Time is running out for Football

Penn takes on Harvard as the two teams vie to stay alive in the Ivy race. It's No. 1 vs. No. 2. While Penn's battle with Harvard tomorrow on the Harvard Stadium gridiron is not a matchup of the top two teams in the Ivy League, it is a battle between the top two running backs -- Quakers sophomore Kris Ryan and Crimson senior Chris Menick. Individual matchups aside, this game is a must-win for both teams -- Penn (4-4, 3-2 Ivy League) faces elimination with a loss, but Harvard (5-3, 3-2) would still have a mathematical chance -- however minuscule -- at winning the league even with a loss tomorrow. Penn's Ryan leads the Ancient Eight with 1,161 rushing yards and is fifth in Division I-AA with 145.13 yards rushing per game. Menick is second to Ryan in rushing yardage in the Ivy League with 906 yards and ranks 25th nationally with 113.3 yards per game. With another solid year carrying the football, Menick has amassed enough yardage -- he is currently up to 3,267 career yards -- to break the Harvard career record for rushing yards. "He is an excellent runner and a tough kid," Penn senior linebacker Jim Hisgen said. "He is the type of guy who will play hard every play and we have to try and match him every time he touches the ball." Menick's work ethic on the field sounds comparable to Ryan's. "They are actually very similar," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "They both are excellent inside runners and they both do a good job of keeping their leg drive going." Although similar in style, the two backs differ greatly in stature. Ryan has two inches and at least 35 pounds on the Crimson's diminutive 5'10" tailback. But if any defense in the Ivy League can slow down the powerful Ryan it's the Crimson defense. Harvard's run stoppers allow a mere 91.6 yards per contest -- eighth best in Division I-AA. Harvard's defense is anchored by senior linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski, who also holds a spot in the Crimson record books. Adding 10 tackles against Brown last week, Kacyvenski now has 112 tackles this fall, good enough to break his own record for tackles in a season. Kacyvenski also shattered Harvard's record for career tackles earlier this season. His 372 tackles are 99 better than any other player in Crimson history. But Kacyvenski's most impressive statistic is still a record in the making. Barring injury in the last 10 days of the season, Kacyvenski is just two starts shy of becoming the first player in Harvard history to start all 40 games of his collegiate career. While the Kacyvenski-led Harvard defense might be able to stop Ryan, Penn's rushing defense stands a decent chance of doing the same against Menick. The Quakers' run defense allows 94.9 yards per game -- good for 10th place in Division I-AA. The Quakers' defense, however, acknowledges that shutting down Menick, who was out with an ankle injury during Penn's 41-10 drubbing of Harvard last year, is a key to victory tomorrow. "We feel that Harvard is going to try to establish a run game early," Penn senior defensive lineman Michael Germino said. "We can take their game plan away by stopping the run. We want to force them to pass the ball after we stop the run." If the Red and Blue are successful at stuffing Menick at the line of scrimmage, the Crimson's offensive burden will fall on the unlikely shoulders of senior quarterback Brad Wilford. Although he is a senior, Wilford has played second fiddle his entire career to Harvard's other senior quarterback, Rich Linden. With 2,099 yards passing his sophomore year, Linden quarterbacked the Crimson to a 7-0 record in the Ivy League and the 1997 league title. Meanwhile, Wilford had only 53 passing attempts entering the 1999 season. However, he has since stolen the starting job from the veteran Linden. "I don't know what is going on with the quarterbacks," Germino said. "[Wilford] is an average quarterback and he doesn't run as well as Linden." Wilford has done a decent job passing the football by completing 57.4 percent of his passes for 1,593 yards this fall. The Penn defense will also look to carry the momentum from the Princeton game, in which they forced five turnovers. "We really have done a poor job in the plus-minus ratio of turnovers," Bagnoli said. "Going into Princeton, we were last in the league in the turnover ratio." The Quakers did a good job of forcing Princeton errors, including three second-half interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns by sophomore defensive back Kunle Williams. Meanwhile, the Penn offense only turned the ball over once. "That's the part we have to continue to harp on, protecting the football offensively and defensively creating turnovers," Bagnoli said. While Penn tries to keep its slim Ivy League title hopes alive by winning the turnover battle, the biggest side story at Harvard Stadium will be which running back proves he is the cream of the Ivy crop.

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