Win at Yale puts Quakers in control

The Penn football team's 26-7 victory set up a potential showdown with Harvard. NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Three weeks ago, a defeated Penn football team walked off of Lehigh's field 1-3 on the young season, winless in the Ivy League. They said it didn't matter, the real season was still ahead. They were right. With a 26-7 win Saturday afternoon at Yale -- and just as importantly, Harvard's win over Dartmouth -- the Quakers (4-3, 3-1 Ivy League) retook control of their destiny. If Penn can win its final three games, including a November 15 showdown in Cambridge, Mass., with Harvard, it is assured a piece of the league championship. The Quakers were expected to beat last-place Yale (1-6, 0-4) and did so with little difficulty. On a sloppy Yale Bowl field, Penn kept to a conservative game plan mixing short passes and the running tandem of Jim Finn an Jason McGee. It also benefitted from three Yale fumbles lost. Both teams wanted to get out to a fast lead and let their defense -- and its ally, the atrocious weather and field conditions -- do the rest. For Penn, that's just how it worked. Quakers returner Bruce Rossignol broke tackles up the middle of the field, finally stopping at Yale's 45-yard line on the opening kickoff return. After a McGee seven-yard run, Penn gave the ball to Finn, who broke through the line, bounced off Yale linebackers and accelerated 38 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead just one minute into the game. Early in the second quarter, Penn added a second touchdown, this time from a more traditional scoring drive. Quakers quarterback Matt Rader was the star, not for his throwing but for his running. Rader saved the drive deep in Penn territory by scrambling for a first down on a third-and-eight and later completed it by scoring on an eight-yard keeper. Penn took the 14-0 lead into halftime fully confident it could hold on. Then the weather caught up to it. On the Red and Blue's first drive of the second half, Rader was under pressure. He tried to force the ball to a receiver on the far side, but the wet ball slipped, and was intercepted by Yale linebacker Todd Scott. The senior captain scampered 50 yards for an Elis touchdown, cutting his team's deficit to seven. "We thought at halftime we had decent control of the game and we thought we might have some degree of security," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "But then what we cautioned about -- you're only one play away from a one-score game and that one play comes." The pass was Rader's 17th attempt of the game. He threw only twice more in the last 28 minutes. With passing not an attractive option, the Quakers turned to the ground. Finn continued his star-making switch to running back, carrying 21 times for 187 yards. The highlight was a 92-yard run early in the fourth quarter. The 215-pound Finn ran off left tackle, broke through traffic and outran Yale's defensive backs for the second-longest touchdown run in Quakers history. It was a play that would have silenced the crowd, if there had been one. The downpour limited attendance to an announced 3,600, although only about a fifth of that total really saw Finn's electrifying run. "He's given us a huge boost," Bagnoli said of the junior running back. "We were just trying to get the ball out of our own end, play some field position, and he goes 90 yards for a touchdown." Penn placekicker Jeremiah Greathouse, who had slipped on an early PAT attempt, missed the extra point, leaving Penn up 20-7. Finn finished the scoring midway through the fourth quarter with his first touchdown catch of the season, his 10th touchdown overall. Penn's two-point conversion pass failed to set the 26-7 final. Although Penn's 343 yards of total offense seem unexceptional, they tripled Yale's 110. The Elis, already missing injured tailback Jabbar Craigwell to injury for the season, lost sophomore starting quarterback Joe Walland to a shoulder separation early in the second half. They threw for just 29 yards, registering more fumbles (7) than completions (5). The Elis also gave away one golden opportunity. After McGee fumbled the ball away at Penn's 15 early in the fourth quarter, Quakers cornerback Larrin Robertson was whistled for pass interference in the end zone, giving Yale a first-and-goal at the one and a chance to knot the contest at 14. In a moment that defined the game, quarterback Chris Whittaker fumbled the snap and Penn defensive back Mike Ferguson recovered. "We're down 14-7 at the one-yard line -- you've got to find a way to win," new Yale coach Jack Siedlecki said. "You've got to believe that you can." Penn, on the other hand, controlled the ball and the game. Rader completed 12-of-19 for 104 yards, and Finn and McGee led a rushing attack that racked up 239 yards. It was Penn's sixth straight win over Yale. Now, with three games to play and three weeks after disaster struck, the Quakers are right where they want to be.

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