Sprint utterly annihilates Princeton by 44-point spread

Somehow, victories at Princeton's expense always seem just a little bit sweeter to Penn teams.

But when the margin of victory is 44 points, it's just that much better.

When the Tigers (0-2) came to Franklin Field last Friday to face the Penn sprint football team (2-0), no one was expecting a lopsided game.

But both the offensive and defensive efforts by the Quakers were impressive in their 56-12 drumming of the Tigers.

"Of course there's a great rivalry there," Penn senior co-captain Diego Morales said. "Princeton just hates Penn and Penn just hates Princeton. Beating them by one or two points is nice, but beating them like this is just so much better."

On the offensive end, Penn junior running back Mark Gannon ran for a season-high 162 yards -- more than half of the Quakers' yardage on the ground. In addition, he and freshman running back Peter Heller combined for five touchdowns in the game.

"The [offensive] line did an excellent job, as well as Gannon," Penn sophomore quarterback Jimmer Donapel said. "He managed to find a lot of holes that the line created."

The scoring rampage started on a nine-yard carry by Gannon into the end zone with 2:51 left in the first quarter. From there, the Quakers never looked back.

"We did really well," Monaghan said. "We came out of the gates slowly against Cornell [on Sept. 21], but now it seems like we're finally starting to run on all cylinders."

The defense matched the large offensive output with an outstanding effort that shut down the Tigers' offense until late in the third quarter, when the Quakers had already built a 40-0 lead.

Solid preparation and thorough film studies seemed to be the keys to the defensive success, as the Red and Blue anticipated exactly what the Tigers' offensive was going to try next.

"Our coaches prepared us really well for the game," Morales said. "We expected a huge challenge and used the two weeks in between Cornell and Princeton to prepare for that. It worked out perfectly -- we knew all of their formations and weren't really fooled by anything."

In general, however, the Quakers felt that two weeks of practice since the Cornell game -- in addition to playing a rescheduled alumni game -- ultimately gave them an edge in Friday's contest.

"You don't go into any game expecting a blowout," Donapel said. "They came out hard and were hanging in there in the beginning. But we were just ready for whatever Princeton had."

After the one-point victory over Cornell, Penn's renewed sense of confidence may prove to be the most valuable result of the game, especially when it heads up to West Point, N.Y., in two weeks to face perennial Collegiate Sprint Football League powerhouse Army.

"Army and Navy are definitely the studs of the league," Monaghan said. "It will be a completely different ball game. Princeton was a test to see what we can do. It's a struggle for points up there, but now we know we can score and we know we can stop them."

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