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(12/10/99 10:00am)
A trip across the Delaware to Old Nassau usually gets the competitive juices of any Penn athletic team flowing. When the Penn men's track team travels to Princeton tomorrow to compete in the Princeton Holiday Invitational, however, the Quakers really won't have fire in their eyes. Rather, they just want a chance to get their indoor season off to a start with a nice, preseason-type event. "We're not really looking at it as a competitive meet," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "Our guys just want to see where they are after fall conditioning." The meet at Princeton will obviously include the Tigers, Penn's close rival for both geographic and competitive reasons, as well as a host of high-quality regional programs. La Salle, Rutgers, Seton Hall, The College of New Jersey and others will send squads. Track and field is unlike most other sports in that a competitor can really only be at his peak performing condition for a very limited span of time. As a result, the Quakers are not looking to exhibit any midseason form tomorrow. They just want to have a chance to get back into the competitive swing of things. "We just want to get back into the routine of track meets," sophomore distance runner Matt Gioffre said. "We'll get a chance to see Princeton for the first time indoors, too. We think that us and Princeton are going to be right with each other at [the Heptagonal Championships]." For the Penn distance squad, tomorrow's trip to Princeton is really not much more than a drive into the country. Since these road warriors have just finished a successful cross country season, which saw them finish third at Heps, they are not as anxious to see how their training has progressed. "With the cross country guys, it's not so much a chance to see where they are as to just get a good run in," Powell said. Since winning is not of the utmost importance, Powell is holding back his two premier distance weapons -- senior captains Scott Clayton and Sean MacMillan. Penn expects Princeton to do the same with its big guns. In the rest of the running events, even though there is somewhat more of a priority to get people's feet wet, many talented Quakers will stay on the sidelines at Princeton. Team captain and 800-meter specialist Andrew Girardin will sit out with an injury. Senior sprinter and 1999 Heps champ in the 55- and 100-meter dash Shawn Fernandes will also sit out, but for different reasons. "There's no reason why you would drop a guy like Shawn right into the 55 at this point of the season," Powell said. "It doesn't make sense if he winds up getting injured." Penn's talented corps of throwers will get their first chance to shine tomorrow. Senior captain Matt Pagliosotti and junior Kyle Turley will combat a talented Tigers squad in the 35-pound weight throw. The Quakers jumpers will also look to impress at Princeton, and one of the integral parts of that success will need to be sophomore Tuan Wreh, who will compete in the long jump. Wreh excelled in the triple jump last season but the Penn coaching staff would like him to wait before he leaps back into that event. "We're not going to have him in the triple jump until mid-January or so," Powell said. After tomorrow's tune-up at Princeton, the Quakers will not have another indoor meet until January 15.
(12/09/99 10:00am)
And, although it goes without saying that the fall's tough games will help Penn when the Ivy League season rolls around, it's still hard to tell whether the Quakers' illustrious list of foes has maybe done a bit of harm along the way early on in this season. Coach Fran Dunphy's squad could play its 14-game Ivy League schedule, face off against its four high-octane Big 5 rivals and take on a panoply of cupcakes for the rest of the season. Plenty of Palestra die-hards would be perfectly content with such a set of opponents. But Dunphy thinks that such a schedule would cheat his players out of a host of precious memories. He wants to make sure that his student athletes play a schedule chock-full of national powerhouses and take road trips to tell their grandchildren about. "We want to give our guys as many fond memories of playing at Penn as possible," Dunphy said. "I want them to remember our trip to Italy or our trip to Puerto Rico or our playing at Kentucky." I applaud Penn's choice of top-notch opponents. When I saw the men's basketball schedule for the first time this summer and noticed that the 1999-2000 Quakers would play at Kentucky, at Auburn and at Kansas, I could barely wait for the season to get underway. But after watching the Quakers drop three of their first four going into this coming Saturday's game at No. 8 Auburn, I can't help but think that the start of this year's schedule has been anything but what the doctor ordered for this Penn team. I can't help but feel that the Quakers might have been better off playing a couple more against inferior competition just to gain some court cohesiveness. With the exception of last Friday's game against Army, every Penn antagonist so far has been a high-caliber program, and in each of those contests the Quakers' opponent had an impressive showing. Throughout the entire game at Kentucky, in parts of the game against Penn State and in the first half two nights ago against La Salle, the Quakers offense looked downright clumsy on the court. "I think we're playing as a team," Penn tri-captain Michael Jordan said. "But I don't think we're crisp on offense right now. If you look at us at this point last season, you'd see that we were a lot crisper. Some guys just still don't know the offense." What makes this year so different? The answer to this question is two-fold. First, the team is younger, and, second, the team's rotation is anything but set in stone. Seven of the 15 players on the Penn roster had never worn the Red and Blue before this season started. In addition, it is not as if these seven players are just keeping the Palestra benches toasty -- these are impact players getting used to a new system. This year's freshman class has been given a generous portion of court time. Freshmen Ugonna Onyekwe, Koko Archibong and David Klatsky are fourth, fifth and sixth on the team when it comes to playing time. There's obviously something to be said for learning by immersion, but you can't expect these three freshmen to step right into the Penn fold with ease. At times, each of these three has shown signs of brilliance, but there have obviously been growing pains. It was naturally easier for last year's senior frontcourt combo of Paul Romanczuk and Jed Ryan to play against national powerhouses like Temple and Kansas than it has been for Onyekwe and Archibong. Experience has its benefits. Still, any Penn fan foams at the mouth with the thought of Onyekwe and Archibong taking on the likes of Lehigh or Colgate. It would have been nice if these youngsters had started off with some less intimidating opponents. The other major reason that this year's Penn team is less well-suited for this grueling early stint is the fact that Dunphy's rotation is far from being set. "I definitely have a good idea of how well guys are playing," Dunphy said. "We still have some things to figure out when it comes to rotating people." In the first four games of last season, the Quakers had a reliable seven-man rotation, with the starting five of Ryan, Romanczuk, Geoff Owens, Matt Langel and Jordan with Frank Brown as sixth man and either Josh Sanger or Mike Sullivan next off the bench. This year, however, playing time has been subject to wild fluctuations. Brown has played as many as 18 minutes against Kentucky and as few as zero against La Salle. Klatsky has played as many as 25 and as few as 11 minutes. Any way you look at it, Dunphy has not yet found a substitution pattern that he loves. The rise of Onyekwe and Archibong has also created a situation in which two upperclassmen -- Oggie Kapetanovic and Brown -- are playing like they have something to prove. The start of this year's Penn schedule has plainly been stressful on many fronts. There is no question that these tough losses will make the Ivy schedule easier, but there is a question as to whether they will have a lasting detrimental effect upon the squad's collective psyche. "If we all stay positive, we'll be alright," Dunphy said.
(12/07/99 10:00am)
The Quakers split two weekend matches, losing to Yale but rebounding to beat Brown. Forty days and 40 nights, as Noah would be sure to tell you, is a long time to have a bitter taste in your mouth. If the Penn men's squash team had dropped its match against Brown this past Sunday, the Quakers(1-2, 1-2 Ivy League) would have had to wait just that long -- until January 13 -- to try to secure their first victory of the season against Denison. Thankfully for the Quakers, however, they were able to squeak out a 5-4 victory over the Bears (0-3, 0-3) at the Ringe Squash Courts early Sunday afternoon, putting a stop to their winless ways. The showdown was a veritable barnburner, as three of the nine matches went the maximum five games, and five others were decided in four. The win also marked the first victory for first-year Penn coach Craig Thorpe-Clark. "I like to think of it as a very key point in the season," freshman Elan Levy said. "It was our first win, so it definitely helped us going into winter break." Penn's weekend was a busy one. The Quakers not only played Brown, but also faced Yale (1-0, 1-0) the previous afternoon. The Elis, who finished last season ranked No. 3 in the nation, were much tougher than the Bears. Penn junior Jamie White, who plays at the No. 1 spot, was able to make quick work of his Yale counterpart Peter Grote in three games, but he was the only Quaker to notch a win. Despite the 8-1 final tally in favor of Yale, some Quakers were still pleased with their effort against the Elis. "Really, it wasn't as bad as it looks," Levy said. "In reality, we played a ton of matches really close. They're a team that's right up there with the best in the country." Although Yale and Penn were not exactly neck-and-neck, Penn did show definite signs of promise. At the No. 3 position, sophomore Roberto Kriete took what looked like a commanding 2-0 lead against Robert Gilpin but proceeded to lose the next three against the Elis standout. Levy encountered similar fate in the No. 8 slot, as Joe Cohen rallied from a 2-0 deficit to steal a 3-2 win. "Yale was fine," Penn junior co-captain Peter Withstandley said. "We fought pretty hard, and we had some pretty well-played matches. We did come up short in some places that hurt us." The Quakers quickly recovered from their loss to Yale and came out fresh the next day against a Brown squad with which they were evenly matched. Penn's top two got the job done in relatively convincing fashion against the Bears. Both White and Withstandley dispensed with their opposite numbers in four games. The Quakers faltered somewhat at No. 3 and No. 4, as Kriete and Mukund Khaitan lost to Bears in five-game matches. The bottom four of the Quakers' lineup clinched the Penn victory. Senior co-captain Andrew Hopkins turned in a 3-1 besting of Robert Park in the No. 6 slot; Penn No. 7 Vikramjit Singh blanked David Pun in his first-ever Quakers win; and Levy provided the narrow margin of victory in the fateful ninth spot. The win ensures a much more enjoyable break for the Red and Blue. The Quakers do not have another competition until they face Denison, and the team members do not need to return to Philadelphia until January 9.
