Dan McQuade: First-half output key in rout

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Before the season, Travis Belden said that the one thing he always wanted to do was score a touchdown.

Penn's senior linebacker still doesn't have a TD, but maybe he'll take a safety as a consolation prize.

Belden set the tone of Penn's 44-13 rout of Princeton by sacking sophomore Matt Verbit in the end zone just over five minutes into the first half.

"What a better way to start off a game?" Belden said. "We thought we could capitalize on their lack of mobility up front, and right off the bat we made that big play."

The Penn-Princeton game was supposed to be the Tigers' chance to claw back into the Ivy League title race, something they haven't been in since they won the title in 1995.

Add in the fact that the Quakers were on the road, and Saturday's game could have prevented this week's Penn-Harvard de facto Ivy League Championship.

Instead, Belden and the Penn defense put Verbit and the Princeton offense in such a hole that the Tigers had no chance to come back in the second half.

"I thought we played a teriffic defensive game," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "But you've got to be a little bit lucky. To put a second-game starter in that scenario is very difficult.

"Our defensive kids really ratcheted it up, but they were missing 20 games of experience in Splithoff."

Verbit, a sophomore making only his second start, completed only four passes in the first half for a paltry 31 yards. In all, the Tigers ran 26 first-half plays for 29 yards.

Averaging 1.12 yards per play won't get you a first down, let alone win you a football game.

Still, Verbit rallied the Tigers from 15 down in the fourth quarter in the snow on the road the week before -- and nearly brought the Tigers back against Harvard two weeks prior, after coming in for the still-injured David Splithoff.

This week, however, Verbit looked atrocious and was hurried on a majority of his passes when the game was still close, resulting in bad throws.

"We didn't execute," Princeton coach Roger Hughes said. "We dropped passes. We didn't throw the ball on time. You've got to make the plays you need to make, and we didn't.

"You always want to be a better team at the end of the game than at the start, but I think we took a step back today."

Princeton was a better team at the end of the game than at the beginning, but all of the Tigers' yards and points came in garbage time with the game already well out of hand.

From Belden's sack of Verbit in the end zone to Fred Plaza's interception return for a score midway through the third quarter, the Quakers made sure that Princeton would never even have a shot for an upset.

Punter Josh Appell gave the Quakers' defense some of the best opportunities to stop Princeton all afternoon. In the first half, Appell dropped all three of his punts inside the 20.

Appell is "getting better with each performance and I thought he was a key today," Bagnoli said. "He gave us great field position right from the get-go, helping us get that safety. If you're going to win a game against a team like this, you have to be sound in that area."

The Quakers executed in every area when it mattered on Saturday. Next week against Harvard, the Quakers will see if they can do it again -- with the Ivy League title on the line.

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