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(10/25/95 9:00am)
For the first time in the last three seasons, Penn is in a position in which it needs help from other teams if it is going to win another Ivy championship. Specifically, the Quakers need Columbia -- which is undefeated at 3-0 -- to lose one of its remaining league games to give Penn a chance to gain at least a share of the Ivy title. The Lions will have their toughest Ivy challenge this week when they travel to Princeton, which is also 3-0. Penn will have a chance to give the Tigers a loss when it hosts Princeton Nov. 4. "We're in a different situation than we've been in the past," wide receiver Miles Macik said. "In the past, all we've had to do was win. Now we have to wait and see how other teams do. It's hard to do that. It's hard for us to listen to those scores because we're usually so wrapped up in everything that's going on on the sidelines. Either way, they're both the top dogs in the league right now. One of them is going out of there with a loss." The unique circumstances of the Princeton-Columbia matchup made Penn coach Al Bagnoli say something that most Penn fans could not bear to mouth. Said Bagnoli: "We're actually going to be pulling for Princeton." · The biggest surprise of Saturday's game against Brown -- other than the 58 points Penn scored -- had to be the dropped balls by the all-American Macik, who normally catches everything that is thrown anywhere close to him. Befitting his character, Macik admitted there were three passes to him that he should have caught, even though in fact only one of the misses was an easy catch. Although Macik atoned for his drops with a miraculous three-yard touchdown grab as the first half was winding down, the normally sure-handed wide receiver admitted he felt frustrated. "It was the first time I felt that I haven't played as well as I could have," Macik said. "The most important thing I could do right now is to keep on my mind that I'm going to bounce back. It's tough when I watched the films and saw what happened." · After Penn opened up a big lead against Brown, Bagnoli inserted backup quarterback Steve Teodecki into the game. In his first chance to play for an extended period of time this season, Teodecki completed two of six passes for 43 yards. "I thought Steve played very well," Bagnoli said. "That was good to see. We have to continue to get Steve some quality snaps in the event we have some injury problems down the road. He came in, threw some strikes and ran the offense very well." · On the injury front, both defensive end Roger Beckwith (strained knee ligament) and offensive lineman Sears Wright (lower back spasms) will likely sit out this Saturday's game against Yale. Bagnoli is optimistic both will suit up the following week against Princeton.
(10/23/95 9:00am)
Quakers rout Brown 58-21 Nobody had to tell Penn coach Al Bagnoli and company how important this game was for the season. With Princeton and Columbia undefeated in league play, this was a must-win game for the Quakers, who could not afford to continue their two-game slide any longer. Penn (4-2, 2-1 Ivy League) responded like it knew what was at stake, pummeling Brown early and often en route to a 58-21 laugher on parents' weekend, falling just shy of the Ivy League record of 59 points scored. "We played 60 minutes today," senior Tom McGarrity said. "The last two weeks we didn't play 60 minutes -- we played a half, we played 10 minutes. We didn't play like we should have been playing and today we did." The destruction of the Bears' defense was a team effort -- coming from the air, ground and special teams. The game was over before the first quarter, but the pounding did not stop until the third quarter ended with Penn leading 58-14. The score was 24-0 after the first quarter and 41-14 at halftime. "We've been waiting to break out for a long time and I think this is real good for us in terms of getting our self-esteem back," Bagnoli said. "I thought it was the biggest game of the year." It was definitely quarterback Mark DeRosa's biggest game of the year. With a 14-0 lead -- courtesy of a 48-yard touchdown run by Aman Abye (13 carries, 110 yards) and a 53-yard punt return by Mark Fabish -- he put on a passing clinic that left Brown's corners in an extended daze. DeRosa, who has been plagued by interceptions all season, avoided the errant pass Saturday, throwing for three touchdowns without committing any turnovers. "There was a lot of pressure to prove ourselves to everybody," DeRosa said. "I think I put a lot of heat on myself coming into today." DeRosa handled the pressure masterfully. In all, Penn's starting quarterback went 12 for 14 -- amazingly, his two incompletions were drops by all-American receiver Miles Macik -- for 183 yards until he was taken out as the third quarter was closing. His first of the three touchdown passes was a 28-yarder to little-used tight end Trevor Arbogast, which gave the Quakers a 21-0 lead with more than half the first quarter remaining. "They came out and took it to us from the beginning," Brown coach Mark Whipple said. "We thought we could hold up on a run defense, but I don't think we had three and out until it became a J.V. scrimmage in the third and fourth quarter. They played great, we played awful, and the score reflected that. They're just better all the way around. They scored on an interception. They scored throwing the ball. They scored running it. So it was just a good butt-kicking." By the end of the game, both teams nearly emptied their benches. The Quakers had an opportunity to play backup quarterback Steve Teodecki in an extended manner for the first time this season. He completed two of six passes for 43 yards. But before the subs came into the game, the starters executed enough great plays to make a season highlight reel. Included in the film would certainly be Jeremiah Greathouse's 50-yard field goal -- just four yards short of the Penn record -- that bounced on and then over the crossbar. Also included would be Miles Macik's miraculous three-yard touchdown grab, a catch he had to lunge high and far to pull down. But leading off the highlight reel would be McGarrity's interception and 36-yard rumble to the end zone that gave the Quakers the commanding 48-14 advantage in the third quarter. Said McGarrity: "Once I saw the daylight I just took off." You could say the same thing for the entire Penn team.
(10/19/95 9:00am)
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- In a wild contest that produced many startling statistics, two in particular stand out: William & Mary tailback Derek Fitzgerald's 219 rushing yards and Mark DeRosa's Penn-record five interceptions. These factors propelled the Tribe to a 48-34 victory over the Quakers on a rainy and humid day, marking the first time Penn coach Al Bagnoli has lost two consecutive games in his four-year reign as the Penn coach. But neither Fitzgerald's exploits nor DeRosa's woes had anything to do with the key play of the game -- Tribe quarterback Matt Byrne's hail-mary, 36-yard touchdown pass to Terry Hammons, who out-jumped a slew of Quakers to snatch the ball as the remaining seconds of the first half ticked away. That play, which put William & Mary (5-2) up 21-7, seemed to demoralize the Quakers, and by the time Penn recovered, it found itself down 34-7 in the third quarter. Penn (3-2) would never get closer than two touchdowns the rest of the day. "We practice the hail mary," said a visibly frustrated Bagnoli at game's end. "What can you tell them -- jump higher than the other guy and knock it down. The kid made a great play." The play epitomized breakdowns in Penn's secondary, which was due in part to Bagnoli's decision to leave his corners in man coverage. Particularly victimized was left cornerback Kevin Allen, who was burned on a 75-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Billy Commons late in the second quarter. Because the safeties bit on the play action, Allen was left all alone and vulnerable to the deep pass. "[Picking on the left side] was not in our game plan?It just worked out that we ended up picking on that side of the field," Byrne said. The Quakers could ill-afford secondary lapses with Fitzgerald (37 attempts for 219 yards) gaining nearly six yards a carry. Penn thought it received some good news when it found out the Tribe's other superstar running back, Troy Keen, would not play because of an ankle injury, but Fitzgerald easily picked up the load for the both of them. Fitzgerald was particularly valuable in the fourth quarter when the Quakers mounted a last-ditch effort to make a game of it. Penn -- sparked by running back Dion Camp (6 carries for 51 yards) and Mark Fabish, who returned a punt 39 yards for touchdown -- closed the gap to 34-20 with 14:54 left in the game. But William & Mary coach Jimmye Laycock called Fitzgerald's number again and again, and William & Mary was able to move the ball methodically and put more points on the board, while simultaneously eating up time. Nine of the last 13 plays for the Tribe were handoffs to Fitzgerald, who recorded 137 of his 219 rushing yards in the second half. The other factor that stalled the Quakers' comeback attempt was DeRosa's fifth interception, nabbed by Darren Sharper, who returned the errant pass 40 yards for a touchdown. That play gave William & Mary a 48-27 lead with 2:17 to go. On two earlier occasions, a DeRosa interception led to a Tribe touchdown on its subsequent drive. "We got in a situation where we had to take too many gambles," Bagnoli said. "Once you have to do that and you get behind, you try to make things happen and sometimes that's not in your best interest." But despite the turnovers, DeRosa and the rest of the Quakers never gave up. Down 48-27, DeRosa flicked a 12-yard scoring pass to all-American receiver Miles Macik (11 catches for 117 yards), who quietly put up superb numbers for the day, as usual. A 31-yard scamper up the middle by Jasen Scott (13 attempts for 89 yards) set up a one-yard touchdown run by Camp with 1:17 remaining. William & Mary's lead was cut to 48-34, and it was on-side kick time for the Quakers. A perfect dribbler by Doug Miller combined with a lacksidaisical Tribe return team allowed Penn to easily recover the kick after patiently allowing the football to roll its requisite 10 yards. After two misfires, DeRosa connected with wide receiver Brian Bonanno for 43 yards, putting Penn at the Tribe's 11-yard line. But Penn failed in four tries to score or get a first down, and with that series went any chance of a Penn victory.
