Football: No sure thing

First, they lost their season opener at home at the last second. The following week, they followed that up by losing big to a nearby school that was far more athletic and is perennially one of its most dangerous nonconference opponents.

Yes, it's been a rough couple of weeks for Dartmouth.

But as Penn treks up to Hanover, N.H. to take on the Big Green on Saturday, the Quakers are well aware that those words could just as easily describe them.

Penn's last-second loss to Lafayette two weeks ago wasn't the first Ivy League heartbreaker of the day - Dartmouth had already blown a 28-point third quarter lead and lost in overtime to Colgate.

And while the Quakers were being blown out of the water by Villanova last week, the Big Green were wallowing in the wake of a 52-31 beatdown at the hands of No. 10 New Hampshire, another big-time Colonial Athletic Association school that annually torments its Ivy counterpart.

"It hasn't been an easy path for either one of us," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "But none of that matters because now we're in league play. I think we're two very, very similar teams at this point."

Drawing comparisons to Dartmouth isn't exactly what Penn had in mind for this season, but the chips have fallen that way for a team that could be about one loss away from crisis mode.

And for a team that has beaten the Big Green nine years running, a game against Dartmouth has never looked more crucial - or more uncertain.

After escaping with a seven-point win last season, Penn will have to contend with a largely unchanged team this year. And this time it's not within the friendly confines of Franklin Field.

"Historically [Dartmouth is] a tough place to play," Bagnoli said. "It's a long trip so our kids are gonna have to be focused. They're gonna have to treat it as a business trip."

Fortunately for the Quakers, their caravan will be one stronger than last week, as running back Joe Sandberg - "a fine football player and just a tough son of a gun," according to Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens - will return to the starting lineup to take some of the pressure off of quarterback Robert Irvin.

The mobile Bryan Walker will also almost certainly see some time off the bench to kickstart the offense and spell the more pocket-oriented Irvin.

The Penn offense will have to contend with a veteran-heavy Big Green defense that includes senior captains Justin Cottrell and Ian Wilson and caused three Quakers turnovers last year. Cottrell was fourth in the Ancient Eight in tackles in his junior season, while Wilson was a second-team All-Ivy selection.

But Penn senior wideout Braden Lepisto doesn't care how much experience the opposing defense has - this is a must-win, even if it is still September.

"We expect to win the game because we're 0-2 and we expect to win the championship nonetheless," said Lepisto, who has been Irvin's favorite target this year. "We're going into this game saying 'We're gonna win this game' because if not, then our Ivy League season is - in my mind - somewhat lost."

The records may read 0-2, but the slate has been wiped clean for a couple of teams in dire need of a new start.

"The past will be forgotten," Teevens said. "It will strictly be two Ivy teams in need of a win . We gotta throw all this stuff out the window."

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