FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: Finn and Rader aim to rewrite books

Penn quarterback Matt Rader and running back Jim Finn can both set new Penn records this weekend at Cornell. Already guaranteed a share of the '98 Ivy League crown with a 41-10 bashing of Harvard last Saturday on its home turf, the Penn football team heads to Cornell this Saturday looking to finish the season as the undisputed Ivy champs. "It's great. This is what we worked for for four years. Winning a championship just proves that we work together successfully as a group," senior running back and co-captain Jim Finn said. "We haven't done anything just yet -- we've got to go up there and win, and then we can celebrate." · Adding to the suspense inherent in having the outright league title on the line, several Quakers are heading into the final game of the season with distinct shots at breaking long-standing team records. Finn needs only 41 yards to break Bryan Keys' Penn single season rushing record of 1,302 yards, which was set nine years ago and only three touchdowns to break Howard Berry's 81-year-old single-season scoring record. Yet the two-year offensive starter, who has rushed for more than 41 yards in 14 of his 15 starts at tailback and ran for six touchdowns four weeks ago at Brown, remains noncommittal -- downplaying his individual accords on the season. "It's not really a big deal," Finn said. "It just means that we ran the ball successfully this year, and our offensive line and fullbacks and tight ends did a good job blocking for me." Not to be outdone, senior quarterback Matt Rader, who currently sits at No. 3 on the Quakers all-time single-season passing list with 1,883 yards, needs to hook up with his upstart core of receivers for 315 yards to overtake Jimmy McGeehan's five year old single-season record. If Rader can be content to amass 240 yards, however, he'll still be assured of passing McGeehan for first place in career passing yardage for the Quakers. "The individual awards come second," Rader stressed. "It may be nice [to break them], but the real goal of our team is to win the Ivy championship outright. "We're going to run our basic offense and the same game plan and try to execute it. If it happens, it happens." Quakers coach Al Bagnoli, who is looking to win his third outright title in seven years at the helm of the Penn team, agrees. "If we can accomplish winning the game, which is the most important thing, we'll try to [break the records]. But we won't do it out of the context of the normal game," Bagnoli said. "We won't put Matt Rader back in if we're up by 25 so he can throw 12 more passes." · Spurred on by two big-play touchdowns by senior co-captain Joe Piela -- a 74-yard punt return and a 25-yard interception return -- the Quakers won last year's end-of-season clash with the Big Red at Franklin Field, 33-20. With a 37-yard interception return and a 21-yard punt return which each gave the Quakers excellent field position last week against the Crimson, Piela may be primed for another Big Red blood-letting. "When I get out there on punt returns, I just try to get the ball back and try to get the offense good field position to put the ball in the end zone," Piela said. "Hopefully I can make a couple of plays like I did last year against Cornell and get in the end zone." Bagnoli, looking at Piela's continued special teams and defensive prowess, sees this play as a perfect compliment to the Quakers high-powered offense. "A lot of our offense has really been reflected in the short field -- [and] it was no different this past week," Bagnoli said. "The first touchdown, the defense was in there three-and-out, they punt, we return the punt 35 yards, and all of a sudden you look over and the ball is on the 32-yard line. Short field -- then you can really make some plays." · The Quakers' offensive line remained solid in the win last weekend, as Rader wasn't sacked on the afternoon. Even though this year's line features five starters new to their positions, the front five has given up just ten sacks to the 31 that the Quakers defense has inflicted and has given Rader time to complete 63 percent of his passes on the year. · With last week's stifling of the Crimson offense, the Penn defense remains the 20th best in Division I-AA. The Quakers run defense has even more impressive statistics -- fourth best in the nation at only 83.3 yards given up per contest. · Records, returns and rigorous defense aside, the main focus of this weekend remains winning the final game -- and with it the undisputed Ivy title. "We won [last week] and that was great and now we have a share of the championship," Piela said. "But nobody wants to share the championship -- it's like kissing your sister. So what we want to do is win it outright. We want to got up there and prove to everybody that we're the best team in the league."