(12/02/99 10:00am)
Penn State's Joe and Jon Crispin will challenge Penn's senior backcourt Saturday. Penn senior guards Michael Jordan and Matt Langel have been playing together for a good long while. The two have been paired in Fran Dunphy's starting lineup in each of their four seasons in Red and Blue. But the Quakers guards have nothing on the Penn State backcourt. Nittany Lions starters Joe and Jon Crispin have been playing together for almost 19 years. The brothers Crispin -- junior point guard Joe and freshman shooting guard Jon -- probably started off with something simple like building blocks or jigsaw puzzles, but they have now progressed to the grown-up game of Big Ten basketball. "I think any time you play with somebody for so long, you have an idea of what they're doing on the court," Joe Crispin said. "We both appreciate it a lot more than we did when we were in high school when it was expected. It's become a real joy." To start alongside your brother in one of the premier conferences in college basketball is a laudable achievement in itself. Still, the Crispins are not about to sit back and revel in their own accomplishments. "Both of those guys are very competitive," Penn State freshman guard Brandon Watkins said. "They are each the type of player that will make sure that everybody's head is always in the game." The Nittany Lions (4-0) backcourt has been a cornerstone of their success thus far. In last night's 85-75 home victory over Clemson, the Crispins scored 31 total points -- 24 for Joe and seven for little brother Jon. The elder Crispin was red hot from behind the arc, hitting on 5-of-10 three-point attempts. Last night's stellar showing against the Tigers is indicative of the job done by the brothers in each of Penn State's four victories this season. They have combined for 31.5 percent of their team's total offense. The younger Crispin has also emerged as a formidable outside threat. He was shooting 47 percent from three-point land before last night's contest. Any way you look at it, the Quakers will need to key in on the Crispins when they play host to Penn State this Saturday at 4 p.m. "They both can play, and there's no doubt that they have unlimited range," Jordan said. "We're just going to need to come out strong and guard them from the start." Jordan and Langel are no strangers to the Crispin clan. Langel and Joe Crispin were high school foes, as both Langel's Moorestown High team and Crispin's Pitman High squad were South Jersey powerhouses. Although Jordan never tangled with Pitman during his prep days at Abington Friends, he did play against the elder Crispin last summer in Philadelphia's Sonny Hill League. Jon Crispin also played in the league, but Jordan never saw him in action. The Nittany Lions soundly defeated the Quakers 71-55 last December. While many expected Penn State to have an off year after a pair of tough graduation losses, the Lions may be equally tough this year, thanks in large part to the addition of Jon Crispin. Last year, the Penn State offense relied heavily on scoring from then-sixth-year-senior point guard Dan Earl and dominant center Calvin Booth. Those two veterans combined for 28 points against the Quakers last season but have since left Happy Valley. Enter Jon Crispin. While Earl and Booth provided senior leadership at the point and the post, the younger Crispin provides a much-needed spark of athleticism and clutch shooting. In short, Crispin is emblematic of a quicker, more dynamic Penn State attack. "They are definitely going to be a different team this year," Jordan said. "They are going to show us a lot of new sets." Crispin may be a breath of fresh air in Happy Valley, but he's no stranger to the State College atmosphere. The brothers have been close throughout their lives, and this did not change when Joe went away to school three years ago. "He always liked the school," Joe Crispin said. "He came up here a lot when he was still in high school. I think it was always in the back of his head that he wanted to come here." It also seems that Crispin's transition to Big Ten basketball has been rather painless. "He's been around here for a while," Watkins said. "He knows a lot of what's going on, and he fits his role quite well." After merely four collegiate games, it is premature to speak definitively of Jon Crispin's role on this Penn State squad. By most accounts, however, he will provide the same brand of feisty floor leadership his brother has demonstrated, while also packing the power necessary to take it to the basket with ferocity. If Jon continues on his present trajectory, Penn State's success this year will truly be a family affair.
(11/23/99 10:00am)
Men's basketball co-captain Amatt Langel will miss at least 10 days of practice. Penn senior shooting guard Matt Langel has a sprained arch in his left foot that will keep him sidelined for at least 10 days. Langel and his doctors think the injury occurred in the Quakers' 67-50 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats last Wednesday. "Last Friday he was looked at by a doctor. They put a cast on, which will stay on for 10 days. We'll re-evaluate after that 10-day period," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. The Quakers co-captain attended practice yesterday but is unable to do anything more than shoot around. Waiting is all that can be expected until doctors remove the easy-to-miss blue cast on Langel's foot and ankle. The Quakers obviously hope that Langel will be healthy enough to return for Penn's December 3 home opener against Army and the Palestra showdown against Big Ten challenger Penn State on December 4. "My plans are to be back that weekend," Langel said. "Hopefully, I'll be healthy and get a couple of days of practice in before then." Langel first experienced inflammation (plantar fascitis) in his foot two weeks ago. Pain forced him to sit out practice the day before Penn's scrimmage with the Nantucket Nectars on November 12, but he was well enough to excel in that contest. Throughout most of the Kentucky game, Langel was virtually pain-free. "I couldn't feel it at all during the Kentucky game," said Langel, who along with freshman forward Ugonna Onyekwe, led all scorers with 14 points. "Right before I came out with a couple minutes left in the game, I went to make a move past a guy and I just felt a pop in my foot." Kentucky doctors spotted the injury right away, but he got his cast after he returned to Philadelphia. Having never had a serious athletic injury or any calamitous childhood mishaps, this is the first time that Langel has ever been in a cast. A deep thigh bruise kept Langel on the bench for five games during his sophomore year, and he hopes this injury will not force him to miss extended action. "It was a real bad experience," Langel said. "Sitting out is about the worst thing that can happen." Dunphy and his coaching staff desperately want the sure-shooting Langel -- who hit three first-half three-pointers against Kentucky -- to return in time for the Army-Penn State homestand, but they will have to wait until next Monday to find out if he will be available for those games. In the meantime, Langel -- a Moorestown, N.J., native -- will return home for a restful Thanksgiving. "I'm a local guy, so I'm going to go home. My mom's cooking some dinner, and maybe one or two of the guys that aren't local will come too," Langel said. "I'll have my cast on, and I won't be walking around too much."