(10/12/95 9:00am)
Senior running backs Derek Fitzgerald and Troy Keen know that on almost any other Division I-AA team -- perhaps even most Division I teams -- they would be the show. The headline would be "Fitzgerald carries William and Mary past?" or "Troy Keen and William and Mary will battle?". But the two have to share the spotlight as they form perhaps the best running back duo in Division I-AA. The media, of course, plays this up as a running back controversy, but that does not bother them. They are too busy rewriting the Tribe's record books with dreams of the NFL in the back of their minds. "[The press] tries to make more of it than what it is," said Keen, who is averaging nearly five yards a carry. "It's worked out for us and it is a big advantage. We can give the other guy a break. Both of us stay fresh for the entire game, so it's hard for defenses to stop us." It would be tough to argue with that. Keen and Fitzgerald are on pace to each break the 1,000-yard mark, despite the fact they only get half the carries they would get on another team. The twosome accounts for 71 percent of William and Mary's touchdowns (14 overall) and 58 percent of the team's total offense (1,749 yards). Together the pair averages an incredible 208 yards a contest. It has not been hard for defenses to stop the duo. It's been near impossible. Keen and Fitzgerald, both all-American candidates, are different types of runners, which gives defensive coordinators even more headaches. While Keen is a power runner with excellent lower body strength, Fitzgerald is a self-described "slasher." "I'll leave all the power running to Troy," said Fitzgerald, who has had 17 games in which he surpassed the 100-yard mark. "When I get in the open field, I make people miss." Fitzgerald has made people miss, now, for 3,199 yards in his illustrious career. That places him second in the William and Mary record book. He is 424 yards short of the top spot, held by Robert Green, now of the Chicago Bears. Fitzgerald averages 113 yards a contest, so Green's mark is in a tenuous position. Not to be outdone, Keen -- who is No. 3 in career rushing yardage with 2,733 and counting -- is taking aim at the Tribe's all-time records for touchdowns and points scored. Keen, who has scored 38 career touchdowns, needs eight more for the touchdown mark and nine more for the career points mark. Incredibly, William and Mary fans have been fortunate enough to have seen another pair of dynamic running backs just five years ago. Then the pair was the already-mentioned Green and Tyrone Shelton, who had a stint with the Kansas City Chiefs and is now playing with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL. There has been a lot of comparisons made between Fitzgerald-Keen and Green-Shelton. There has also been speculation about whether Fitzgerald or Keen (or both) will follow Green and Shelton into the NFL. Said Fitzgerald about that prospect: "It's my childhood dream. If the chance presents itself, I'll surely take that." Keen said he was purposely not thinking about his prospects for the pros, and was just concentrating on his job at-hand. "Everything else," Keen said, "will take care of itself." And for Fitzgerald and Keen, everything has so far.
(10/02/95 9:00am)
In the last 73 seconds of the football game, in front of over 10,000 screaming fans, there was one miraculous touchdown catch; a gutsy two-point try; three controversial celebration penalties; a game-ending interception; and a picture-perfect, straight and true 41-yard field goal off the leg of a sophomore kicker. But the men who compose the Bucknell Bison -- overflowing with emotion at game's start -- were silent as they exited Franklin Field with tears rolling down their cheeks. They had come closer than any team in the last two and a half years to knocking off the Quakers, but not one of them even glanced at the scoreboard that read: Penn 20, Bucknell 19. "I just told them to get their heads up, not to feel sorry for themselves," said first-year coach Tom Gadd, who was looking at this game to garner national attention for his team and himself. "We should have won this football game. We should have expected to win this football game, and if anyone is feeling sorry for themselves -- it's senseless. If you come here and expect to win, it should hurt. We've made a major investment to try to win this game, so we should hurt, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves." The play that started it all was, arguably, the greatest catch seen on Franklin Field in years. Jim Fox, Bucknell's strong-armed quarterback, stepped-up in the pocket and, after realizing his primary receiver was covered over the middle, floated a perfect 27-yard spiral into the outstretched hands of a lunging John Sakowski. Sakowski dragged his feet in the back left corner of the end zone in a desperate but successful attempt to stay in bounds. "I thought it was the game-winning catch," admitted Sakowski, who put Bucknell up 19-17 with 1:13 left in the game. And Sakowski was not alone. While the boisterous Penn crowd sat in shocked silence, the Bison were in the midst of a party, with players coming off the sidelines to mob their apparent savior. But in the midst of the gala celebration, the referees quietly littered Franklin Field with yellow flags. Ironically, the turning point of the game was not the miraculous catch, nor anything to do with the tireless efforts of the two teams through four quarters. It was those flags the referees dropped in response to anti-celebration rules, rules decided in a board room in some office building far away from the powerful emotions of Saturday's game. The officials felt it was necessary to punish the Bison twice for the same "crime" -- once for the party, and the second one for conducting the party without their helmets. "I didn't feel the need for two penalties," said Sakowski, who suddenly realized that with the 25-yard setback on its kickoff, Penn would not need to go far to get into field goal range. "I thought that was the officials fault, but there was nothing I could do about that." The two penalties, which put the ball on the 10-yard line instead of the 35 on the ensuing kickoff, were a major factor in Gadd's disastrous decision to go for the two-point play. The Bucknell coach said he had no regrets, though. "When I knew we had to kick off from the 10-yard line, I wanted to give our kids a chance to win," Gadd said. "It was a roll of the dice...I didn't come here to tie the game, I came here to win the game." But with the ball kicked from the Bison 10-yard line, Penn's speedy kick returner, Mark Fabish, was able to return the ball from his own 30 to Bucknell's 45. After Mark DeRosa whipped a 14-yard pass to all-American Miles Macik and running back Aman Abye -- who carried the Quakers' offense with 165 yards for the day -- galloped for another eight, Penn was in position to let sophomore Jeremiah Greathouse win the game with a 41-yard kick with 27 seconds left. "My blood-pressure must have been sky high," Sakowski said. "I didn't even watch. I looked at the last second and saw the officials hands go up. I was pretty disappointed." In further irony, another celebration call -- this time on the Quakers -- gave the Bison one more crack at victory. But the drive stalled when safety Maurice Barton intercepted Fox's pass at Penn's own 44-yard line. The winner, after much madness, was finally determined. "I don't want the kids to feel like this was a moral victory," said Gadd, even though by the expressions on their faces, there was little chance they felt that.
