Sprint Football falls from first with loss to Army

The Penn sprint football team suffered its first loss of the season against the Cadets. The Penn sprint football team has still only beaten Army twice in its 64-year history. Penn's Collegiate Sprint Football League title hopes were crushed Friday night at Franklin Field when it lost to the unbeaten Cadets (5-0,3-0 C.S.F.L), 29-9. The Quakers (4-1, 2-1) failed to cash in on the opportunity to defeat two academy teams and have an undefeated season for the first time in their history. In the words of Penn coach Bill Wagner, "it was a disappointment." The Quakers are not making excuses -- they admit that the better team won. "Army is a very good football team," Wagner said. "Their offensive and defensive lines were very strong and very physical. They did a good job blocking." According to Wagner, Penn played to the best of its ability considering the injuries his team sustained due to the bad astroturf at Cornell a week ago. Also, some of the players fell victim to the sudden flu-like outbreak that hit the University this past week. Although none of the Quakers were forced to miss Friday's game due to these reasons, some of them missed a significant amount of practice time. Army took Penn out of the game early and never let up enough to allow the Quakers to get into a rhythm offensively or defensively, according to Penn running back Tim Ortman. The Cadets' win was due largely to their dominance of the line of scrimmage from both sides of the ball. Wagner said that Army's offensive and defensive lines were "the difference in the game." Defensively, the Quakers could not shut down Army's potent running game. The Cadets used seven men to run the ball 76 times, gaining 353 yards on the ground. Army's passing game was not so effective, however, as freshman quarterback Matthew Caldwell attempted six passes and did not complete any of them. Meanwhile, Penn quarterback John Kernan had many more pass attempts than his usual half dozen. Kernan was 8-of-23 for 87 yards, but threw three interceptions and had key third down passes dropped by his receivers. Army is the only team so far this season that has discovered the key to successfully containing Ortman. The Cadets' defense held Ortman to 88 yards on 25 carries and a single touchdown, which came early in the fourth quarter. Dating back to last season, Ortman had four consecutive 200 yard games until last week's Cornell game, when he left the game early due to an injury after achieving 158 yards. Wagner admitted that the Cadets outplayed the Quakers, and he said that "[The Quakers] had games where they played better." Penn dug itself a hole early in the game after making many mistakes. Army scored first after blocking a punt for a safety. Penn answered with its own safety to make the score 5-2 with five minutes two seconds to play in the first quarter. Unfortunately for Penn, the Army side of the scoreboard read 23 before Penn got another point. "We didn't get a break the entire game," Wagner said, adding that the Quakers failed to force turnovers and control the ball. Wagner said that Penn can't dwell on this loss, as it has a game to play on Friday. The Quakers will turn their attention to their next and final opponent of the 1998 season, Princeton. When these two teams met earlier in the year, Penn crushed the Tigers 41-20. Penn will have to defeat the Tigers next week and hope that Navy can pull off an upset against Army to share bragging rights in the C.S.F.L with the Cadets. Although the Quakers admit that an Army loss is doubtful, they think it's possible.