(11/19/99 10:00am)
Cornell brings star QB Ricky Rahne to Franklin Field for the teams' 106th meeting. For the Penn football team to win a second consecutive Ivy League title, it will need the luck of a gaggle of Irishmen tomorrow. Not only do the Quakers (5-4, 4-2 Ivy League) need to best Cornell (6-3, 4-2) in their showdown at Franklin Field, but Brown and Yale both need to lose in order for there to be a three-way tie for the Ivy crown. Even though Penn fans will have their ears fixed on the PA system awaiting the announced scores from New Haven and Providence, the Quakers need to focus on the task at hand. "We can control what we can control, and that's our game on Saturday," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "And if the stars line up right and it happens, that's great. The kids are deserving. If not, we're going to make every attempt to be a 5-2 team in our league, and by most people's standards, that's pretty good." After nine pressure-packed weeks, the Quakers' attitude is pleasantly loose. They know that their fate is partly in their own hands but that a win is a win. "We don't have the pressure that we had on us at the beginning of the Ivy League schedule," Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman said. "Guys are just having fun out there. It would be nice to have a three-game winning streak to end the season." On both sides of the ball, the Quakers are firing on almost all cylinders. With the loss of tailback Kris Ryan in the second quarter of last week's game at Harvard, the Penn passing game excelled when it needed to. Hoffman completed a school-record 29 passes on 48 attempts en route to 348 yards through the air. Hoffman spread the ball around masterfully last week, as nine Quakers had catches and both Rob Milanese and Brandon Carson finished the game with more than 100 yards receiving. But the sophomore signal-caller has hardly finished taking his eraser to the Penn record books. All Hoffman needs to do is pass for 114 yards against Cornell and he will seize the school single-season passing mark from Jimmy McGeehan, who passed for 2,197 yards in 1993. "You can see from Week 1 to Week 9 the progress. You have to remember that [Hoffman] was only here for two weeks [before the season started]," Bagnoli said. Unfortunately for Hoffman and Co., however, the Big Red boast the best passing defense in the Ivy League by far. Cornell has yielded a scant 177.1 yards of passing per game. That is 70 yards better than the Quakers' average and 63 yards better than the league standard. Conversely, Cornell is seventh in the Ivies when it comes to stopping the run. Obviously, it would be best for the Quakers if they could rely on a sound ground game tomorrow, but Ryan's right ankle might have something to say about that. The Quakers' marquee running back, Ryan sits atop the Ancient Eight with 1,194 yards. He injured his ankle last weekend, however, and may not see action against Cornell. The Penn coaching staff says this is going to be a game-time decision. But Ryan has not suited up all week and walked the practice sidelines with a slight limp yesterday. "Obviously, we would like to have Kris there because of everything he's given to our offense," Bagnoli said. "We're not geared to throw the ball 60 times a game, so whether he's there or not, we're still going to need to run the ball." If Ryan does not play tomorrow, the Quakers will turn to speedy and compact sophomore Matt Thomas, who has 185 yards on the year but has averaged only 3.3 per carry. Junior scatback Mike Verille would also see plenty of action if Ryan is sidelined. On the other side of the ball, the Penn defense will need to truly rise to the occasion against a Big Red attack that has proved downright explosive at points in 1999. The year put in by Big Red sophomore quarterback Ricky Rahne is unique in Cornell history. Rahne has been Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week two times this season and his campaign has given him sole possession of the single-season Cornell records for passing yards (2,466), completions (201), touchdown passes (23), pass attempts and total offense (2,406). He will cause headaches for Penn. "Defensively, we want to prevent the big play," Bagnoli said. "We've done a really good job on turnovers recently. We need that to continue." Last year, it was the play of the Quakers defense that sealed a victory up in Ithaca. In an exclamation point to their championship campaign, the Quakers jumped out to a 21-0 lead last year at Cornell, all without scoring an offensive touchdown. "It was really cold. The defense had to step it up because the offense was struggling. This year, I expect them to open it up a little bit," said Jim Hisgen, Penn co-captain and starting middle linebacker. With Rahne taking the snaps, expect the Big Red to open it up on offense. The Quakers will counter this big-play propensity with a defense that has suffered its fair share of injuries. Kunle Williams, the sophomore cornerback who electrified Homecoming fans with his record-setting interception return two weeks ago against Princeton, will probably miss the game due to an injured finger. The latest word is that Penn senior defensive end Mike Germino may also miss tomorrow's contest with a host of recurring injuries. According to Bagnoli, Germino's nagging pains have worsened because of an illness he's currently battling. "Our defense isn't real healthy but it's Week 10, so I'm not sure anybody is real healthy," Bagnoli said. "We're playing well but we're concerned about some of the guys we've got banged up, especially because of their ability to throw the ball." With league-leading receivers Joe Splendorio, Keith Ferguson and Justin Dunleavy, Cornell will push the Red and Blue "D" to its limits. But with eight seniors slated for the defensive starting lineup, the Quakers may be able to ignore the pain for the sake of their last game in Penn uniforms. "I think health-wise we're OK [but] I think we've been better," Hisgen said. "Everybody's ready to give it one more try." These two teams will be battling for the Trustees Cup, which honors the 106-year football rivalry between the two schools. The Quakers lead the all-time series 59-41-5. The Cornell-Penn game will also mark the final contest for both of these teams this century.
(11/17/99 10:00am)
Exactly one year ago tonight, Frank Brown walked onto the Palestra floor a man possessed. Coming off a season where a nagging knee injury kept him polishing the pine for all but 13 games, few expected much from Brown in the Quakers season-opener against then-No. 7 Kansas on November 17, 1998. To the delight of the Palestra faithful and to the chagrin of Jayhawks coach Roy Williams, Brown shot the lights out, going 7-for-9 from the field for a career-high 17 points in a scant 26 minutes. The 6'6" swingman from Los Angeles was vital to keeping Penn close in a game that ended with Kansas on top 61-56. "If it's not for Frank we're probably not right there with Kansas," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. Brown was there six nights later as well, playing another 26 quality minutes in Penn's upset victory over city-rival Temple. November made Quakers fans optimistic -- it looked as if 1998-99 was going to be Frank Brown's season. These predictions proved premature, however, as Brown's playing time was inconsistent throughout the year. He was in for just five minutes in the calamitous home loss to Princeton and averaged only 5.9 points per game over the course of the year. "I don't really know. I try to practice hard every day. It's the coach's decision who gets to play and who doesn't get to play," Brown said. "I don't hold any grudges. We were winning and I was comfortable with my role of coming off the bench last year." Because he was forced to sit out all of 1996-97 and much of 1997-98 with injuries, the Ivy League offered Brown another year of eligibility for this season. Entering his fifth year in West Philadelphia, Brown looks like he'll get the full benefit of the doubt. "We have Frank Brown coming back at the small forward spot," Dunphy said. "We're rooting for Frank to have a great season, not only for us but for Frank as a person. I think he's a good man and he's paid a lot of dues, so he's going to be given every opportunity." Brown may have the benefit of the doubt this season, but he will need to secure court time on a squad with an overflowing cup of talent. The departure of two thirds of last year's starting frontcourt in graduated seniors Paul Romanczuk and Jed Ryan may free up space in the first five, but Brown will still need to battle. Big men like junior transfer Oggie Kapetanovic and true junior Josh Sanger will see action, as may any number of youthful forwards. Sophomore Dan Solomito and freshmen Ugonna Onyekwe and Koko Archibong will vie with Brown for Dunphy's favor in the rotation. Will Brown fit into a team so deep in frontcourt performers? Will this finally be his year to shine? Penn co-captain Michael Jordan thinks so: "I don't see Frankie not fitting in. He's a special player who's been here for five years. "He's worked hard so he's earned any playing time that he gets. When he's out there he's a presence. You can't leave him open, so that takes pressure off of everybody else." Up and Out of Beverly Hills Ask Frank Brown where he comes from, and he will tell you Los Angeles. His address might read Beverly Hills, and he may have attended Beverly Hills High, but he seems determined to shun a 90210 branding. "Beverly was a lot more down to earth than you might think," Brown said. "The TV show and all that was really more like the private schools in L.A., not anything like the public schools." Brown's father, Glenn, is a successful entrepreneur and the founder of his own thriving private investigation company. He gave Frank, an only child, a comfortable home and the best opportunities. Until ninth grade, Brown went to an academically rigorous private school. As his basketball skills developed fast and furious, he and his family decided to look for a more high-octane hoops environment. Beverly Hills High School was ideal, enabling him to play against a myriad of future Division I standouts. Brown's basketball acumen, however, was unearthed quite accidentally. "I played football in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. In the offseason, to stay in shape, we played basketball," Brown said. "I started growing, so football was taking a toll on my knees and on my back. I then switched over to basketball." Whether discovered intentionally or not, Brown's court skills were unquestionable. He was all set to play a role at Beverly as a sophomore, but then he got the first taste of the knee problems that would continue to plague him throughout his career. "In 10th grade, I blew out my knee because I was growing too fast," Brown said. "I grew like four inches and ruptured my patella tendon. I missed the season." Once his legs bounced back, Brown began to turn heads all over the country. As a senior, he averaged a scorching 23 points and eight rebounds per game. In the process, he earned all-league, all-county and all-Los Angeles Times honors. Noted recruiting journals also took notice of the Beverly senior; Blue Chip Illustrated touted him as a top 100 prospect. Brown was a hot commodity on the left coast. He received attention from