(09/20/95 9:00am)
With the departure of Terrance Stokes, the Penn football team has decided to split the carries among a trio of running backs -- senior Dion Camp and juniors Aman Abye and Jasen Scott. While Camp (11 carries for 31 yards) and Abye (11 carries for 30 yards) struggled in Saturday's 20-12 win over Dartmouth, Scott rose to the occasion, churning out an impressive 63 yards on just 12 carries. Will the three-back attack become a one-man show? "It's their first time starting so it's unfair to make early judgements," said Penn coach Al Bagnoli, who added he would like to see the backs' blocking improve. "[Scott] had the hot hand so he ended up with a few more carries. But basically all of them are going to carry the ball and all of them are going to have a chance to help us," Bagnoli said. Scott, in turn, gave the company line about the running back strategy. "I did what was asked of me," said Scott, who entered the season-opener with a 4.3 yards-per-carry average in his previous two seasons. "All I can really say is things worked out well for me. I couldn't really compare myself to the other players. I guess the way they have the rotation going there is not one of us who stands above the others in their eyes, so I'm not one to compare myself to them." But would he like to get 30 carries a game? Well... "I would love to get 30 carries a game," Scott continued, his face lighting up. "A lot of schools have a stud -- someone they just ride and give the ball to all the time. But that's the coaches' decisions. I'm not saying they're wrong, but of course I would love to have all those carries." · Although all-American Miles Macik is the the key to the Penn offense, the situation got a little ridiculous against Dartmouth. Two-thirds of Mark DeRosa's passes and 83 percent of his passing yards went to the Quakers' No. 1 target. According to Bagnoli, this did not reflect a lack of confidence in Penn's other receivers. Rather, it was a product of Dartmouth's defensive strategy. "If they're going to continually cover Macik one-on-one and blitz 50 times, we're probably going to throw the ball [to Macik] 50 times," Bagnoli said. "But if they overload on Macik, then we have some other receivers who are very, very capable. Felix [Rouse] made some big catches, and we've got to get [Mark] Fabish more involved in the offense." · Although the performance of sophomore Mitch Marrow -- eight unassisted tackles and five tackles for loss of yards -- surprised many of the Penn faithful, Bagnoli knew he had a stallion going into the game. Still, the coach was gratified that Marrow's enormous athletic ability was translated into a defensive highlight show. "The only question we had to answer had nothing to do with his athleticism," Bagnoli said. "It had everything to do with that this game was going to count, he's going to start, he's never actually played that position in a varsity contest and how well he's going to adapt." · On the injury front, Bagnoli said the Quakers were "relatively injury-free." Quarterback Mark DeRosa has a slight ankle sprain, but that did not stop the tough junior from practicing today, and he should be fine for Saturday's game against Lafayette.
(09/14/95 9:00am)
With 90 seconds left on the clock in front of a cheering Dartmouth crowd last September, Penn's winning streak was in critical condition.E Down 13-9 but charging, the Big Green were only one yard away from Penn's end zone and a probable victory over the mighty Quakers. Everyone at Memorial Field knew Pete Oberle -- Dartmouth's star running back who had already racked up 109 yards -- was going to get the ball. In perhaps the defining point of Penn's history-making 21-game winning streak, All-American Pat Goodwillie broke through Dartmouth's line and met Oberle head-on. Goodwillie won. So did Penn. The Quakers went on to bigger and better things, finishing the year undefeated and setting a record for the longest Division I-AA winning streak in history. Dartmouth collapsed to a 2-5 Ivy record and a share of last place in the league, their worst placing in decades. A year later, the game and the play are still in Oberle's thoughts. "I think about it all the time," said the senior running back, who has been an honorable mention all-Ivy pick the last two years despite many injuries. "I'm sure Penn and Goodwillie will be happy to hear that. I wouldn't say every night, but it pops in my head at least a few times a week. I'd sure like to have gotten that ball across the goal line." When Oberle, the heart and soul of the Big Green team, makes his return against Penn Saturday at Franklin Field, he will get a chance to make amends for that play. But probably more important for Dartmouth is how he comes back from a ligament tear in his knee. Even though the injury sidelined him for the last four games last year, Oberle (6 feet, 210 pounds) still led the team last season with 625 yards on 154 carries, good for a 4.1 per carry average. But Dartmouth's offense did not hold up as well as Oberle's stats. The Big Green averaged just over 13 points a game in that span, losing three of four. "Our offense went to the wayside when he was out for the year," Dartmouth offensive coordinator Roger Hughes said. "I think a lot of our success depends on how well Pete does." Hughes describes Oberle, named co-captain this year, as a strong, tough runner with outstanding vision. He added it is only because of Oberle's phenomenal work ethic that he could return in time for the season opener. "If you wanted a son, he would be your son," Hughes said. "He's a good athlete, leader and student. He just does everything right." Dartmouth was high on the heavily-recruited Oberle coming out of high school, but the Colorado native decided to stay in state -- and receive a scholarship -- at Colorado State. After his freshman year, though, Oberle joined his high school teammate and current Big Green co-captain, defensive end Taran Lent, at Dartmouth. "I realized that football maybe shouldn't be everything," Oberle said. "I decided that a degree from Dartmouth may pay off in the future more." Oberle says his goal for this year is to convince people outside Dartmouth that the team has promise. He concedes the team is "pretty young" and hopes he can provide leadership to the team. "He's a great captain," Dartmouth defensive end Scott Hapgood said. "He's always real positive. He picks you up when you're down and keeps the morale up." Oberle wishes Goodwillie were in the game this Saturday. It would give him a chance to get the bitter taste out of his mouth. A chance "to get the best" of Goodwillie. "In general, I think a loss like that never really goes away," Hughes said. "But I think he's the type of kid who's not going to let that haunt him."
(04/28/95 9:00am)
Andy Crofton and Kevin Crowley have been friends since first grade. In high school, they led Long Island's Garden City High School men's lacrosse team to the state semifinals. Four years later, Crofton is Penn's leading scorer and Crowley is Villanova's captain. The childhood buddies, both attackers, lead their respective squads into battle as the Quakers (4-8) host the Wildcats (6-8) Sunday afternoon at Franklin Field at 1. The junior Crofton still has a year left to lead the Quakers to a revival next season. For Crowley, a senior, this is it -- the last collegiate game of his life. "I saw him over Easter break and we talked about this game," Crofton said. "It's the last game of his career. He's a real good player. He's quick, a good shooter, and over there he is a real team leader." Crofton, however, is not letting friendship get in the way of his job. He already told the Penn defense the best way to stop Crowley --Epressure defense -- and the Quakers' star realizes Penn needs a win just as much as Crowley wants to end his career on a high note. "It's just like any other game," Crofton said. "At the end, I don't really care what happens to him. As long as we beat them, I'll be happy" "I hope he plays well," Crofton added belatedly. Likewise, Crowley is planning to spill the beans on how to stop Crofton. Last year, the Wildcats did not have much success -- Crofton scored four goals in leading the Quakers to a 14-8 victory. "I'm definitely going to tell our coaches his strengths," Crowley said. "I'd like to see him do well, but I'd also like to shut him down. He's one of the best in the country right now." Crowley saw limited action in that contest and was injured for the Penn game his sophomore year. This will be his first real opportunity to go head-to-head against his childhood buddy. "I'm looking forward to it," Crowley said. "It's more fun to play against someone you know." And Crowley knows all about Crofton's talents. He was at Crofton's side while the future Quaker racked up over 100 points for Garden City. "His stick work is great," Crowley said. "He can go left or right. He's a very intelligent lacrosse player. He sees the field well. He scores, gets assists and protects the stick well." "He may not be the biggest player," Crowley continued. "He may not be the strongest player. He may not be the fastest player. But he's by far [Penn's] best player. Next year, Penn definitely has a potential all-American." Crowley and the rest of the Wildcats seniors view Penn as such a rival that they had Villanova reschedule the Quakers for their final game. The rivalry is mostly one-way, as the Wildcats routinely lose to the Quakers. "I think its a very big game," Crofton said. "It's Villanova's biggest game. If they beat us, they had a good year. We have to be ready and I think we will be. "We had a week to prepare. We've been working on our game. If we play our game, we don't have to worry what they can do. We should be too much for them." Crofton hopes. After all, not only are Philadelphia bragging rights on the line, but Long Island's as well.
