives. And then, in a six-minute span of the second quarter, everything came together. The way it was supposed to. The offensive line did what it was supposed to -- open up holes for the running backs and allow quarterback John McGeehan time to throw. On the first touchdown drive, which began with 1 minute, 6 seconds left in the opening period, fullback Chuck Nolan gained 24 of his career-high 130 yards and McGeehan completed three passes. Penn went 88 yards in 13 plays, scoring on Nolan's one-yard burst. Dave Shulman's extra point -- he made all five of his attempts and kicked a 45-yard field goal in the game -- made it 7-0. "Our offensive line just did the job today," said McGeehan, who completed 9 of 16 passes for 109 yards and one touchdown in the game. "There's no doubt about it, there's no way anyone else can take credit." Then the defense, the backbone of Berndt's game plan, the group that was counted on to dominate Dartmouth and provide field position for the offense, did what it was supposed to. On the first play of the Big Green's next series, a hit by Penn sophomore defensive back Duane Hewlett caused Dartmouth's Mattey Lopes to fumble after catching a pass from quarterback Frank Polsinello (11-16, 165 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT). Quaker linebacker Peter Gallagher recovered the fumble on the Dartmouth 26. Five plays later, Steve Ortman took a pitch to his left for one yard and Penn's second touchdown. Dartmouth's next series lasted twice as long as the previous one -- two plays. Rich Lena ran two yards on the first play. A Polsinello pass was intercepted by nose guard Joe Lorenc on the second play, after being tipped by defensive tackle Tom Gilmore. The offense took over on the Big Green 31. Again Penn needed just five plays to score. Again it was Nolan who scored the touchdown, this time from two yards out. And so it was 21-0 at the end of the half. "They created problems for themselves," Berndt said of the Big Green. "Their turnovers gave us a whole new perspective. They did just what we didn't want to do -- turn over the ball." At the end of the third quarter, it was 31-0. There was Shulman's field goal and a nine-yard touchdown pass from McGeehan to Pat Buehler. That play capped a 36-yard drive which was set up by an illegal participation penalty on Dartmouth during a punt return. The week before, in the 28-0 loss to Harvard, the same mistake cost the Quakers a touchdown. But this was the most decisive win by Penn in a league game in 10 years, not a shutout defeat. This was different. "Harvard controlled us," McGeehan said. "That can happen when a team controls the line of scrimmage. It was the same thing this week. But we were the ones controlled." Harvard sacked McGeehan and backup Jim Crocicchia six times last week. Penn sacked Dartmouth Polsinello 10 times on Saturday, for a net loss of 85 yards. "We mixed it up," said linebacker Kevin Bradley, who was one of nine Quakers to contribute in the sacks. "Everyone was coming and going, from the front, the back and the middle. After a while, they didn't know what to expect." What was the difference in the defense, which had allowed 62 points in the two previous weeks? "We played better," Berndt said. "We played against two great offensive teams the last two weeks. We didn't make any changes. We just played better." Penn scored its final touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 29-yard drive directed by Crocicchia, after Ken Coombs made the team's fourth fumble recovery. A 79-yard touchdown pass from Polsinello to Mike Viccora came when the score was 38-0. And when Dartmouth scored its second touchdown, on the last play of the game, the goal post in the west end zone had already been torn down. Last year, the crowd did not storm the field until Shulman's field goal had given Penn a 23-21 win over Harvard and a share of the Ivy title. This year, the celebration of the championship could begin before the game ended. This year, there was never a doubt. "We haven't been this prepared for a game in a long time," Berndt said. "We told our squad every day this week that we needed to be ready to play. And as unemotional as this team was, this was an emotional effort." In the locker room afterward, Berndt and the team shouted "Two, Two, Two," in acknowledgement of the second championship. And then spontaneously, the chant became "Three, Three, Three." "Why not be better than we have been?" Berndt asked the members of the media in the post-game interview. "Let's win three in a row. Let's go undefeated. Let's win the Lambert Cup (the award given to the best college football team in the East)." He wouldn't mind winning the title outright, either. Penn, which went 5-1-1 in the league, 6-3-1 overall, is again a co-champion, sharing the crown with Harvard. The Crimson defeated Yale 16-7 in the 100th edition of The Game on Saturday. So Berndt is thinking about a third championship, an outright championship. And he denied the rumor that he will leave Penn to coach Syracuse next year. Going into this season, he had a new challenge. In his two years at DePauw and two years at Penn, he was always rebuilding. He never had to coach a defending champion. This year, he did. But Berndt never doubted. And neither did his players. "Three years ago, our attitude was, 'Let's just survive the game,' " Berndt said. "But the players believe in themselves now, and that's the whole key -- they believe in one another and what we ask them to do." This year, he asked them to help him establish a winning football tradition at the University of Pennsylvania. Amd now it is done. The players smoked cigars when it was over. Berndt sipped a diet soda. "I'd have to say right now that we've turned [the program] around," Berndt said. "I wouldn't say that last year. But this sure wasn't luck -- it was tougher for us this year." "Our long-range goal this year," Berndt continued, "was to win the championship for the second consecutive year. People get tired of me saying this, but we've done something no other team in Pennsylvania history has ever done. "We've won back-to-back championships."

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