'Finn'tastic end to Ivy title run in Ithaca

Penn running back Jim Finn set the new Penn single season rushing mark with 1450 yards. ITHACA, N.Y. -- With a 35-21 victory at Cornell on Saturday, the Penn football team (8-2, 6-1 Ivy League) took Ancient Eight matters into its own hands, claiming its third undisputed Ivy crown of the 1990s. Entering the game assured of at least a tie for the Ivy crown, the Quakers held off a late Cornell come-back attempt to validate last week's goal post tossing and foil the plans of Ivy bridesmaids Brown and Yale, both of whom were victorious on Saturday. "Like the champions that they are, they really did a nice job responding. When it came to crunch time, they made the plays," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "It's nice that they don't have to share it with anybody, and it's always nice to be called the best." In the frigid, 37 degree conditions of Schoellkopf Field, the Quakers offense started slowly. Penn's defense and special teams, however, hardly seemed to notice the offense's stagnation, as the Quakers raced to a 21-0 halftime lead without the aid of an offensive touchdown. "It was a weird offensive game early on," Bagnoli, who has now earned three titles in seven years at Penn, said. "All of a sudden we look up and we've got a couple of touchdowns and we probably hadn't [gotten] more than two first downs." With 5:30 left in the first quarter, Penn owned just four yards of net offense, thanks to a pair of penalties worth 39 yards. At third and four on their own 21, the Quakers looked to running back Jim Finn -- who entered the game needing just 41 yards to break the Penn single-season rushing record -- to make something happen. Penn's co-captain coughed up the ball, though, and Cornell tackle Tom Richards swallowed it up at the Quaker 22. On Cornell's first play of the drive, Quakers cornerback Anthony DeSalle -- starting in place of injured senior Hasani White -- foiled the Big Red's attempt to crack open the scoring. DeSalle intercepted Mike Hood's pass at the 17 and broke loose, sprinting up the left sideline for an 83-yard touchdown run. On the point-after, holder Jason Battung -- the Quakers fourth-string quarterback and sometime-receiver -- botched the snap. Battung recovered the ball, stood up and fired a pass to T.J. Trapp into the endzone to give Penn an 8-0 lead. Penn's offense was not alone in its early struggles. Hardly a well-oiled machine in the first quarter, the Big Red netted just 35 yards in their first 7:50 with the ball. Forced to punt a minute-and-a-half into the second quarter, Cornell hoped to contain Penn co-captain Joe Piela when he fielded the ball at his own 17. The Fair Lawn, N.J. native faked left and rolled right, tearing a hole through the Big Red special teams en route an 83-yard return of his own. With that return, Piela -- who finished the day with three returns for 106 yards -- eclipsed Penn's 30-year-old single-season punt return mark of 436 yards, finishing with 512. Co-captain Finn then did some record smashing of his own. On first down at the Cornell 23, Finn plowed right for a gain of six yards, breaking the previous Penn season rushing record of 1,302 yards, set by Bryan Keys in 1989. "It's a great thing to accomplish, but winning the Ivy championship is our main goal and my main goal -- that's what the season was about," Finn -- who finished the season with 1450 yards -- said. "Everything else is just gravy." His 36 carries gave him 323 on the year, erasing Jasen Scott's '96 mark of 290 carries from the books. Needing 14 points and three rushing touchdowns to break Penn records that stood at 58 and 91 years old, respectively, Finn tried mightily to cross the goal line in the first half. Each time, though, Finn and the Quakers offense stalled in the red zone. Two field goals by Feinberg sent Penn to the locker room up 21-0. In the third quarter, Penn senior quarterback Matt Rader -- also in search of a handful of Penn records -- orchestrated the first strong offensive drive of the game. After two plays and a penalty, the Quakers set up a third and 10 from the Cornell 13. Rader, taking the snap out of the shotgun, found Dave O'Neill cutting right to left in the endzone for his second touchdown reception of the season. With Penn up 28-0 heading into the final quarter, it seemed likely that the Quakers seniors would be enjoying their Ivy championship from the sidelines. But Cornell was not quite ready to die. Arousing from an offensive slumber, the Big Red got on the board at 10:38 of the fourth quarter when Hood found a leaping Joe Splendorio for a 37-yard touchdown pass. A Jim Finn fumble at the Penn 26 set up Cornell's second score. Hood completed a 24-yard pass -- again to Splendorio -- on the first play of the drive. Fullback Deon Harris then powered it in to cut Penn's lead to 14 with 8:15 remaining. Two plays later, however, Finn more than made up for his fumbles, rumbling right for a 71-yard pick-up to the Cornell 9. He then plunged in to notch his 17th touchdown of the season on the next play. "He's a big back, a big boy, and he's a hard runner," Cornell senior linebacker John Hanson said. "Our defense tried to get the ball away from him, and it worked a couple of times, but he's a good running back." Even after Finn's score, Hood remained a thorn in Penn's side. With 3:20 left in the game, the senior notched his 11th touchdown pass of the season with a 61-yard bomb -- yet again to Splendorio, to make the score 35-21 after the extra point. The Big Red then swallowed up an onside kick. Cornell drove to the 10, where Hood completed a nine-yard pass to Justin Bush on third and goal. But Penn's DeSalle again was a factor, breaking up Hood's pass in the endzone to give the Quakers the ball back at their one-yard line with 58 seconds left. Rader ate the ball twice, preserving the 35-21 victory and sealing the book on Penn's '98 Ivy League championship. The senior finished his Penn career by completing 14-of-27 passes for 143 yards, as the Quakers earned their seventh undisputed title since the Ivy League began official play in 1956.

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