(04/20/95 9:00am)
Matt Kerwick, a first-year assistant coach for the Penn men's lacrosse team, doubles as a professional lacrosse player for the Philadelphia Wings, the premier team in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League. When the Wings made the playoffs this year (which is hardly a momentous accomplishment -- the top four teams in the six-team league qualify), Kerwick's two jobs came into conflict. The first playoff game conflicted with Penn's match at Harvard. The championship game was at the same time as the Dartmouth contest. Kerwick said the decision -- to remain with the Quakers -- was easy to make. "It was disappointing because I would have loved to have played, but the reason I moved to Philly was to coach at Penn, so it wasn't a big loss to me," Kerwick said. "This is my full-time job. I'd much rather be with the Penn team." When head coach Terry Corcoran picked Kerwick -- a fellow Hobart College alum -- as his assistant, he knew he was picking a winner. A first-team all-American for the Division III Statesmen, Kerwick, a 1990 graduate, guided them to four championship years. Described by his Hobart coach, B.J. O' Hara, as a "tremendous competitor," Kerwick's first job was as an assistant at Randolph-Macon College, a Division III school in Virginia. He quickly became the head coach a year later -- "the right place, the right time," Kerwick said -- and led the Yellow Jackets to their best three-year record in school history. But Kerwick had an itching to do more than coach; he wanted to play. "My biggest motivation [for playing professionally] is the fact that I have a chance to run with some of the best players out there," Kerwick said. Unlike the major professional sports, money is not much of a factor for professional lacrosse players. Star or scrub, a player's salary is determined by years in the league, not ability. And the pay is not much -- a few hundred dollars per game. Kerwick, who was not picked in the two-round draft, telephoned the general manager of the Baltimore Thunder in 1991 and received a tryout. He impressed the coach favorably enough to make the team and, after recording 13 goals and 13 assists in a nine games, he was third in the balloting for rookie of the year. Kerwick played the next two years for the Thunder and ended with 51 points (38 goals, 23 assists) in his three-year stint. Unlike most players, Kerwick was exposed to indoor lacrosse in high school. A Rochester, N.Y., native, Kerwick played box lacrosse (as its sometimes called) when the hockey rink closed down for the summer. Also, he feels that his experience in hockey -- he was captain of the Hobart hockey team his senior year-- suits him well for indoor lacrosse. "It's very similar," said Kerwick, "in the way you move the ball around and in the way you react to the ball in certain situations." When Kerwick came to Philadelphia, he called Wings coach Tony Resch for a spot on the roster. The Wings, the two-time defending champions, are arguably the most successful team in the league -- on and off the turf. Sixteen to seventeen thousand fans regularly pack the Spectrum for their games. Resch, after asking those in the know, picked up Kerwick, despite the fact the forward had missed the tryout. "Ideally, it would have been nice if he made the tryout," Resch said. "But everyone I spoke to said he was a hard worker, a very good player and a good team player." It is no secret that the league tries to sell itself by stressing the violence?err, physical play of the game. Resch concedes the league attracts a large "hockey crowd" to its matches. "It's very physical," Resch said. "The source of it is that they play in a confined space and that cross-checking is legal. It can get pretty wild." The coach describes Kerwick, who at 5 feet-9, 165 pounds is small by lacrosse standards, as more of a heady than a physical player. But Kerwick could not not elude the game's physical nature when, in the middle of his third season at Baltimore, a hard check disconnected his collar bone from his rib bone. That was the end of his Maryland athletic highlights. "It's rough -- no question about that," Kerwick said. "There's a lot more [compared to field lacrosse] in terms of hitting. There aren't too many rules in the indoor game." For the Wings, Kerwick saw limited action, but still managed to score key goals down the stretch. Philadelphia went on to win the championship in a thrilling 15-14 overtime victory over the Rochester Knighthawks last month. Will Kerwick play next year as the Wings go for the three-peat? "I probably will," Kerwick said. "It depends on how many conflicts are on the schedule and how I feel physically -- but I'm feeling pretty good."
(04/17/95 9:00am)
A long season became longer in Providence, R.I., this weekend as Penn was defeated 22-13 by No. 11 Brown to complete a winless Ivy League campaign for the Quakers. This season marked the first time since 1979 that the Quakers (4-7, 0-6 Ivy League) have failed to win an Ivy League contest. Counting from last year, Penn -- which reached the NCAA Final Four just seven years ago -- has lost 10 straight Ivy matches. Freshman attacker John Ward, one of the silver linings of the 1995 year with 28 points, called the 0-for-Ivy League season tough. "We didn't expect to win the Ivy League," he said, "but at the same time I don't think anyone expected us to go winless in the Ivy League. "However, I don't think 0-6 is as bad as it seems. There were a couple of games that could have gone either way. I think 0-6 is a bit misleading." But Ward admitted the relatively close score against the Bears (5-4, 3-1) was also misleading. Nearly half of Penn's goals were scored in the final quarter, when the game was long over and Brown's starters were on the sidelines. The Quakers, continuing a recent pattern of falling behind early, were down 5-2 after the first quarter and had another horrific second quarter, which saw them get outscored 9-1, to end with at a 14-3 deficit at half. "Saturday's match was like how we played the whole year," midfielder Joe Mauro said. "Everyone plays hard and after we get behind, everyone just gives up. It seems like no one thinks we can win." Penn's erratic offense, which actually has been the strength of the team, made life quite relaxing for Brown goalie Dan Giannuzzi. He only made two saves the entire first half before he was replaced by backup Greg Cattrano at half. Penn goalie Travis Heinrichs was denied the luxury of leisure. He was beaten 15 times in his 47 minutes of play and continued his struggles in Ivy League games. Backup goalie Paul Burg came in for the last 13 minutes and, despite five saves, gave up seven goals in that short time span. Heinrich's and Burg's biggest nemesis of the day was Brown all-American attacker David Evans, who had a career-high six goals against the Quakers. Brown attacker Chris DeBiase was also quite impressive with one goal and six assists. In all, 14 different Brown players scored a goal. To add a final insult, midfielder Alex Goodman, who transferred to Brown from Penn in the offseason, was one of those to find the back of the net. Against Cattrano and the rest of Bears' replacements, the Quakers' offensive stars -- attacker Jon Cusson (3 goals, 2 assists), attacker Andy Crofton (3 goals, 2 assists) and Ward (2 goals, 1 assist) were able to pad their impressive season scoring statistics. Most of the offensive fireworks for Penn came in the fourth quarter, when the Quakers outscored Brown 6-1. "By the end, it may have been because they were playing subs, but it seemed that we were doing the fundamentals Coach told us to do," Mauro said. "That's just what the coach always said: 'Do the fundamentals and everything will fall into place.' "
(04/06/95 9:00am)
