Jesse Spector: Incredible season continues

This time, they had clearly run out of magic. When Harvard linebacker Dante Balestracci deflected Gavin Hoffman's pass on fourth-and-nine with 2:42 to go, the Quakers' last, best hope to keep their Ivy League title hopes alive had gone by the boards. They had taken possession at the Crimson 30-yard line on Fred Plaza's interception, and failed to advance the ball. The freshman Balestracci had put an exclamation point on a day he dominated defensively with 17 total tackles and an interception. The cardiac Quakers had finally flatlined. Of course, with the Penn football team, any amount of time over two minutes is an eternity. Sixty-six seconds later, the Quakers had the ball back after forcing Harvard to punt. Twelve seconds, one unbelievable catch and one excellent pass later, they had the lead. "We never think that [we've had it]," Hoffman said. "With this team, we've shown that there's no reason to ever think negatively on the sidelines." As the Crimson marched back down the field to try to win the game, two things played perfectly into the script. The first was that although he has been perfect on extra points, Harvard kicker Robbie Wright has hit just two field goals this season. The second was that the Crimson were going into the wind, a wind that had earlier knocked down Jason Feinberg's 44-yard attempt. So, with 15 seconds to play, Wright lined up to try a 33-yarder that would win it for Harvard. It should surprise nobody who has seen the Quakers play this season -- least of all over the last three weeks -- that Wright's kick sailed wide to the left, and may not have had the distance anyway. Two weeks ago, the Quakers reversed an 18-point deficit against Brown with less than five minutes to play. Last week, they trailed Princeton by 18 just before halftime, then scored 34 unanswered points to win. Now this. After it looked like they had thrown away every opportunity to win a back-and-forth battle, the Quakers defeated Harvard. The one game left on the ledger is a winner-take-all duel for the Ivy League title, and seems to be a perfect capper for this Ancient Eight season for the ages. Because if there is any one team that has "team of destiny" written all over itself more than Penn, it's Cornell. Three of the Big Red's five Ivy League wins have been by one point, including a comeback win over the Crimson in which Cornell trailed 28-0 at halftime. Like Penn, Cornell won its homecoming game by a point on a missed field goal. Only when the Big Red beat Yale, it was no freshman like Wright, but 1999 first team All-Ivy kicker Mike Murawczyk's 32-yarder that went wide left. Cornell beat Columbia this week on a touchdown with 44 seconds left. After Penn's win against Brown, Quakers coach Al Bagnoli characterized the Ivy League as "a spectator's delight, but a coach's nightmare." He characterized Saturday's game as another spectator's delight, but never spoke of it being a coach's nightmare. "I don't know how you explain these games," Bagnoli said. Maybe that's because for the Quakers, this was all but just another day at the office. Hoffman, who spent Thursday night vomiting and still felt sick Saturday, completed 34-of-47 passes for 394 yards and two touchdowns. But he's out of records to break, so it was Feinberg who broke a record, becoming the most prolific kicker in Ivy League history, scoring his 209th point on the fourth-quarter field goal that put Penn within five. The critical catch that set up the winning touchdown was made by Jason Battung, the Red and Blue's sixth-leading receiver, a man about whom a Boston scribe in the press box asked, "Isn't he just the holder?" Ho-hum. Hoffman said that "one wouldn't think" the Quakers would be involved in a more exciting game than the Brown game, but it has become a weekly exercise in that sort of excitement. It's already been quite a ride. Now, the Quakers need just one win to finish off what might be the most surprising and exciting season that anyone around the team has seen.

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