EASTON, Pa.
As Al Bagnoli twiddled his victory cigar, one has to wonder what he was thinking about.
Was he enjoying his 100th win as Penn's head coach? The end of a four-game losing streak? Beating a top-25 team? Seeing his starting sophomore quarterback begin his career 11-for-11?
Instead, Bagnoli may have been realizing that his front seven put up a dominant performance, holding an offense that scored 28 points in the first half alone a week earlier to 11 against the Quakers.
The deep rotation of defensive linemen and linebackers combined for four sacks and nine tackles for loss - a lot compared to Lafayette's one and four. But most of the front seven's impact was not captured in the box score.
The pass rush was able to put constant pressure on Lafayette's captain and 2005 second-team All-Patriot quarterback Brad Maurer. A week before, Maurer torched Bucknell for 325 total yards, including a 72-yard touchdown run. However, on Saturday, when Maurer wasn't getting sacked, the mobile senior was getting jacked up by the likes of linebacker Joe Anastasio, tackle Naheem Harris and end Jim Malizia, and was being pressured by linebackers Kory Gedin and Brian Fairbanks.
"I think there's no question they have a very stout front seven," Lafayette coach Frank Tavani said. "We were getting knocked backed more than we should have."
The performance is more impressive considering that besides Scotty Williams, starting safety Jordan Manning and cornerbacks Greg Ambrogi and Tyson Maugle had combined for a grand total of five tackles in their careers before this weekend. The linebackers and linemen knew they had an inexperienced secondary, and they rose to the challenge to support it.
The pass rush "was the whole key to the game," Bagnoli said. "Our secondary, with the exception of Scotty, is brand new; you've got sophomores running around, freshmen in there, you have a junior that really hasn't played an extensive amount, so there's a lot of stress on those down kids to rush the quarterback."
When Maurer was not under pressure, he did manage to find wide open receivers. The senior quarterback threw for 298 yards, including hitting wideout Joe Ort seven times for 98. And with a near-thousand-yard running back in the backfield in Jonathan Hurt, Maurer often fooled Penn backs with play action passes, leaving wide open targets downfield.
But the pressure up front negated the mistakes the young secondary made, giving the proficient quarterback little time to make plays. Perhaps last year, Penn would have blitzed aggressively with players like Casey Edgar and Doug Middleton to rely on, but Bagnoli didn't want secondary players this unseasoned to have to endure one-on-one coverage all afternoon.
"They have to talk, communicate, change coverages and get things done, and without experience that's tough to do," Bagnoli said.
Early in the second half, Maurer was flushed out of the pocket by tackle Mark Herman and Gedin, and just before taking a hit along the sidelines he threw a pass into the arms of Maugle for the only turnover of the game. Maurer often got laid out as he delivered, ending up on his back instead of watching where his passes flew.
If the Quakers are to win the Ivy League, they certainly must rely on the front seven to make things happen. And judging by Saturday's performance against the No. 22 Leopards' offense, Ancient Eight quarterbacks will be running for their lives in 2006.
Josh Wheeling is a junior economics major from Philadelphia, and is Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jw4@sas.upenn.edu.
