Penalties prove costly for football

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- In a parallel universe somewhere, the Penn football team is celebrating a tremendous upset of 21st-ranked Lehigh. Ben Zagorski caught three touchdown passes from Gavin Hoffman, and the Penn defense proved strong enough to hold on for a 24-17 victory. Of course, this is a parallel universe where referees do not tote pesky little bean bags, nor do they toss said bean bags to indicate penalties on scoring plays. Here in this universe, though, referees do call back touchdowns and field goals when infractions occur. In the first half, two of Zagorski's touchdown catches were nullified, as was a 42-yard field goal by Jason Feinberg. "Seventeen points, [penalties] cost us in the first half," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "That's not the best way to start off.... Maybe it's a different game if it's 17-3 at half." Feinberg's field goal marked the first time in the day that Penn points went by the boards at Goodman Stadium. It started innocently enough. The Quakers marched 60 yards on five plays in their second possession of the game before Engineers defensive back Abdul Byron broke up Hoffman's third down pass to Colin Smith. So, Feinberg trotted onto the field, lined up and belted an impressive 42-yarder into the wind and between the uprights to seemingly give the Red and Blue a 3-0 lead. But a jumpy Penn lineman nixed the field goal and sent the Quakers back five yards and out of field goal range. By the end of the first quarter, the Quakers had shot themselves in the foot with three penalties for 15 yards, and cost themselves three points. But they managed to remain tied with Lehigh on the strength of a defense that allowed just 46 yards and on the Engineers' own tendency to hold themselves back with penalties. Lehigh committed five in the first quarter, which cost the hosts 35 yards. It was the second period when Penn truly dealt itself bad breaks, committing five more penalties for 40 more yards, making a total of eight penalties for the half. In four games last season, Penn committed eight or fewer penalties. And probably none were as costly as the infractions the Quakers committed in the second quarter. After driving 48 yards to the Lehigh 15-yard line, Hoffman tossed a strike to the three, where Zagorski caught it and fought his way into the end zone, to once again apparently give the Quakers the lead. But the catch was made possible by a hold along the offensive line, so the touchdown was erased and the Red and Blue came away with no points after a missed field goal. Two drives later, the Quakers once again penetrated the Lehigh red zone. Eleven plays brought Penn down to the five-yard line. A delay-of-game call put the Quakers back at the 10. Then Hoffman dropped back and hit Zagorski on a perfect fade pattern, but the tight end all but lifted the defensive back up in order to throw him aside for one of the most blatant offensive pass interference penalties in football history. His catch was nullified, and only an official timeout called when Lehigh defensive back Rico Gladden injured his knee allowed Feinberg to convert a 30-yard field goal before the halftime break. "One thing that I was thinking at the half is that they should never have had the three points on the board, because the half should have ended," Lehigh coach Kevin Higgins said. "The fact that they took the couple of penalties helped us out." Still, the Quakers had every opportunity to gain the upper hand in the first half. But instead of leading, Penn went to the locker room tied at three with the No. 21 team in Division I-AA. The Quakers never again had an opportunity to cash in and take the lead.

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