Pac-10 programs USC, Oregon and Oregon State. But after a visit to New York following his junior year in high school, Brown decided that he wanted something more like the Big Apple than the City of Angels -- he was looking to go to the East Coast. Luckily for Penn, Brown didn't get recruited much by eastern powers. "Penn came to me at a summer AAU camp in Arizona," Brown said. "At that time, they were returning Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney and were preseason top 25. Plus there was Wharton and the academics here, so I knew it was a chance that I really couldn't turn down." The Quakers had made Brown an offer that he couldn't refuse, so the the blue chipper made the cross-continent jump. Mr. Brown's Wild Ride Entering Penn as an extremely highly touted recruit put immediate pressure on Brown's shoulders. He played in 27 games in 1995-96, starting five. He averaged only 3.4 points per game and shot a disappointing 33 percent from the field. Adjustment was no cake walk for the neophyte Quaker. "I think my freshman year was hard for me because it was the first time I was away from home," Brown said. "I'm an only child, so I got real homesick." That first season was a memorable experience for Brown. He was a part of a team that tied for the Ivy title, only to fall to Princeton in a playoff. Then-seniors Ira Bowman and Tim Krug were influential, stressing the necessity of a let-it-all-hang-out work ethic. The summer after his plebe year, Brown was still thirsty for fresh experiences. He went to Italy for a vacation and, while overseas, put on an extra 25 pounds. While working out at Penn that summer, the stress on his already-tender knees became just too much. Brown broke an ossicle in his knee and chose to have surgery. This injury, which came on suddenly while he was shooting around, would prove to be a debilitating thorn in his side. Time after time, he tried to come back from the injury too soon. "I kept on coming back and reinjuring it," Brown said. For all intents and purposes, Brown's knee kept him at less-than-peak performance for two entire seasons. Unlucky 13 was the tale of his sophomore and junior seasons, as he played 13 games in 1997-98 and a mere 13 minutes in 1996-97. Once his health returned, there was the roller coaster of last season. He started only one game in 1998-99, against Iona in the first round of the ECAC Holiday Festival in Madison Square Garden. He had a season-high eight rebounds in that contest, and he scored 10 points in the ECAC finals in a loss to a surprise Hofstra squad. As the season progressed, though, Brown's minutes became more erratic, and he never again cracked the starting five. He played an important, but not illustrious role on a championship team. If you ask Brown about the issue of playing time, he'll tell you he was content. One look at his face in one of the of games where he played single-digit minutes last year, however, and you saw discontent written all over it. Plenty in Frank's Court Almost everybody is pulling for Brown. Even though his minutes have often been curtailed, there is no doubt that he is a favorite among Palestra fans. When a sweet shot leaves his hands, the Quakers faithful waits with baited breath. The most telling sign of the affection Penn fans have for him is the boisterous applause he gets every time he steps into the game. Brown doesn't think that these cheers are anything special, however. "Sometimes I hear that kind of stuff," Brown said. "Maybe I just have a lot of friends, but everybody has that." If you wander around campus with Brown for more than two minutes, you get an overwhelming sense of how well-liked this young man is. The ladies who swipe cards at Stouffer can't get enough of him -- they are like putty in his hands. People run into him and say hello, and, rather than shrugging, nodding or emitting something impersonal, Brown returns the greeting with a deliberate "Hey, how's it going?" Maybe it is the West Coast in him but Brown has a gentle, plainspoken air about him that makes you feel comfortable with him from the moment you're first introduced. "Frank's one of the nicest guys I know. He's happy-go-lucky off the court," Jordan said. "He's a genuinely nice guy. I think that if you just ask people on campus who's one of the nicest people they know and they'll say Frank Brown." Even celebrities are wishing Brown the best in his final season at Penn. Tae Bo superstar and infomercial maven Billy Blanks was Brown's personal trainer for a time back in Los Angeles. His mother, Marsha, has a friend in the entertainment industry who had heard great things about a personal trainer named Billy Blanks. This was two summers ago, before Blanks made it huge with his best-selling video. Hearing also that NBA superstars frequented Blanks' gym, Brown was hooked and decided to try him out. "He was a really cool, hard-working guy," Brown said. "It was cool to be in the same place as Shaq, Grant Hill and Magic." Needless to say, Brown has a panoply of supporters hoping that 1999-2000 is his finest season yet. The Last Campaign All the good will in the world can come Brown's way, but he knows that it is his own performance on the court that will make or break this final season at Penn. "I think [Dunphy's] going to give me a shot," Brown said. "I just need to step up and produce and fill the role of the graduating seniors." In last Friday's scrimmage with the Nantucket Nectars, a traveling team comprised of recent college players, Brown got the starting nod along with Jordan, Matt Langel, Geoff Owens and Kapetanovic. This may very well be the lineup that Dunphy employs tonight against Kentucky. Whether or not Brown gets a spot in the first five, he is still eager to contribute to a team on which he plainly enjoys playing. "Right now, everybody's really cool on the team and we all get along real well," Brown said. "We all pretty much have the same schedule, so the atmosphere is really great." After Brown graduates this spring with a double Wharton concentration in management and marketing, he is still unsure of his plans. He may return to the West Coast to pursue a career in business or he may, if given the opportunity, try to play basketball overseas. Wherever he goes, though, Quakers fans hope that he can travel with fond memories of this, his fifth year in the Red and Blue.
(11/09/99 10:00am)
Now in its seventh year and boasting its deepest field ever, the competition returns to Irvine Auditorium tonight. The body oil has been purchased, the speedo has been taken out of the attic and the finishing touches have been put on the routine. The 40 hopefuls in the seventh annual Mr. and Ms. Penn Bodybuilding Contest can hardly wait for tonight's 7 p.m. start at Irvine Auditorium. They can't wait to pose, and, more immediately, they can't wait to eat. "I can't wait until it's over and I can start eating fatty foods again," College junior Josh Coleman said. "You never know how much you like them until you go without them." Each of the chiseled competitors in tonight's pose-down have been on a painfully restrictive diet for almost six weeks now. The week prior to the competition gets doubly brutal as the bodybuilders need to refrain from almost all carbohydrates. "The diet begins about six weeks before the show," said Tony Tenisci, event organizer and Penn assistant women's track and field coach. "This last week is the real hard week because they are doing stuff to hone everything up." This carbohydrate-deprived field will be the largest in the event's history. This year also marks the return of the very popular contest to its original Irvine stomping grounds. While the auditorium at the corner of 34th and Spruce streets was under renovation, the Mr. and Ms. Penn extravaganza moved west to the International House. "We're very excited about being back at Irvine," Tenisci said. "They spent something like 42 million bucks and the place looks it. I haven't had to do anything at all to the stage. It's just going to look perfect." Although Irvine often plays host to such staid events as visits from major political leaders, tonight its rebuilt interior will brim with with unchained exuberance. The contest's lineup boasts representatives from nearly every sector of the Penn community, including undergraduates, graduate students and staff. "They really express the best of Penn," Tenisci said. "There's the intelligence, the fitness and the diversity that I think are everywhere in this place. People here now have the facilities to express their interest in bodybuilding and it's great to see how they've taken advantage of it." There are between 200 and 300 tickets remaining for tonight's event. They can be purchased today on Locust Walk or at Irvine before the show. The program will be action-packed, so the earlier you show up the better, organizers said. Tenisci reports that the night will kick off with a warm-up performance by the Mr. and Ms. Penn "Fly Girls." This band of dancers is primarily composed of members of the Penn women's track team and they hope to get tonight's party started right. The contest is presented by the Penn women's track and field program and constitutes its principal fundraising event. "It's the fundraiser for our team," Tenisci said. "It gives me a chance to investigate some of my own interests, but it's a huge event for us." The male field includes 12 lightweights, eight middleweights and eight heavyweights. The muscle-definition of these hopefuls is daunting across the board, as even the little guys will awe and delight the crowd. "The lightweights are the killer," Tenisci said. "They look like Rand McNally out there. They have more lines on them than a roadmap." The lightweight men will be tonight's largest contingent, and, like every division, it boasts a wide assortment of competitors. Paul Reynolds, a third-year orthopedic resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, will take his first stab at bodybuilding competition tonight. The graduate of the University of Virginia medical school was a water polo player and track athlete as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins. He found his way into the lightweight field after Tenisci spotted him at the gym. "This is the only year where I have enough time to get in the gym to do something like this," Reynolds said. "It's been an interesting experience. I think the people around me will be pretty happy when it's over." The field of eight middleweights will also be keenly competitive tonight. Last year's division champ and eventual Mr. Penn Sheldon Martin has left for medical school, but last year's No. 2 Roger Wu and No. 3 Coleman are still vying for victory. "It's going to be competitive," said Coleman, who is a decathlete for the Penn track team. "Last year, I made a mistake with the diet and wound up losing muscle. I'm 22 pounds heavier this year and looking to do real well." The eight heavyweight men are, according to Tenisci, "cut more than any group I can remember." They will share the program with 16 female competitors, who will be evenly split into two divisions. In between the men's and women's competition, the Irvine crowd will have a chance to gawk at two guest posers -- John Rosado, a trainer at Sweat Gym, and David Silvester, who trains at Penn's own Gimbel facility. Tenisci and his compatriots have clearly pulled out all of the stops.
