CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- After scampering for 133 yards on only 18 carries in the Quakers' 38-21 victory at blustery Harvard Stadium Saturday, Penn running back Aman Abye was still not smiling -- not until a reporter told him Princeton had fallen to Yale, 21-13. The ramifications were obvious and a wide smile, a grin that reached almost ecstatic proportions, creased Abye's face. A Penn victory over Cornell next week and another Princeton loss, this time in Hanover, N.H., will give Penn a four-way share of its third consecutive Ivy crown. But beyond the miracle Yale worked at Old Nassau, Abye made sure his Quakers took care of business. They took care of that business the way business on the gridiron is supposed to be taken care of in blustery New England in November -- on the ground. "That's they key to the football game," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "When you can't run the football, you really struggle, especially when you get into wind and rain and cold and everything else you face in the last two, three, four weeks of the season." Saturday in Cambridge, the Quakers had wind, they had rain and they had cold. And they ran the football. Using dominant offensive line play, a solid game plan and a pair of explosive tailbacks, Penn racked up 304 rushing yards against an overmatched Crimson defense. For the first time since Nov. 21, 1987, two Quakers rushed for over 100 yards. Abye tallied 133 on the day, and backfield mate Jasen Scott outdid him by a sole yard. Bryan Keys and Chris Flynn had been the last Red and Blue duo to accomplish the feat. Abye dominated the first half after setting the tone with a 50-yard touchdown dash early in the second quarter. That play, like most of the running plays that followed it, utilized inside zone blocking, in which Penn's offensive line effectively sealed the Crimson defensive ends to the outside and isolated a running back on the linebacker. One misstep or slipped tackle, and the Quakers ballcarriers were in the secondary with daylight ahead. So it was with Abye's long score, when he dashed through the line untouched before breaking it outside, leaving Harvard linebackers without an angle to cut him off. Whenever the Harvard ends pinched down in an effort to stop Penn's ground dominance, the tackles sealed off the outside and Penn offensive coordinator Chuck Priore designed a rollout for his quarterback, leaving him with all day to exploit the Crimson secondary. Penn's quarterback rotation of Mark DeRosa and Steve Teodecki combined for 207 passing yards and a touchdown on a day when the gusty wind turned most spirals into ducks. "It's a tough combination," Harvard coach Tim Murphy said of Penn's attack. "They have a very solid, fundamental system. You can't take both [passing and running] away necessarily." Harvard couldn't take anything away. After Abye's 102 first half yards set the Quakers out to a comfortable 21-0 lead at the intermission, Scott took over. Recovering from an early fumble deep in Harvard territory, Scott used his slashing, cut-back style to give a slightly new look to Penn's ground assault. The results were eerily similar to the 7,622 watching under the darkening Cambridge sky. On the first possession of the second half, Scott paved the way for the Quakers to go 80 yards in 12 plays. He carried the ball on seven of those 12 plays from scrimmage, eating up 46 yards and finally hitting paydirt on a 1-yard plunge at 9:51 of the third quarter. The outcome of this Ivy League contest was never again in question and many on the Penn sideline started thinking more about the out-of-town scoreboard than the one looming over Harvard Stadium. After all, it was just a week ago when the Quakers' gained just 95 net rushing yards on 35 carries. Had Penn's ground attack been effective last weekend against the Tigers, Bagnoli and his Quakers wouldn't have had to worry about the other scoreboard so much. And Abye would have smiled a lot sooner.
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