Runaway: Football scores 34 straight for victory

PRINCETON, N.J. -- The Princeton Tigers knew it would come. They had to have known that the Penn football team and its high-octane offense couldn't be held to the measly six points it scored in the first 29 minutes and 54 seconds of the game on Saturday, but there was no way the Tigers could have known what they were in for. "We know Penn's a very good offensive team and we knew we were going to have to score points," Princeton coach Roger Hughes said. "We thought we were going to need 35 to 40 points to win the game." As it turns out, 40 points would only have tied the game for the Tigers. For the second straight week, the Quakers overcame an 18-point deficit and won. The Red and Blue left Old Nassau with a very convincing 40-24 win. Most importantly, the Quakers stayed in a three-way tie for first place in the Ivy League with Harvard and Cornell, who the Quakers will face over the next two weeks. But in the first half it looked for all the world as though Penn -- like Yale did Saturday -- would lose this game and turn the Ancient Eight into a two-horse race. After Princeton punted on its first possession, the Quakers got off only two plays before quarterback Gavin Hoffman, who was looking for tight end Ben Zagorski on the play, was intercepted at his own 44-yard line. After two Quakers field goals and two Princeton touchdowns, Hoffman threw another pick, this time killing a drive at the Princeton 18. Two drives later, Hoffman was flushed out of the pocket and was unable to tuck the ball away before it was stripped by a Princeton defender. The Tigers took over on the Penn 23 and punched the ball in the end zone to take a 21-6 lead. "That was probably as poor of a half as I've played this year," Hoffman said. "I just tried to go out and keep plugging away, to forget the mistakes and keep going." Hoffman wasn't the only player unable to get on track in the first half. Penn running back Kris Ryan was held to just 15 yards on eight carries, and kick returner Kunle Williams failed to field a kickoff which the Tigers recovered for a long onside kick at the Penn six. The Quakers defense held at the goal line, though, and Princeton's Taylor Northrop hit a field goal to give the Tigers a 24-6 lead on their last possession of the half, and it looked as though the Quakers would spend the second half digging their way out of another 18-point hole. The Quakers got the ball at their own 40 with 43 seconds left in the half. They used 37 of those seconds to move the ball just 18 yards, to the Princeton 42. But then, serendipity hit. With just six ticks on the clock, Hoffman heaved a throw toward the end zone. Princeton linebacker Chris Roser-Jones leapt at the six yard line and batted the ball backwards and down into the waiting arms of Penn wideout Doug O'Neill, who ran nearly the width of the field evading Princeton defenders and managed to stick the ball just over the goal line with his outstretched left arm. "I'm supposed to be just a couple of yards behind where the ball is going to land, and if it gets tipped back to me I'm just supposed to go up and get it," said O'Neill, who had seven catches for 148 yards and that touchdown. "That [play] gave us a lot of momentum going into the locker room at halftime." O'Neill may have even understated the case. The Quakers came out on fire, scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions after the break, and with about seven minutes to go in the third quarter found themselves ahead 34-24. Hoffman -- who finished the day with 313 yards and four touchdowns -- was a different quarterback, twice finding Zagorski in the end zone after trying repeatedly in the first half to hit the big tight end in double coverage. "I think the Brown game gave the team a lot of confidence that we'll be able to come back against any sort of margin," Hoffman said. "Our offense is able to score quickly. We were only down 18 at the half, last week we were down 18 with four minutes to go." Everything turned around in the second half. Ryan found his stride as the Quakers tried to milk the clock in the fourth quarter, gaining 113 yards on 19 second-half carries. Ryan's 128 yards gave last year's Ivy League rushing champ his first 100-yard game of the season. "It was good to finally get [Ryan] going, and get north-south and make some positive yards and run the clock," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. As for the Quakers' position with Harvard and Cornell at the top of the Ivy heap, Bagnoli couldn't do much more than throw up his hands and attribute it to life in this crazy little football league. "You're part of a mini-playoff every week, and that's all you're trying to do is survive," Bagnoli said. "Nothing is pretty. Nothing is easy."

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