(11/08/99 10:00am)
Third-quarter surge ignites Football win Everybody knew the scoreboard was wrong -- everybody, except perhaps the Princeton Tigers. With 3:27 left in the third quarter, Franklin Field's scoreboard told the 18,305 Homecoming fans that their Quakers led Princeton 227-6. In reality, the score was only 27-6, and the scoreboard's error was soon corrected. Still, the 21 unanswered points that Penn (4-4, 3-2 Ivy League) ran up in the preceding 5:14 must have felt like 221 in the hearts and minds of the from-then-on-listless Tigers. This five-minute stretch secured the Quakers' margin of victory and sunk Princeton for good. After a 6-6 first half, Penn outscored the gentlemen from Old Nassau (3-5, 1-4) 35-7 in the second half for a demonstrative 41-13 victory. "They fell apart in the second half," Quakers defensive lineman Mike Germino said. "You really got a sense that they folded out there. They just said,'Enough is enough; we can't do this.' Midway through the third quarter you really felt it." The last score in Penn's three-touchdown flurry was a 41-yard interception return by sophomore safety Kunle Williams. Williams' dramatics didn't stop there, however, as he returned yet another Princeton interception with less than a minute to go in the game -- this time for a shocking school-record 100 yards. Williams' marathon return brought the boisterous crowd to its feet and broke the previous 94-yard mark set by in 1994 by Dana Lyons, who attended Saturday's Homecoming contest. Although the final score was lopsided in favor of the Red and Blue, the Tigers weren't outclassed. Time of possession favored Princeton 30:45 to 29:15. The Tigers had four more first downs and seven fewer penalties. This showdown was definitely not decided on paper; it was a game predicated by big plays. And it was the Quakers who made more of them. Penn's initial possession was an auspicious one. Brandon Carson returned the opening Princeton kickoff to the Penn 31. After an offsides call against the Tigers, Quakers tailback Kris Ryan ran for 34 yards up the left side of the field after the Penn offensive line ripped a gaping hole in the Princeton defense. Ryan's longest run of the day gave the Quakers prime field position but they were unable to gain another 10 yards. Penn settled for a 41-yard Jason Feinberg field goal and led 3-0. The ensuing Princeton possession was indicative of the maladies that would plague the Tigers all afternoon. On first down, Princeton quarterback Tommy Crenshaw lined up in shotgun formation and attempted to catch Penn off-guard with a draw to tailback Cameron Atkinson. The Penn "D" adjusted beautifully and Jim Hisgen and Adrian Puzio stopped the Princeton freshman at the line of scrimmage. On second down, Atkinson got the call again and managed only three yards. Third down saw a vicious Penn pass rush as tackle John Galan sacked Crenshaw for a stinging eight-yard loss. The Tigers were forced to punt. This pattern would continue, as the Penn pass rush was one of the principal keys to victory on Saturday. The four frontmen for Penn refused to give Crenshaw and his backup Jon Blevins time to make things happen. Penn sacked Princeton quarterbacks seven times on Saturday. Six Quakers defenders got in on the action. Hisgen led the team with two. "Obviously, we had trouble with their pass rush," Princeton coach Steve Tosches said. "They blitzed a little bit, but most of it was from the four-man rush." On the ensuing possession, it looked as if the Tigers would forge ahead. On a first down play from the Penn 43-yard line, Crenshaw found wide-out Phil Wendler for 42 yards." "We go backward on two straight run plays," Tosches said. "Those are opportunities to grab momentum, and we just didn't do that." Another Princeton field goal knotted the score going into an extra-long halftime. "It turned into a 25-minute halftime because of all the things they were trying to do Homecoming-wise," Bagnoli said. "We didn't really know what to expect because they had scored just before the half." As it turned out, the Quakers did much better than anyone could have expected in the second half. Penn didn't look stellar from the get-go in the second half, however. The Quakers' first possession ended when an errant Hoffman pass was intercepted by Princeton cornerback Gary Beem after just three plays. But the Quakers defense struck back with ferocity. On the second play after the interception, the Tigers tried to get innovative and attempt a reverse. Penn's Mike Germino got to Crenshaw just as he handed the ball off to wide receiver Chisom Opara. The exchange was bumpy and Opara fumbled the ball, which Penn's Rogers recovered. With short field, Hoffman marched his team rapidly into the end zone. The touchdown was a 22-yarder to Rob Milanese. Hoffman hit him while Milanese was moving full-speed on a crossing pattern. So began the much-vaunted 21-0 run. The second touchdown came after a putrid six-yard punt by Princeton's Taylor Northrop. "Short field made a big difference," Hoffman said. "The offense only has to go 30 or 40 yards." The Penn offense played well in the second half, but the real secret to the Quakers' success was their ability to make the big play in every facet of the game on Saturday. "All season long, we haven't done a good job protecting the ball offensively and creating turnovers defensively," Bagnoli said. "Until we're able to do that better and get some opportunities in short field, it's going to prevent you from winning those close games. Finally, we did a good job of that today."