For 15 minutes, the Penn men's lacrosse team looked like it was up to the task of playing Princeton, the defending national champion. For the rest of the game, the Quakers looked only like they were up to the task of watching the Tigers as Princeton scored 17 -- yes, 17 -- unanswered goals. A tight 2-2 game after the first quarter quickly turned into a rout, which quickly turned into an embarrassment as the Tigers, ranked No. 5 in the country, defeated Penn, 19-2. "We just didn't execute," Penn defender Kevin O' Brien said. "There were a lot of breakdowns on defense. We weren't picking up our guys." Penn (4-5, 0-4 Ivy League) fooled the few hundred spectators yesterday afternoon into thinking it would be a game after the first quarter. Midfielder Brian Napolitano, capitalizing on a rare Tigers turnover, scored the first goal of the match at 11 minutes, 45 seconds of the first quarter to give the Quakers the early lead. Princeton's Josh Miller tied the match when he split Penn's defense and scored an unassisted goal at 9:56. After another Tigers score, junior attacker Andy Crofton, last week's Ivy League Player of the Week, scored Penn's second and final goal at 5:25 of the first quarter. Napolitano had the assist. "I think Penn came in with a real good game plan, slowing [the game] down," Princeton coach Bill Tierney said. "But then we just started clicking a little bit." The Tigers (5-2, 2-0) clicked more than a little bit. They scored seven goals in the second period, five in the third and another five in the fourth. Princeton's 17th goal was an incredible 65-yard shot by Andrew Mitchell. It was the second straight goal on which Penn goalie Travis Heinrichs was burned for straying too far from the net. The Tigers were notably quicker and stronger than Penn throughout the game. Princeton's ball-control ability was also vastly superior, and the Tigers' attack always seemed to have a clear direction. Many of Princeton's goals were set up by pinpoint assists that left the scorer with a clear angle to shoot and Heinrichs virtually powerless to prevent -- or even slow down -- the onslaught. Having a bit of mercy for an outclassed Penn squad, Princeton decided to play keep away for the last five minutes instead of continuing its relentless attack on the Quakers' net. The game was over long before -- both teams knew it. "They're one of the top teams in the country and we didn't do what we needed to do to have a chance to win," said Crofton, adding the Quakers' weakness at faceoffs contributed to the thumping. "We've got Dartmouth on Saturday. We have to put this behind us and get ready for that."
(04/05/95 9:00am)
1988. Penn lacrosse had its best season in history. The Quakers reached the NCAA Final Four that year for the first and only time. Their dreams of capturing Penn's first national championship ended in a 11-10 thriller to Syracuse in the Semfinals. The Orangemen went on to win the tournament, the first of three consecutive national championships. 1988. Princeton -- the doormat of the Ancient Eight, winners of only five Ivy games the previous four years -- began its first season under coach Bill Tierney. Tierney, whose only previous head coaching experience was with Rochester Institute of Technology, an obscure Division III school, did not have much success in his first Division I campaign. The Tigers went winless in Ivy League games en route to a 2-13 season. Since that pivotal 1988 season, Penn lacrosse has been in a tailspin it has been unable to stop. It has had losing records the last five seasons. Going into the 1995 campaign, the Quakers lost 16 of 27 lettermen from last year's team -- by far the worst percentage in the Ivy League. Princeton, once the weak sister of the Ivy League, has become the Big Brother. It was an NCAA quarterfinalist in 1990 and 1991. And in 1992, the Tigers became national champions with a 10-9 double overtime win over Syracuse, ending the Orangemen's mini-dynasty. After reaching the Final Four in 1993, Tierney led the Tigers to their second championship in three years last season with a 9-8 win over Virginia. This season, the Penn administration has chosen a new coach, Terry Corcoran, to lead the Quakers. Like Tierney, Corcoran was hired to turn a slumping program around. Like Tierney, Corcoran's previous head coaching experience was with a Division III school (Washington College in Maryland). Like Tierney, Corcoran was named Division III coach of the year. And most importantly, like Tierney, Corcoran is a winner. Both coaches have won roughly 70 percent of their games in their coaching careers. What was Tierney's magic formula for the Tigers revival? Corcoran should take notes. "A lot of people have said to me, 'wow, what an accomplishment,' " said Tierney, who was also named Division I coach of the year in 1992. "But I don't think it is anything supernatural we did." What Tierney did accomplish at Princeton was attract players who could win. A coach can only do so much from the sidelines. Case in point: In Tierney's first year coaching the Tigers, with players the last coach recruited, the Tigers could only muster that 2-13 record. The victories during the season are won in the real battle of college athletics -- high school recruiting. Tierney was able to win the championship with his first recruiting class. Going into that all-important first recruiting off-season, Tierney was armed with two selling points: The academic reputation of Princeton and the likelihood of a lot of playing time. But these factors do not really explain Tierney's ability to pick out national champions from a cast of thousands. Any Ivy League school can offer these perks, especially if its current crop of players lacks skill. In many ways, Tierney's recruiting success results from not being the stereotypical win-at-all-costs college coach. Tierney looks for winning characters -- even more than pure talent -- when replenishing his roster. It is not because he has a need to be surrounded by boy scouts. He feels, and it is hard to argue with success, that this is the way to win. "I only recruit kids from winning high school programs because I think at this level everyone is basically equal," Tierney said. "It's just a matter of finding a kid who knows how to win and would sacrifice athletic time for academics and academic time for athletics." Not too many coaches look for players to sacrifice athletic time for academics. Not too many coaches start off conversations with potential recruits by grilling them about their grades. "We start very quickly in stressing academics, stressing the sacrifice they will make," Tierney said. "They will not be put on a pedestal in class by any means. We go through all of that first. All the ground rules it takes to be a student-athlete." The academic achievements of his team are perhaps the only achievement that matches, and arguably surpasses, its on-field exploits. In the Tierney era, Princeton has had more scholastic all-Americans than any other university in the country, a 100 percent graduation rate, and an average GPA of over 3.1 the last five seasons. Tierney calls the perception that a player's athletic and academic ability are inversely related "a myth." Refreshingly, his program goes a long way in proving that assertion. "We made an effort to go with the top student-athletes," Tierney said. "I think when people take short cuts, taking a kid who has shortcomings academically, you're telling the team that you want shortcuts." Tierney is very conscious of how his team perceives him. His advice to other lacrosse coaches is to work hard. He believes that a coach's effort rubs off on the team -- whether in a positive or negative manner. "These kids are very bright," Tierney said. "They know when you're not working as hard as you're capable of working." Along with hard work, Tierney instills another often-forgotten value on his team -- discipline. He does not have much patience with the flashy, individual-oriented approach that epitomizes sports today. On his team, earrings, beards, and bandannas are banned. Tierney does not take coaching advice from the American Civil Liberties Union. Do the players complain? "Absolutely," Tierney said with some relish. "They ask, 'How does that affect my play on the field?' I answer, 'It doesn't, it affects the team.' " Whether Corcoran can attract the same level of players or maintain the same discipline remains to be seen. The Quakers have dropped their first three Ivy League games, including an 18-17 heartbreaker at Cornell last Saturday. Princeton, currently ranked No. 5 in the country, comes into Franklin Field this afternoon with five consecutive wins over the Quakers. If Corcoran is looking for a blueprint to restore his struggling squad to its 1988-level, or even better, the opposing sideline would be a good place to start. Michael Hasday is a College sophomore from Scarsdale, N.Y. and a sports writer for The Daily Pennsylvanian.
