FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: Eight days after mother's death, Foley had career game

Football has provided Penn defensive tackle Tom Foley with a means to vent anger from the loss of his mother to cancer. The Penn defense held Princeton to six points on Saturday, and the Quaker most responsible for the Tigers' offensive ordeal was Tom Foley. The senior defensive tackle had a career game against Princeton, racking up three sacks and four tackles behind the line of scrimmage. "I didn't think I would have [such a big] day," Foley said. "I just happened to be really on that day. I just felt good. Things just went right." Things had gone tragically wrong for Foley just eight days before the Princeton game, though. His mother Rose died on November 1, five months after being diagnosed with cancer. Amazingly, Foley did not tell anyone about his mother's death and played the next day against Yale. He had a hand in eight tackles, including two for losses, in Penn's 20-3 win. "I didn't want anyone worrying if I was ready to play," Foley said. "The team had enough problems they had to worry about. I didn't want them worrying about me. My mother would want me to play the game. I know that." The illness weighed has heavily on Foley this season. His mother remained in the hospital after being diagnosed, so, after each game, Foley took a train home to North Bergen, N.J., to stay with her for a few days. Instead of losing his interest and focus on football after his mother's passing, Foley has motivated himself to play harder. The games -- and opposing offenses -- have become outlets for his frustration. "For some people, I think it would make it hard," Foley said. "But in the back of my mind, I think how my mother would have wanted it, and I think she would have been upset if I just went to pieces altogether. "If I stop and think about what she had to go through, it's tough. But it makes me mad more than upset. Football just happens to be a great way of venting anger." · The only Penn running back besides Jasen Scott to lug the pigskin on Saturday was sophomore Jason McGee, who ran one time for five yards. Scott gave new meaning to the term featured back, carrying a school-record 45 times for 155 yards. "That's a lot," coach Al Bagnoli said. "Too many, probably." The problem was that junior Rick Granata and senior Aman Abye both got hurt and missed a couple days of practice last week, leaving the Quakers with just two backs. "Ideally, we don't want to have any back carry the ball 45 times," Bagnoli said. "We just got caught in a situation where we didn't have anybody else healthy. I don't think we were really charting it, and, next thing you know, he had 45 carries. It wasn't like it was done intentionally." Both Abye and Granata are practicing this week and should be ready for Saturday's game against Harvard. · Penn's leading receivers against Princeton were juniors Alec Dafferner (three catches for 29 yards) and Brian Bonanno (three for 26 yards). Few people could have predicted that before the season. Dafferner and Bonanno were a good way down the depth chart, and the Quakers' primary receivers were expected to be seniors Mark Fabish (out with an injured shoulder) and Erik Thompson. "We're rolling a lot of young kids through, whether you're talking about Bonanno or you're talking about Dafferner or you're talking about [junior John] James," Bagnoli said. "Without Fabish, who was the only kid with any real experience, we're really rolling out some somewhat inexperienced kids."