Rivalry heats up again

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell wide receiver Ron Mateo set the tone of this game before the kickoff. And the injured Mateo wasn't even playing. Before the game started, Mateo called Penn cornerback Jamie Daniels, among other things, a "bum," beginning the trash talking and taunting that characterized this bitter rivalry. "I was thinking, 'He's not even playing,' " Daniels said. "From then, it was just escalating and everybody was talking trash. Every game, we talk so much trash it's not even funny. It's just our style. It was, 'You can't guard me' or 'You're so slow.' " It wasn't just talking, either. Terrance Stokes went berserk after being tackled in front of the Cornell bench and was hit with a personal foul. He was so angry he lost his mouthpiece. "I just lost my cool a little bit," Stokes said. "It was nothing. There was just a lot of talking going on. Coming off three straight losses, I guess they thought they had something to prove and they came out fired up and talking. If they want to talk, they can talk, but they just have to produce on the field." And while Stokes was being held back by teammates, Penn guard Rick Knox sarcastically waved his hands back and forth above his head, leading the crowd in their derogatory chant about Stokes. That wasn't the only instance when a Penn player taunted the loud and often crude crowd, which one Penn player accused of yelling racial slurs at the Quakers' black players. After Penn took the lead, Chris Johnson sarcastically exhorted the silent Cornell fans to their feet. Moments later, after Daniels' game-sealing interception, Johnson and Nick Morris both stood in the middle of the field taunting the crowd by jumping around with their hands in the air, facing the Cornell student section. These displays were indicative of the general hatred between these two teams. "There were a lot of heated words out there," Cornell linebacker John Vitullo said. "It's no secret we don't like each other very much." "That's what rivalries are about," Cornell coach Jim Hofher added. "I don't know if the opponent considers it a rivalry, but we consider it one and I think John, if he had it to do over again, would have said it a little bit differently. I don't know if like or dislike is as accurate a description as it is a very strong rivalry and two bitterly competitive teams played football today." When people talk about rivalries in West Philadelphia, they talk about Penn-Princeton. And for the most part, that is the big game on the schedule. But Saturday's game against Cornell was as bitter as any Princeton game. Between the hostile fans and the fired-up opponent, emotions ran high and boiled over early. "People talk about Penn-Princeton a little bit more because of the geographics, but this game goes back 101 years," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "This is as intense a rivalry as there is in the Ivy League, and to compound it, this is the last game of the season, so there is no tomorrow for lots of people. This year we have 30 seniors and they have 30 seniors, so you know it was going to be one of those intense games." It wasn't just the talking that was a source of friction. Hofher was particularly upset about two other decisions by the officials that arose out of the enmity between these two teams. On the first, Michael Turner hit receiver Erik Bjerke after he was apparently out of bounds, right in the middle of the Cornell bench. The second was the ejection of defensive lineman Kevin Bennett on one of the last plays of the game for a personal foul. "We have a guy thrown out of bounds, we have a guy who runs into an official -- or an official who runs into a player -- and then we have a player ejected for the same foul that a Penn player is not ejected for. And if you ask me it is gutless if not inconsistent," Hofher said. Turner defended himself, saying it was not a late hit as Hofher had alleged. "I was running full speed and I got to him and I saw he stepped out of bounds. I tried to grab him and I just hit him with my chest and knocked him over," Turner said. "The ref said to me, 'I saw you tried to grab him that's why I didn't throw the flag.' " That incident was just one example of otherwise uninfluential plays becoming charged with emotion. The Cornell bench went crazy and the fans were screaming for Turner's head. "There's no love lost between these two schools and it came out on the field today," said Turner while motioning toward the huge gash in his uniform. "That was one of the most intense, physical games I've ever played in. It was a lot of fun."