Football | Crisp beats sluggish any day

Listening to Lafayette coach Frank Tavani wax philosophical at Saturday's postgame press conference, you might have thought the ghosts of Lombardi and Rockne had lent a hand in his team's victory.

"That ball is a funny shape, and it bounces funny ways," he said. "Any given week, anyone is capable of beating anyone."

But on this night, the explanation behind Lafayette's triumph couldn't have been simpler.

From the moment the squad burst through the giant inflatable leopard's head during pre-game introductions, Team Tavani looked crisp and focused on offense, performing admirably in front of the Homecoming crowd.

On the other hand, the Quakers' defense - their most potent asset on paper - trudged sluggishly through the game's opening frames.

"I'm sure some of the credit is to the execution by Lafayette," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said of the 24-0 halftime deficit. "[But] we played so poorly in that first half."

After winning the coin toss, the Red and Blue declined to receive the ball first, choosing instead to grant the Leopards possession and begin the game on defense.

The move seemed sensible enough, especially after the unit's impressive showing against No. 19 Villanova last weekend. Setting the tone against the Leopards' attack could have provided the Quakers with some nice momentum out of the gate.

The Leopards, though, failed to oblige, employing a textbook combination of air and ground - five of each on the 10-play drive - to put Penn on its heels from the outset.

Running back Maurice White plowed methodically through the Quakers' front seven for 27 yards on just four carries, while quarterback Rob Curley picked the secondary apart with four completions of at least eight yards, culminating in a 10-yard floater to a wide-open Michael Conte to open the scoring.

On the other side of the ball, Penn's offense sputtered throughout the first 30 minutes, managing only four first downs and a dismal 2.2 yards per play.

The result: Sideline breathers were scarce for the defense, and the wear-and-tear showed in the second quarter.

After controlling the ball for over 11 minutes in the first, Lafayette extended its lead by attacking Penn's greatest strength: its athletic, veteran defensive backfield.

On two occasions, speedy senior wideout Shaun Adair got the better of All-Ivy corner Chris Wynn on deep post patterns.

The first, coming on the first play of the second quarter, found Adair galloping from left to right across the middle of the field and toward the goal line.

After slipping behind both Wynn and the safety help, he was able to track down what initially looked like an overthrown pass from Curley, who quadrupled his 2008 touchdown total in the first half Saturday night.

"Rob did a really good job selling it to the safety," Adair said. "He put the ball right where it needed to be."

Three drives later, on the first play following an Irvin interception, the two connected again - this time on a right-to-left post - to put the Leopards up by 24.

And though the scoring would end there for the home squad - as the run-and-gun gave way to more conservative, clock-milking playcalling in the second half - Lafayette's early exploits had done the trick, rendering Penn's frenetic 17-point second-half rally futile.

"We obviously played much closer to our potential in the second half," Bagnoli said. "I'd like to think we were capable of doing some of that in the first."

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