(11/06/99 10:00am)
Steve Tosches is now the senior member of the Ivy coaching fraternity and is second on Princeton's all-time win list. Steve Tosches is a mere 43 years old, but the Princeton football coach is currently the elder statesman in a conference more steeped in history than any other in the country. As the senior member of the Ivy coaching fraternity, Tosches assumes something of a proprietary role. "He's in a position where he represents us from a historical perspective," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "When I first got in the league we had Carm Cozza at Yale and Joe Restic at Harvard, and they gave a historical perspective on the way things used to be. Now, Steve does that because everyone else is basically new." With the departure of Cozza after the 1996 season, Tosches became the standard-bearer of an Ivy legacy that dates all the way back to Princeton's showdown with Rutgers in 1869 in the first-ever college football game. "It seems like our league has gone through so many changes since I've been here," Tosches said. "A lot of guys that were around for a while and knew the history of the league have gone, while I've just stuck around and stuck around." This season marks the 13th in Tosches' Princeton coaching career. The only other Ivy League coaches to challenge him for seniority are Ray Tellier from Columbia in his 11th campaign, John Lyons from Dartmouth in his eighth year and Bagnoli, who is also coaching his eighth Ivy season. The only thing more remarkable than Tosches' longevity at Princeton has been his success. His 78 career victories place him second on the all-time Tigers win list. His three Ivy titles tie him with Dick Colman for the most by a Princeton head man and his 51 conference victories place him as the sixth-winningest coach in Ancient Eight history. On the way, Tosches has coached four first-team All-Americans, four winners of the Bushnell Cup for the Ivy League Player of the Year and three academic All-Americans. "Coach Tosches, like the rest of the coaching staff, stressed the fact that you were at Princeton for a reason other than football," said Rob Vanden Noven, a 1989 Princeton graduate and a first-team All-Ivy defensive end in his senior year. "He took great pride in coaching at Princeton. I think that the fact that he has stayed even after so much success is a testament to that." The sort of success that Tosches has had is something of an anomaly at Old Nassau; the program had just two six-win seasons in the two decades before he took over. He inherited a program that averaged 3.6 wins for the 16 years prior to his coming. Since he took over 13 years ago, however, Princeton teams have averaged 6.3 victories per season. Princeton's 3-4 record thus far this season doesn't bode well for any improvement on Tosches' career numbers but this Tigers' squad, like all of those during his tenure, do the things essential for success, regardless of the squad's ability. "I think they are strong in all the areas that you need to be a good team," Bagnoli said. "They've historically had a good defense, a good kicking game and some good skilled kids on offense." Like many great coaches, Tosches practiced what he would later preach. He began his collegiate career at Idaho State University before transferring to the University of Rhode Island. As a Ram, he became one of the most highly acclaimed quarterbacks on the East Coast. After his 1979 senior season he earned a spot on the All-Yankee Conference, All-New England and All-East Division I-AA teams. Tosches' time as a top-notch signal-caller in college payed big dividends for the Tigers. "It might have been his experience at quarterback, or it might have been something else," Vanden Noven said. "He was just a very intelligent coach who had a great grasp of everything going on around him. He was tremendous at adopting the gameplan according to the talents of the players he had at the time." After his graduation from URI in 1979, Tosches signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League. He tossed the pigskin in the Great White North for only one season before returning to his alma mater as offensive backfield coach. After a single season back in the Ocean State, Tosches joined Ron Rogerson's staff at the University of Maine as offensive coordinator. When Rogerson won the head job at Princeton in 1985, he brought his young offensive coordinator along with him. The fiery Rogerson tragically only coached two seasons at Old Nassau. His unexpected and untimely death ushered his 31-year-old fledgling assistant into the spotlight. "I had a chance to work for him for six years," Tosches said. "He was an emotional and very energetic type of individual. He was an offensive lineman in his playing days, very popular with the players." With Rogerson gone, the more cerebral Tosches took the reins of a mediocre program in 1987 and had success from day one. "He was definitely more soft-spoken than Rogerson. He had the confidence of the team from very early on," Vanden Nowen said. The confidence Tosches inspired in his team spurred the Tigers on to a string of outstanding seasons but his tenure at Princeton has also coincided with a period of Penn football excellence. The Tigers' Delaware Valley neighbors have won nine of the last 16 Ivy League football crowns. Tosches' teams have, nevertheless, chalked up a 7-5 record against the Red and Blue. They do, however, have a losing record (2-4) against Bagnoli-coached Penn squads. From the oft-lauded "Game of the Century" in 1993, in which Penn edged past a previously unbeaten Princeton team before a Franklin Field Homecoming crowd of more almost 40,000, to last year's 27-14 Penn win at the Tigers' brand-new Princeton Stadium, this rivalry has been a joy to watch. "It's a great rivalry," Tosches said. "It's a great atmosphere down there regardless of what the records are. From our standpoint, Harvard and Yale are historic meetings, but in the years I've been here, with the success of Pennsylvania's program, our players know that the rivalries are changing." The Penn-Princeton rivalry is certainly not limited to the playing field. Much in the same way that the Tigers and the Quakers battle over basketball prospects, the two football programs recruit from very similar talent pools. "Obviously, we spend a lot of time in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, so there's competition there. It's not uncommon to have all eight schools going after one kid. There are a limited amount of kids who have the grades, the SATs [and] the financial situation, so you pretty much butt heads with everybody in the league." Tosches is acutely aware of the importance of tomorrow's game, even though he realizes that his squad is nowhere near the Ancient Eight driver's seat. He knows that vital lessons are always learned when Princeton travels to Philadelphia. Good coaches always know success is a long-term proposition.
(10/29/99 9:00am)
When the current class of cross country seniors came to Penn four years ago, confidence rode high. These were supposed to be the runners who would challenge for the much-coveted Heptagonal crown. Now, after three unsuccessful stabs, the remaining members of the Class of 2000 -- Sean MacMillan, Scott Clayton and Mark Granshaw -- are in a position to erase those three years of disappointment. When they take the starting line at 1:30 p.m. at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx today, they have the opportunity to get the monkey off their back for good. They have a realistic shot at vying for a Heptagonal Championship. "We had a meeting earlier in the week," Penn sophomore Matt Caporaletti said. "The older guys just sat us down and said that they're tired of not getting the job done at this meet." Last year, Heps was something of an embarrassment for the Quakers. They only managed a sixth-place finish in the nine-team race (the eight Ivy League schools and Navy). There were certainly mitigating circumstances last year at Heps, however. MacMillan was laid up with the flu and was unable to make it to Van Cortlandt. Clayton was the only Penn runner to crack the top 10 and the Quakers had only two runners in the top 25. This year is a very different story. "All our big guys are healthy, so we're ready to go for it," Caporaletti said. Penn has been thoroughly impressive at certain points this season. On October 1, the Quakers got the best of regional rivals Villanova, La Salle and Keene State en route to a victory at the Belmont Plateau here in Philadelphia. The victory made waves because Villanova had done extraordinarily well earlier this year. Two weeks ago on the Van Cortlandt course, Penn finished fourth out of 13 teams at the IC4A Championships. MacMillan finished in a blistering time of 24:47 and Clayton was right behind, crossing the line in 24:49. Sophomore Matt Gioffre was the third Penn runner to finish with a time of 25:18. The Quakers fell only to Princeton, Duke and Penn State. The Tigers won the meet with 70 points. Defending Heps champ Princeton will likely be at or near the top today. The slim margin of 23 points at IC4As has given Penn a shot of confidence. "If a few different things happened, we could very easily have been right up there with Princeton," Caporaletti said. Dartmouth and Brown will probably be the other two squads that will give Princeton a run for their money. The Big Green have turned heads all year and currently carry a No. 21 national ranking. The Bears, who are now listed at No. 22, however, have only recently made some noise. "Coach [Charlie] Powell thinks we stack up better than Brown. We think we're a better team," Caporaletti said. The emphasis is not just on this weekend, however. The Quakers' primary goal is to make it to the NCAA Championships on November 22 at Indiana University. A top-two finish at regionals two weeks from now may ensure a trip to Bloomington, but a strong performance this weekend might give the Quakers a leg-up on an at-large bid. Today, of course, the emphasis is on the here and now. The emphasis is on this Class of 2000 winning its first and only Heptagonal championship.