(03/30/95 10:00am)
In some quarters, Ivy League athletics is viewed as an oxymoron. In the world of men's lacrosse, though, the Ivies are in a league of their own. Five of the seven Ivy League teams are ranked in the top 20 by the USILA. Princeton and Brown are in the top 10. Penn is on the outside looking in on the Ivy elite and has gone down in its first two Ivy League contests, a 16-13 edging by Yale and last Saturday's 21-5 rout at Harvard. It is in this context that the Quakers played at Lafayette yesterday, a match -- with their next four opponents all Ivy League foes -- they needed to win. Penn (4-3) destroyed the Leopards, 19-6, in a contest that was even more lopsided than the score indicated. "I think the team did pretty well bouncing back from a pretty tough loss [at Harvard], probably the toughest loss of my career," said sophomore attacker Jon Cusson, who was one of the offensive stars with five goals and three assists. "A lot of people came out fired up," Cusson continued. "I think everyone was geared to come out considering we had some pretty big Ivy League games coming up." When the starters were in for Penn, the match was, to put it gently, not competitive. The Quakers led 6-1 after the first quarter and 14-1 at the half. After halftime, when the subs started to trickle in, Penn played even with the Leopards (0-2) and coasted to the 19-6 win. It was a marked and refreshing change from the Quakers' two previous losses, in which they were down big at the half. "They were overmatched from the beginning, " said freshman attacker John Ward, who chipped in with three goals and three assists. "It was almost like we were scoring at will on cuts." Besides the offensive fireworks by Ward and Cusson, junior attacker Andy Crofton had four goals and five assists to complete a 23-point effort from Penn's attacking trio. Twelve Quakers recorded at least a goal or an assist against Lafayette, a big improvement from Saturday's five-goal performance against the Crimson. Helping Penn offensively was its play on faceoffs -- a major problem against Yale and Harvard. The Quakers won 15 of 24 faceoffs for the day. "It's nice to have a big win in terms of offensive output," Cusson said. "I definitely think we will get momentum from it." Penn will need all the momentum it can muster. After Cornell, the Quakers face three top-20 Ivy foes -- No. 5 Princeton, No. 20 Dartmouth and No. 9 Brown. "It was a must-win game," Ward said. "We have to feel good about the win, but they weren't too strong of a team. We are going back to the heart of our schedule again."
(03/27/95 10:00am)
Penn never recovers after No. 9 Harvard jumps out to a 7-1 first period lead "Let me think," Penn coach Terry Corcoran said with a loud chuckle when asked about any positives regarding Saturday's 21-5 thumping by Harvard. It was that kind of day for the Penn men's lacrosse team. The Crimson (3-0, 2-0 Ivy League), ranked No. 19 in the country, supplied early fireworks for their Cambridge fans as they stormed to a 7-1 first quarter lead. "It was a tough game," Corcoran said. "They jumped on us early and we just never really recovered." The Quakers (3-3, 0-2) continued the pattern that did them in against Yale the week before -- giving up bunches of goals in a short time span. Corcoran and the players attributed these breakdowns to Penn's poor play on faceoffs and ground balls. Harvard won an amazing 21 of 27 faceoffs and 59 of 80 ground balls. "There comes a point were we have to say to each other 'enough' and dig in a little bit and stop that," said freshman attacker John Ward, who scored two goals for the Quakers in the second quarter. "I don't really have an explanation. It starts with faceoffs and ground balls -- that's where our problems really start. We have the talent on the team. We have the players. We have the coaches. Sometimes it seems we don't have the desire. We just have to find it as a team to dig in and come back after a couple of goals are scored on us." Penn had a similar problem with faceoffs and ground balls against Yale, but it was able to keep the score close against the Elis. Harvard -- specifically its duo of 6-foot attackers, Mike Eckert and Jamie Ames -- was too talented to let the Quakers get away with their miscues. Eckert registered 12 points against Penn with five goals and seven assists. Ames added six goals for good measure. "They had a great day on faceoffs," senior captain Andy Greenberg said. "That enabled them to control the ball for a long time. They have a really talented team on attack and they don't mistakes like some other teams do." Along with the Quakers' porous defense, which gave up 50 shots to the Crimson sharp shooters, the offense had its own problems. Although Penn managed 39 shots, only five balls were able to find the inside of the net. Harvard goalie Rob Lyng and backup Kawica Chetron combined to record 22 saves. Along with Ward, only junior attacker Andy Crofton and senior midfielder Brian Napolitano managed to break through the Lyng-Chetron shield. "I don't think we played well [offensively]," Ward said. "Once we did get the ball there was a sense of urgency instead of settling down." With offensive and defensive deficiencies, it is no wonder that Corcoran -- after a few seconds of thought -- said Penn's goaltending was the highlight. One thing for sure is that the Quakers' goalie, sophomore Travis Heinrichs, was certainly busy.
(03/22/95 10:00am)
Penn wrestling, a consistent winner under the tutelage of coach Roger Reina, had another season of sustained excellence en route to a 14-3 dual-meet record and a national ranking. The most crushing defeat in the regular season, a 21-11 midseason loss to Cornell, cost the Quakers the chance to repeat as Ivy League champions. Penn swept its four other Ivy League foes and cruised to an 8-1 mark in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association. "We had one flaw all season, and that cost us the Ivy title and higher national recognition," senior co-captain Gary Baker said. After the loss to the Big Red -- the eventual Ivy League champions -- Penn racked up eight consecutive victories, earning the Quakers a No. 25 ranking in the National Coaches Association poll. In the midst of the winning streak came Penn's victory over Brown, a memorable 16-15 thriller. The Quakers came back from a five-point deficit to defeat the Bears, who entered the dual meet ranked No. 1 in the EIWA. "We had a really strong team," Baker said. "We were mentally tough and physically tough. We stuck together and that held us through the bad times. After losing to Cornell, we came back and beat Brown." Senior co-captain Brian Butler, who defeated nationally-ranked Paul Fitzpatrick, and junior Joey Allen keyed the comeback victory over Brown and gave the Quakers hope for a share of the Ivy championship. But after Cornell's subsequent victory over the Bears, Penn knew it would have to settle for a second-place finish in the Ivy League. The season also marked individual milestones for Reina and Butler. The coach recorded his 100th coaching victory in the Quakers' 29-9 thumping of Northern Iowa, and Butler became Penn's career-win leader in a 12-4 triumph against Harvard's Dan Vandermyde. "When I came to Penn, my goal was to be the best wrestler Penn had ever had," Butler said. "Getting the record gives me a claim to being one of the best coming to Penn." Butler entered the Eastern championships ranked No. 1 in the EIWA at 190 pounds and was extremely disappointed with his fifth-place performance. His performance mirrored the rest of the team, as the Quakers placed fifth in Easterns. Although the Quakers improved upon last season's sixth-place Easterns finish, Penn felt it could have placed higher based on its regular season efforts. Three Quakers qualified for the NCAAs at the Easterns: Baker, senior Gonz Medina and sophomore Brandon Slay. However, the trio had trouble against the nation's best -- Medina recorded Penn's sole victory. With the graduation of the seniors -- Medina, Baker and Butler -- Penn will look to first-team Ivy selections Slay and Allen to lead the Quakers to further glory. Baker, for one, knows he might graduate from Penn, but his experience as a Quaker will remain with him. "It's been the most important thing at college for me," Baker said. "Through wrestling, I learned a lot about life, about succeeding, and about being a good person."
