Crimson next for Football

Princeton might represent Penn's biggest rival in many sports, but a win over the Tigers last weekend now sets the stage for what is really the most important game of the 2001 season.

On Saturday, the undefeated Penn football team (7-0, 5-0 Ivy League) will travel to Boston to face undefeated Harvard (7-0, 5-0).

With only two games remaining on each team's schedule, the winner of Saturday's 12:30 p.m. contest will earn at least a share of the Ivy championship.

"I'm definitely looking forward to [this weekend]," Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman said. "It's exciting to have two undefeated teams go at each other.

"I think a lot of us have been trying not to look ahead to this game, but it's inevitable. So I think guys are really going to be fired up this week and it's going to be a great game."

In last year's Nov. 11 meeting against Harvard on Franklin Field, Hoffman completed 34-of-47 passes for 394 yards, leading Penn to its third consecutive come-from-behind victory in front of a Homecoming crowd.

The Quakers topped the Crimson by a score of 36-35, staging an improbable comeback after trailing, 35-27, with just 2:09 remaining.

Harvard freshman placekicker Robbie Wright had a chance to retake the lead in the final seconds, but his 33-yard kick sailed wide left.

This year, Penn and Harvard have taken largely similar paths to Saturday's marquee matchup.

Both won their first seven contests. Most of both teams' wins have come via blowout. And each has had one real Ivy scare.

For the Quakers, that scare came on Sept. 29, when Kyle Chaffin blocked a last-second extra point attempt at Dartmouth to preserve a 21-20 win.

For the Crimson, it was the same Princeton team that pestered the Quakers on Saturday.

In an Oct. 20 game in Boston, Princeton kicker Taylor Northrop missed a game-winning field goal from 49 yards out, as Harvard hung on for a 28-26 victory.

In Saturday's victory against Princeton, Penn senior running back Kris Ryan topped the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season.

Ryan, who has been the workhorse and most valuable member of the Penn offense in 2001, carried the ball 36 times for 166 yards and a touchdown against the Tigers.

For the season, Ryan has now accumulated 1,014 yards, averaging 4.9 yards per carry. He has run for nearly 145 yards per game and has reached the end zone 12 times.

"I try to come out every game and play as hard as I can for every snap, because I know my opportunities are limited," Ryan said.

Ryan now needs 215 rushing yards and five touchdowns in the next two weeks to break Brian Keys' Penn career marks of 3,137 and 35, respectively.

The Penn defense, which had been so dominant in the team's first six games, showed signs of mortality in the first half of the Princeton game.

The Quakers entered Saturday allowing an average of just 27 yards on the ground but surrendered 92 in the first half alone.

The second half, however, was another story. Penn completely shut the door on the Tigers' offense, keeping them off the scoreboard in the final 30 minutes.

Princeton's shifty sophomore quarterback, David Splithoff, could no longer surprise the Penn defense with the options and traps he had employed so effectively earlier in the game.

"In the second half, we started containing [Splithoff] and trying just to make a tackle instead of making a big hit," Penn defensive tackle John Galan said.

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