In four seconds, Greathouse redeems himself

With one kick to defeat Princeton, Greathouse put a positive twist on an otherwise negative 1997. As the clock flashed eight seconds remaining Saturday afternoon, Penn placekicker Jeremiah Greathouse strutted onto the field for a 34-yard field goal attempt. Then the kicker ran back to the sidelines as Princeton tried to ice the Gainsville, Fla., native. Tigers coach Steve Tosches was confident he had done everything possible following a second consecutive timeout to throw off the Quakers' kicker's concentration. What Tosches and his fellow felines did not realize was that during those time-outs Greathouse used every moment he had to warm his "ice-cold" foot. After nearly five minutes of practice kicks on the sidelines, Greathouse jogged onto the gridiron, and in a misty rain, calmly nailed the 34-yarder. For Greathouse, the successful kick was "redemption" for other missed attempts this season. "Obviously I have my problems kicking this year, and after today, I will not have to look back at my senior year and have to say it was a complete failure, and it all went downhill. Now I can say it had some positives." As he alluded, the senior kicker has had his ups and downs in 1997 -- only connecting on six of his 13 field goal attempts prior to the Princeton contest. Greathouse made up for his earlier failure -- a missed 38-yard field goal that sailed wide right. Had that kick 10 minutes before the end of the game been good, it might have stomped out the Tigers' comeback. The conditions in the final seconds were "ideal" for Greathouse, who had previously watched the Red and Blue block a 46-yard field goal attempt by Princeton's kicker, Alex Sierk. "I was in a good situation with a 17-17 tie," Greathouse said. "I couldn't lose the game -- I could only win the game. The guys on the field goal block did their job, and they are the ones that put me in the situation, along with [backup quarterback Tom MacLeod] coming off the bench and replacing Matt [Rader] did a real good job of getting us down the field." As Penn coach Al Bagnoli stated in the post-game conference, following the blocked field goal by free safety John Bishop, all the focus on the Penn sideline shifted to Greathouse. Jim Finn carried the ball on the next five Quakers plays. The sophomore barreled his way forward for 26 yards, down to the Princeton 18-yard line, perfectly executing Penn's master plan. For all of Greathouse's struggles this fall, the Penn coaches never lost confidence in their kicker. "After we fell on the ball, that put us in a pretty good situation," Bagnoli said. "And then for the rest of the drive we were just going to wind it down and put Jeremiah in a situation where he could kick it, and either we are going to win it or we are going to overtime?. But I have seen Jeremiah make that kick many times in practice and knew there was a pretty good chance, as long as we got a good snap, he would hit it." Aside from practice, most upperclassmen can still remember when Greathouse knocked in a 41-yard field goal against Bucknell in 1995, to extend the Penn football team's winning streak to 23 games. When asked if the kick this past weekend was more memorable, Greathouse commented each attempt was "special" for different reasons. Tosches, who has a kicking phenom of his own, was especially impressed by Greathouse's poise. The Tigers' Sierk entered the contest this past weekend as the only placekicker in any division of college football who has not missed a kick this year. In addition, the junior had set a school record with 12 straight field goals -- he booted two more versus Penn before being snubbed in the final minutes. Sierk said Bishop's block had nothing to do with the hold or the weather conditions. "Eventually all streaks come to an end," the Spirit Lake, Iowa, native said. As Sierk's bid for kicking immortality came to a halt, Greathouse was given the opportunity to keep the Quakers' hopes of winning an Ivy League title alive. If the Penn kicker had failed in the fourth quarter and the Red and Blue lost in overtime, Greathouse would have been the scapegoat. But Greathouse rose to the occasion, and in doing so has allowed the Quakers a chance to proceed north to Cambridge, Mass., knowing full well they control their own destiny. "Yes, he has struggled at times this fall," Bagnoli said "But in the end, Greathouse came through in the clutch. He hit the final field goal and now the team can head into the Harvard game next week with confidence and momentum and, really, that is all we can ask of him."