(03/21/95 10:00am)
Unlike senior co-captain Gary Baker and sophomore Brandon Slay, senior Gonz Medina had never been to the NCAA Championships. Baker had qualified twice before; Slay made it last year. But Medina, who was making his NCAA debut as a senior at wrestling-crazy Iowa, performed a feat the NCAA veterans failed to achieve -- he won a match. "It was special going into the national tournament and qualifying," Medina said. "I knew my my first match was a must-win match because I had to wrestle the No. 1 seed in the second match." Medina's initial opponent at 142 pounds was Jason Guyton, the East regional champion from Howard. Medina -- up a point with seconds remaining -- was called for stalling. That call tied things up and sent the match to overtime. In the extra round, Medina executed a move called the 'Medina Mixer' (no relation to the wrestler) in which he used a front headlock to throw Guyton on his back. Medina pinned his Howard foe and captured the Quakers' sole victory in the NCAAs. His next two matches -- a 20-10 drubbing by eventual finalist Gerry Abas and a 13-3 loss to a quarterfinalist, Tony DeSousa -- eliminated Medina from the NCAAs. "I gave it my best shot," Medina said. "I just had a really good season this year and whatever happened, happened." The other senior representing the Quakers in the NCAAs, Baker, found himself in a familiar position and ended up with a familiar result. For the third time, Baker was pitted against the No. 7 seed. And for the third time he was eliminated from the national championship with an opening-round defeat. Baker, who came into the NCAAs ranked No. 15 in the country at 118 pounds, was paired with the lanky Kevin Roberts of Oregon. The junior Roberts, a three-time all-American, finished fourth in the NCAAs a season ago. "Going into the NCAAs I was confident," Baker said. "I knew I could wrestle with anyone in the country. No one in my weight was dominant. It was up for grabs." The hard-fought match was close until the end. Roberts was able to stave off Baker in the third round to capture the 8-5 victory. "It was an honor to go," Baker said. "I just wish I wrestled a little bit better and a little more aggressive. The chances of drawing an all-American is slim and I drew one." Slay can sympathize with Baker in getting a hard draw. His opponent at 167 was Michigan's Chad Biggert, the Big Ten champion and No. 3 seed. Slay lost in a positional battle, 4-2. He was eliminated from the NCAAs when Biggert failed to reach the quarterfinals. "I was really excited," Slay said. "I thought I had a really good experience. I wrestled pretty well, but I did not wrestle to my expectations." Against the nation's best, meeting expectations is sometimes hard to do.
(03/16/95 10:00am)
In a match that was over shortly after it began, Penn put together its most dominating performance of the young season in a 19-5 blasting of Mount St. Mary's. Mountaineers coach Tom Gravante's strategy of playing man-to-man defense against a vastly superior Quakers squad quickly turned ugly. After the first period, the Quakers (3-1) had an 8-1 lead; Gravante then decided to play zone. Just how lousy Mt. Saint Mary's (1-3) played in the first quarter can be epitomized by Penn's seventh goal of the quarter. Junior defender Ken O' Brien ran untouched from midfield right in front of the poor goalie, Jon Conrey, and whipped a shot pass him. Conrey, who gave a game effort last night, had to contend with a porous defense that let the Quakers' offense become a firing squad. "We came out with a lot of intensity and hustled a lot," Penn junior attacker Andy Crofton said. "They played hard tonight but were a little overmatched." Penn coach Terry Corcoran, who credited good ball movement to the team's success, made a key decision tonight when he moved freshman John Ward from midfield to attack for the game. Ward, a 6-foot-2 lefty who made a splash with three goals in the season opener against Michigan State, scored five goals this time. "That's why we put him there tonight," said rookie coach Corcoran, explaining Ward's move to attack. Said Ward: "Hey, wherever he puts me, it's not my decision." Everything Corcoran did seemed to work as his squad coasted to the finish. With the Quakers up 15-4 going into the fourth quarter, Corcoran started to play the subs. The Mountaineers were still outclassed as Penn racked up four more goals. With 4 minutes, 35 seconds left and his team behind 18-4, Gravante called time out in an apparent effort to regroup. But the 14-goal deficit was not going to be made up. In fact, the Mountaineers had great difficulty scoring against freshman Paul Burg, the Quakers' newly inserted goalie who is normally a midfielder. "I was a little nervous," Burg said about his collegiate goalie debut. But he did not show it as he made two fantastic saves down the stretch. In fact, when asked about the game, Corcoran mentioned Burg's performance before he talked about the shooting show put on by Ward, who scored his fifth goal midway into the fourth period after pinpoint passing around the net. Sophomore attacker Jon Cusson had a pretty assist. After Penn's 18th goal was announced by the public address announcer, a disgruntled Mount St. Mary's fan summed up the feeling on his side by shouting to the P.A. announcer, "Oh, shut up!" Penn mustered one final score to reach 19 for the day. The victory was assured long before. "I think every win is a big win even though it seemed we coasted through this game," Crofton said. "We want to win lacrosse games. That's why we're here."
(03/01/95 10:00am)
Freshman wrestler Mark Piotrowsky knows all about the ups and downs so many first-year students go through at college. He could write a book about it. The soft-spoken Piotrowsky entered his debut season at Penn with promising credentials. He placed twice in the New Jersey state high school championships and came from the same program that produced two of Penn's rising stars, Josh and Jeremy Bailer. Piotrowsky quickly showed his stuff, posting a 9-4 mark in individual meets and beating out two talented sophomores -- Mike Gaugler and Steve Walker -- for the starting spot at 134 pounds. But when the dual-meet season began at the prestigious Virginia Duals, the high school superstar quickly became the overwhelmed rookie. "I was really nervous," Piotrowsky said. "Especially going down to the Virginia Duals. It was the first dual meet for the team. Right from the beginning, I wasn't wrestling well. "After I lost the first one, I knew my next two matches were against all-Americans. I thought, 'these guys are all-Americans, there's no way I'm going to hang with them.' I know that was the wrong way to think. After the first loss, I just kept on thinking about it. Then I lost my next one and my next one and it was a downhill roll." After losing all five of his matches at Virginia, Piotrowsky continued his slump through Navy, Bucknell and Cornell. The losing streak reached eight. And as the losses mounted, so did the frustration. The losing streak would affect Piotrowsky when he was with his friends; he would get angry at them without a reason. "Every wrestler has been in a slump, so we could all associate with him," said freshman wrestler Keith Reynolds, who rooms with Piotrowsky. "We all tried to give him advice -- it was pretty much, 'just lay it on the line.' " What was particularly hard for Piotrowsky was telling his parents about the defeats. His father, a high school wrestling coach, was supplied with the tapes of the Virginal Duals matches by the Bailer family, who had made the trip south. "When I was down in Virginia, just having to call home and tell them that I had lost five in a row was tough. My mom had a typical mom reaction: 'that's all right, you'll do better next time.' My dad was more of a realist. He was critiquing the matches when he saw the tapes." Fred Piotrowsky, Mark's father, remembers a situation Mark went through as a child that was analogous to his midseason difficulties at Penn. When Mark was 11, he had won the kids' federation state championship and was set to face a boy in summer camp who had also won the championship. The elder Piotrowsky said Mark, who first tried to get out of the match by saying he felt ill, had a look on his face that spelled defeat. After getting pinned in 25 seconds, Mark was teary-eyed. "I asked him, 'What are you crying about?' " Fred Piotrowsky said. "You thought you were going to lose. Your brother thought you were going to lose. I thought you were going to lose. Everyone in this whole place thought you would lose. You accomplished your goal!" The message from Dad gave his son at age 11 was the same message he delivered this season: Wrestle with a winning attitude. His father said