(10/29/99 9:00am)
the Quakers visit the Elis, who have bullied opponents while winning five in a row. Hot off the heels of a five-game-winning streak in which they have outscored opponents 184-54, the Yale Elis (5-1, 2-1 Ivy League) look vicious enough to take a juicy chunk out of visiting Penn tomorrow. Add to this the fact that Penn (3-3, 2-1) is playing on natural grass for the first time all year in the unfriendly confines of the Yale Bowl, and the Elis begin to look like the odds-on favorite. In a high-stakes game like tomorrow's, however, the smart money often winds up looking foolish. "This game is the most important game for the year," Penn captain and senior linebacker Jim Hisgen said. "If we lose we're out of contention. If we win we're still in it." There is no doubt that the pressure is square on the shoulders of both of these teams. Right now, the Ivy League championship is up for grabs and every game is a must-win. As the Ancient Eight cruises past the midpoint of its season, five teams -- Brown, Cornell, Harvard, Yale and Penn -- are deadlocked with a single defeat. The Bears and Big Red have three victories, while the other three are 2-1 in the conference. This weekend may prove decisive for the 1999 campaign. "If you want to win a championship, basically you've got to win out," Yale coach Jack Siedlecki said. "We're both in the same boat and we were both in the same boat last year. If a championship is your goal, each game's a playoff game from here on out." The Elis' only blemish thus far came in their season opener against Brown. Before a home crowd of 19,390, Yale blew an early lead and fell to the Bears, 25-24. Since then, they have been on the cusp of dominance, whipping Valparaiso 48-2, San Diego 17-6, Holy Cross 34-14, Dartmouth 44-3 and Columbia 41-29. The bedrock of Yale's success this season has been its defense, which is statistically one of the most efficient in the Ivies. Yale has allowed its opponents only 272 yards of total offense per game. The Quakers, on the other hand, have let up over 340 yards per contest. "They play very, very good team defense," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "Rick Flanders was here as our secondary coach and now he's their [defensive] coordinator. He's done a nice job with those kids." The Elis "D" returned eight starters this year from a unit that wreaked havoc throughout the Ivy League in 1998. "They play very well together and they have two ends that can really bring the pressure," Bagnoli said. "They're a little bit undersized in the middle, but kids run real well, and they're making some plays and playing with a tremendous amount of cohesion." The two ends Bagnoli is speaking of -- seniors Peter Sarantos and Jeff Hockenbrock -- are again providing a monstrous amount of quarterback pressure for the Elis. The two combined for an impressive 16 sacks last year. This year, after only six games, this tandem has tallied a signal caller-shocking 17 sacks -- 11 for Sarantos and six for Hockenbrock. Perhaps the most startling fact about the Yale defense is that they have allowed opponents to convert on only three out of 77 third-down chances. That means that Yale's opponents are only getting a first down in 3.9 percent of their third downs. "They've done a good job of keeping teams off schedule." Bagnoli said. "Anytime you do that, the statistics point to a defensive advantage. If we get it to third [down] and three or third and two, we'll be fine." Defensive acumen aside, Yale is still worried about the Penn offense. "They've got a tremendous run orientation with the big back [sophomore tailback Kris Ryan], but they've thrown for a zillion yards the last two weeks," Siedlecki said. "They're a balanced team. They're tough to defend." Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman encountered criticism early this season for his supposedly immature grasp of the Penn offense. As of late, however, the sophomore transfer from Northwestern has put his name all over the Penn record book. With his 343 yards last week and 399 against Columbia two weeks ago, he now owns the third and first spots on the single-game yardage list. Couple that with Ryan's 844 rushing yards this season, and you have an attack that is a pain to defend against. "I think we're going to see a lot more cover-two against them because people have been playing man against us and we've had success against that, throwing for close to 800 yards over the last two weeks," Hoffman said. "They'll try to stop the run first. Hopefully, we'll establish a run game early and play with their overly aggressive safeties." On the opposite side of the ball, the Quakers defense needs to do an infinitely better job of stopping the opposing offense in pressure situations. Last week in the 44-37 loss to Brown, the Quakers were abysmal on third down, letting the Bears capitalize on 12-of-19 third-down chances. If the Quakers are looking to better third down defensive numbers, Yale may be a prime opportunity. The Elis have been solid but not outstanding, converting on 29 of 84 tries. "Last week, it wasn't so much that there were problems," Hisgen said. "It was just that people were making mistakes. We're just focusing on everybody each taking care of their responsibilities. That way, we'll cut down on third-down conversions." The Elis have sported a balanced offense all this season, averaging 151 yards on the ground and 228 yards in the air. Quarterback Joe Walland is an elusive scrambler who can also throw for serious yardage but Penn is also keying in on Yale's marquee running back, Rashad Bartholomew. The junior is certainly a headache. "We're looking to focus on Bartholomew," Hisgen said. "He's quick and he makes cuts really well. He's the problem that we have to solve first." The valid knock against Yale this year is that they have a tendency to pile on big numbers early and get weaker late in the game. Last week's victory at Columbia was a perfect case in point. The Lions narrowed a 41-10 blowout to a respectable 41-29 finish by scoring 19 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. Obviously, one of the focal points for Penn tomorrow has to be speed out of the gate. "It's always good to come out of the shoot, to do well, to get ahead and to play at the pace you want to play," Bagnoli said. To put it simply for the Quakers, a good start tomorrow might ensure a good finish to their 1999 campaign.
(10/20/99 9:00am)
NEW YORK -- The intersection of 218th Street and Broadway may prove to be the spot where the 1999 Penn football team turned the corner. When Columbia tailback Johnathan Reese caught a short pass from quarterback Mike Glynn in only the Lions' third play from scrimmage and ran it a blistering 72 yards into the Penn end zone, the Homecoming crowd of 7,702 New Yorkers let out a mighty roar. Columbia was there to play. But, by the time the two Ivy foes walked off the field at Wien Stadium this past Saturday, the only sound heard was a faint purr coming from a thoroughly tamed Lions squad. "They caught us on a very early third down," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "We blitzed and they did a nice job of running a crack screen. They got the kid and next thing you know, 72 yards later and a minute into the game you're behind 7-0. A -- that tests the character of your kids, and B -- that shakes your coaches up." There is no doubt that Saturday was a gut check for the Quakers. Coming in, they knew that a win at Columbia would trump their previous besting of feckless Dartmouth in the season opener or their outclassing of still-winless Fordham. They also knew that a loss could complicate the path to an Ivy repeat. That very early Columbia touchdown might have sunk a faint-hearted team. This 1999 Penn squad, however, faced the pasty blue assault head-on. On both sides of the football, the Quakers exemplified the championship form that has remained largely obscured throughout the early part of this campaign. The Penn secondary rose to the occasion on Saturday. In the process, the Red and Blue D-backs took Columbia by surprise. "I think going in, we underestimated the defensive back unit of Penn," Glynn said. "I thought they did really well." Glynn has every reason to laud the Penn secondary. The Lions may have struck first but the touchdown to Reese would turn out to be the sole Columbia completion of the first quarter. With the return of senior cornerback Joey Alofaituli, who led the team with six tackles, the Penn deep backs foiled every other Columbia attempt until Glynn found Reese for an insignificant two-yard completion just before the 10-minute mark in the second quarter. Some of the success of the Penn D-backs might be due to Columbia offensive foibles, but, in the first quarter alone, both Alofaituli and freshman Travis Belden each knocked down passes that seemed destined for Lions receivers. If it were not for the athleticism and quick instincts of the Penn secondary, Columbia might have kept up its initial momentum. In a critical sequence in the last two minutes of the first half, the Quakers "D" came up huge and, in the process, kept Penn momentum alive heading into the locker room. With just over two minutes remaining, the score was 21-14 Quakers. On fourth down, Penn had the ball on its own 42-yard line. Bagnoli and his staff decided to catch the Lions off guard by attempting the Quakers first fake punt of the season. However, punter Ryan Lazzeri's nonchalant three-yard completion to John Holahan failed to move the chains. The Quakers turned the ball over on downs and gave Columbia prime field position. The Lions moved the ball quickly up the field. Five hurry-up plays later, Columbia was looking at first and goal on the Penn six-yard line with a 1:20 on the clock. That's as far as the Lions would get. On first down, Glynn looked for Mark Cannan but Steve Moroney deftly batted away the pass. The Lions then gave it to Reese on the ground on second down. Before last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year could even look for a hole, Penn's Moroney and Mike Germino stopped him cold. They sent Reese back for a four-yard loss, setting up a third-down Glynn incompletion, again intended for Cannan. Neal Kravitz then hit a 27-yard field goal, but Penn had successfully averted a game-tying Columbia touchdown. "We went for the fake punt," Bagnoli said. "It was open, it was there and there should have been a holding call. They don't call it, so it didn't work and we give them short field. With short field you're obviously at a disadvantage. We came up big just to hold them to a field goal." The way that the defense rebounded on Saturday mirrors the lightning-quick rejoinder offered by the Penn offense. With his team down seven points, Gavin Hoffman took the reins on the Quakers' first offensive drive and orchestrated a poised 78-yard, seven-play drive to the end zone. Hoffman's first pass may have been rifled out of bounds, shortening the breath of the Penn faithful, but his picture-perfect touchdown spiral six plays later to senior wideout Brandon Carson squelched any Red and Blue apprehension. If Penn's first half showed its bounce-back acumen, the second half showed its propensity for dominance. The Quakers amassed almost six times the total yardage of the Lions in the second half and outscored them 20-0.