he made a point to visit Mark at the Columbia dual meet, and he picked a motivational quote, sports related of course, to tell to his struggling son. "I told him, 'Some people, when they play golf all they see are the sand traps, and other people, all they see are the greens,' " Fred Piotrowsky said. After receiving his father's wisdom, Piotrowsky started focusing on the greens. Although he was edged out 6-4 in his next match against Cornell's Mike Yancoskey, ranked No. 1 in the EIWA, Mark Piotrowsky believes the match was the turning point of his season. "I was losing in the second period," Piotrowsky said. "I just figured this kid was ranked pretty high in the Easterns and I had nothing to lose. In the third period, I just went totally after him. I took him down once and I almost had another takedown. I wasn't happy with the loss, but I was happy that I started to get aggressive again." It was against Harvard, though, that the slump officially ended. Piotrowsky ended his eight-meet slide with a 6-2 victory over his Crimson opponent, Joel Friedman. "My first feeling was relief in getting my first win and ending the slump," Piotrowsky said. "My second feeling was that I did it in this match, I know I can do it in the next match." And he did do it in the next match with a 9-1 major decision over Ed Braunsdorf, a fifth-year senior from Rutgers. But it was in the biggest match of the year against Brown, the No. 1 team in the EIWA at the time, that Piotrowsky ended all doubts. He was back. Piotrowsky's opponent was senior captain Dave Gustovich, an NCAA qualifier. But before the Bears could pencil in a victory, the underdog Piotrowsky had something to say. And he voiced it with his performance in a 3-2 upset over the senior captain. Penn beat Brown 16-15 that day. Piotrowsky's upset was the difference. Although Piotrowsky felt that at one point the coach was going to replace him in the starting lineup, Penn coach Roger Reina insisted he never thought of replacing Piotrowsky. Was Reina gratified that his decision keyed the biggest victory of the year? "I think it gave him gratification," Reina said. "I think he's the guy who deserves it. I was happy to see him get back on the game plan and start wrestling like he's capable. It's a real confidence builder as an athlete to pull yourself out of a slump. You're going to gain confidence match by match. It goes to your ability to face adversity in the future." After the Brown match, Piotrowsky defeated his next four opponents. Countering his eight-match losing streak with a seven-match winning streak, Piotrowsky was rewarded with a No. 6 seed heading into the Eastern championships. "As long as I wrestle up to my ability, it's going to take a real good wrestler to beat me," Piotrowsky said about his prospects at Easterns. "I'm feeling real confident."
(02/06/95 10:00am)
With their backs to the wall and their season on the line, the Penn wrestlers overcame a five-point deficit to defeat Brown, the top team in the EIWA, 16-15. The heart-stopping win at the Palestra against the Bears, who came into the meet ranked No. 22 in the nation, rekindles hope for a repeat as Ivy champions as well as a place in the national rankings. The Quakers' championship hopes, however, still rely on a Cornell loss, most realistically to Brown. A Big Red loss would give each of the three Ivy wrestling powerhouses -- Penn, Brown and Cornell -- one loss. Before the victory over the Bears Saturday, the Quakers (10-4, 5-1 EIWA, 3-1 Ivy League) embarrassed Harvard and Rutgers, two other EIWA squads, on Friday. They destroyed the Crimson, 34-3, and then pummeled Rutgers, a team that defeated Penn a year ago, 37-3. But the dual meet against Brown (11-2, 5-1, 1-1) was the main event, and the comeback victory came down to the last period of the last match. Down 15-10 to the Bears, the Quakers were left to their last two wrestlers, senior co-captain Brian Butler at 190 pounds and junior Joey Allen in the heavyweight division. Penn would need to sweep both of these meets to edge out the victory. Although Allen was expected to dispatch of his opponent, Dimitrios Gavriel, Butler was facing the No. 1 wrestler in the EIWA, Paul Fitzpatrick -- whose record this year was a cool 17-2. "It was really a deja-vu situation," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "Last year we were down 10-15 [to Brown] and won 17-15. So I wasn't pessimistic. "Brian Butler. I can't say enough about him. He's a tremendous leader, a tremendous example. He's got great heart. To me, he's everything this program's all about. I mean everything." In an incredible display of wrestling, Butler -- who had set the career-win record for Penn against Harvard on Friday -- dominated a lethargic Fitzpatrick throughout the match. In the third period, Butler recorded two takedowns to defeat the Brown superstar, who was ranked 12th in the nation by Amateur Wrestling News, 10-4. The only points Fitzpatrick got from Butler were off four escapes. Allen, on the other hand, had more trouble with his less-regarded opponent Gavriel, who initially enjoyed some success with a slow-down strategy. Deadlocked at two points apiece going into the third period, Allen came through in the clutch, recording a three-point near fall in front of a cheering Penn crowd of several hundred. "Everyone was behind me," Allen said. "The entire crowd was there. The alums were there. My mom was there. My friends were there. I didn't want to let any of the guys down. I felt I had to get some points, so I went after him."
(02/03/95 10:00am)
The Quakers will be making their home debut this weekend, and the change of venue could not have come at a better time. After seeming to be nearly unbeatable this season, Penn (7-3, 2-1 EIWA) fell back to earth in a hurry after it was rocked by Cornell last weekend. Along with the loss, the Quakers' goals of repeating as Ivy Champs and becoming a top-20 team were put in jeopardy. With that in mind, the Quakers feel they need a sweep of their three dual meets this weekend to get back on the right track. But to do that, Penn needs to slay Brown, currently ranked No. 1 in the EIWA and No. 22 nationally, at the Palestra Saturday (1:30 p.m.). "They're definitely the team to beat in the conference this season, but I don't want to think about matchups or anything of that nature," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "What I really want to see is our varsity wrestlers wrestle with a hundred percent intensity, a hundred percent of the time -- nothing less." Before the main event Saturday, the Quakers will have to dispatch with Harvard (2-4, 1-2), the weak sister of the Ivy League, and Rutgers (6-2, 2-2), a team that shocked the Quakers last year with an upset win. Both meets take place today at Hutch Gym (3 p.m.). "I don't think we're overlooking the Harvard and Rutgers match," sophomore Brandon Slay said. "But Brown is definitely the biggest match this year." The Bears (10-1, 1-0) present many challenges for the Quakers because they have an entire crew of wrestlers ranked at the top of the EIWA. Hitting leadoff for the Quakers will be senior co-captain Gary Baker at 118. Baker, who was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection last year, was shocked last week when he lost a 3-2 decision to Cornell. Although he was coming off both rib and knee injuries, the senior co-captain knows he must overcome his physical problems. "My match is a big match," Baker said, who might be facing Mike Mulroney, the No. 3 wrestler in the EIWA. "I've got to get everyone going. I'm kind of the spark plug." Other matches to look out for will be at 126 and at 190. Junior co-captain Brian Eveleth will be challenging Dave Gustovich, who is ranked No. 2 in the EIWA, at 126. And in what looks to be the best match of the day, senior co-captain Brian Butler will square off at 190 against Paul Fitzpatrick, who is No. 1 in the EIWA and ranked 12th in the country. "I think everyone has to wrestle like they have been taught," Butler said. "I think everyone has to wrestle with their hearts. Personally, I have to wrestle for me and the other nine men whose butts are on the line. The people who work in the circle for everyone to see have to perform." Before the Brown face-off, Butler will have a chance to make Penn history. With one more victory, he will have the most career wins of any Quakers wrestler, surpassing Adam Green's (class of '93) record of 87 wins. His first opportunity will likely come against Crimson wrestler Dan Vandermyde. "I've been thinking a lot about when I take the mat against Harvard," Butler said. "It's going to be for everyone?.It's for all the people who got me to where I am. With that kind of support behind me, I can't lose. It's impossible."