(10/11/99 9:00am)
Mission accomplished, in convincing-but-not-overwhelming fashion. Although they were far from perfect on Saturday, Penn's defense made the plays when it needed to and the Quakers beat still-winless Fordham 35-18. "We certainly don't have the consistency that I'd like us to have on either side of the ball," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "The difference here was that we made some plays on those key fourth-down stops and third-down stops." Bagnoli's observation is on the mark. Bucknell's 23-16 victory over the Quakers (2-2) last week had everything to do with Penn's inability to execute in pressure situations. That was not a problem against the hapless Rams, however. When the Red and Blue defenders needed to rise to the occasion, they did. The Penn defense made third downs nightmarish for the Rams. Fordham's third-down conversion rate was an abysmal 7 percent as they were successful in only one out of 15 opportunities. It wasn't until there was less than two minutes to go in the third quarter that the Rams finally made good on a third-down chance. "Our main game plan was to try to keep them at third-and-long so we could plan for them to pretty much pass the ball," Penn senior co-captain Jim Hisgen said. "We could run our blitzes and stunts off of that, which made everything a lot easier." This game plan began to manifest itself from the get-go. On Fordham's first play from scrimmage, the Quakers brought immediate pressure upon sophomore quarterback Mark Carney, forcing him to throw a harried incompletion. Fordham tailback Al Lundy gained six on second down but Carney then threw another incompletion under pressure on third down. This pattern continued on Fordham's second possession. After a Carney incompletion on third down, Fordham punter Curt Rubinstein booted the ball 34 yards to the Penn 35-yard line. Penn's Rob Milanese bobbled the punt as he tried to come in on it. Fordham's Ryan Garner recovered it and the Rams had the ball with optimal field position well inside Penn territory. An ineffectual rush and two pressured passes later, the Fordham threat was extinguished. Moreover, this was not an isolated incident. The first quarter saw the Rams get the ball very near or inside midfield three times. But Fordham managed just one field goal with this favored position. Although the Fordham passing game may pale in comparison to a high-octane air attack like Villanova's, there is no question that the Quakers secondary deserves praise for the job done on Saturday. "There were some mistakes and some big plays let up," Hisgen said. "But, other than that, the secondary knew that they had to step up and I think they played rather well considering there were a few injuries and stuff like that." Cornerback Joey Alofaituli and free safety Hasani White were both sidelined against Fordham. "We didn't have Alofatuli or White and you've got a couple of guys banged up," Bagnoli said. "So who do you replace them with? You have [sophomore Steve] Faulk, who didn't play at all last year, and [Fred] Plaza, who's a true freshman." The inexperience of these substitutes, coupled with the relative youth of those Quakers filling in at defensive end, may have played a significant role in creating the disparity between the first and second halves. Fordham managed only three points and 65 total yards of offense in the first half. After the break, the Rams generated 236 yards and 15 points. One could not help but sense that the Red and Blue defenders might have been loosening up a bit once the Quakers had built a healthy lead. "I don't know if loose is the right word. We've got some injuries, especially at defensive end and in the secondary," Bagnoli said. "Anytime you put freshmen in the game, they just have to get used to game speed." Matt Georgia, Fordham's second quarterback of the day, provided a spark for the Rams, throwing for 149 yards and one touchdown. And it was Georgia's 77-yard bomb to wideout Kendal Creer that set up the Fordham touchdown that narrowed the Penn lead to 10 at 28-18. "I think for the first time all season, we got a little bit of a rhythm going with our passing game," Fordham coach Dave Clawson said. "What we run is very much a West Coast timing offense. For the first time all year, the balls were getting delivered on time." Even though one of Kris Ryan's four touchdowns had stretched the Penn lead to 35-18, Fordham still showed signs of life early in the fourth quarter. It wasn't until there was 8:16 left in the fourth that the Penn "D" closed the deal. The Fordham offense had advanced the ball to the cusp of the Penn red zone. After Georgia threw an incomplete on third down at the Penn 24, the Rams decided to go for it on fourth down. The Rams gave the ball to Lundy up the middle. He was stopped cold two yards behind the line of scrimmage by Hisgen. A jubilant Hisgen sprinted off the field and the Quakers breathed a collective sigh of relief. The Penn defense, bumps and bruises aside, had come through when the chips were down.
(10/08/99 9:00am)
Penn hosts Fordham in its last non-league game of the season. Back when Vince Lombardi called the Bronx his home, the Fordham linemen were known throughout the land as "The Seven Blocks of Granite." This year, after four disastrous losses in which opponents have outscored Fordham 167-45, a more apt label might be something like "The Seven Lumps of Dough." The 1999 Rams (0-4) defense has yielded at least 40 points in three contests, while the Fordham offense is still reeling from an exasperating 27-0 trouncing at the hands of Princeton. On paper, Saturday's Penn-Fordham matchup looks like a Red and Blue cakewalk, but alas, football games are not played on paper. "This is our last non-league week to get some of our problems worked out," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "They [the Rams] are getting better, and somewhere down the line, they're looking to be a good team. We need to play better and we need to play more emotional -- we did none of that last week." Last week's 23-16 loss to Bucknell was, more than anything else, a tough emotional pill to swallow. The Bison were far shy of outclassing the Quakers. Penn had more first downs, more total yardage and a comparable amount of possesion time. "Overall we played OK," Bagnoli said. "When you hold a team to 280 total yards, and 40 of it is on two fake punts, you played OK. We know we can do better." Overall, Bagnoli's comments crystallize the mood of this team quite nicely. Nobody's desperate, but everybody needs a win. "I think a win is really important," Penn tailback Kris Ryan said. "We want to get things rolling. The concentration is on bringing it together." What the Quakers need to do right now is to start to ease into a mid-season groove. Penn's last two defeats came at the hands of opponents that were much farther into their schedule than the Quakers. Villanova was playing its fourth game when it trounced Penn in the Quakers' second contest, and Bucknell had two more games under its belt than the Red and Blue did when they met. On the offensive side of the ball, the secret to Penn's success on Saturday comes down to one simple word: execution. "The only way that people have stopped us is that we've stopped ourselves," Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman said. "We haven't executed at all so that's been the theme of the week in practice." The Bucknell game is the perfect example of this phenomenon. The Quakers outgained the Bison and garnered more first downs, but when it came down to brass tacks, they were unable to convert. Watch for the Quakers to dabble in some smashmouth football on the offensive end on Saturday. Fordham has proven itself flimsy when defending the run this season. The Rams have allowed opposing rushers to average a horn-bending 6.2 yards per carry. The four Fordham slayers have averaged more than 250 yards total on the ground. Penn will go to the run on Saturday not only because of Fordham's weak defense but also because of the emergence of Ryan as a bona fide Ivy League tailback. The sophomore is averaging an astounding 6.5 yards per carry while demonstrating a brand of running ferocity that instills fear into the most stout-hearted defender. "I think we've been happy with Kris Ryan and the way he's run the football," Bagnoli said. "We're not geared to run the football 50 or 60 times or to pass 50 or 60 times. We just need to improve on having a well-balanced offense that's good at making decisions." A balanced Penn attack will need to include a healthy, aggressive and productive Hoffman over center. The sophomore transfer needs to start feeling comfortable in the Penn scheme if the Quakers are to prevail. "His development is so tied into our receivers' development," Bagnoli said. "If you're getting blitzed and your receivers don't come out of cuts or don't shake man coverage, it's the quarterback that looks bad." Considering the failure of the Fordham offense to muster even one-third the number of points that their opposition has put on the board this season, one would not assume that the Penn defense should have much to worry about at Franklin Field. Penn co-captain Jim Hisgen is not so wholly positive, however. "They're very versatile with their offense," Hisgen said. "But we're expecting them to run a little more than they usually might, considering the yards we gave up last week. They have two good receivers that can hurt, so they can get us a lot of ways." Hisgen might be erring on the side of the overstated in praising Fordham's versatility. After all, the Rams were beaten decisively at Princeton. This is no time to underestimate an upcoming opponent. The Quakers need a victory before they plunge into their Ivy schedule. Perhaps the best advice that can be had comes from Lombardi, Fordham's most famous alumnus. Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing.
(09/27/99 9:00am)
Villanova, ranked No. 14 in Division I-AA, used speed to its advantage, outrunning Penn on both sides of the ball. You can't beat what you can't catch. After its 34-6 loss to Division I-AA powerhouse Villanova on Saturday, the Penn football team knows just how true this time-honored dictum rings. Not everything went awry for the 1-1 Quakers. The Penn defensive line continued its destruction of opposing ground games, holding the Wildcats to 85 yards on 35 carries. The Red and Blue also kept possession of the ball for 28-plus minutes on Saturday. One needn't look too hard to find bright spots in the gloomy twilight contest. But when the chips were down against 'Nova, the Quakers were just too slow to keep up with the high-octane Wildcats. "There was a significant speed differential at the skill positions -- both in their secondary versus our receivers and their receivers versus our secondary," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "I think we would've done OK if they'd tried to run the ball 30, 40, 50 times." Villanova, much to Bagnoli's chagrin, was not content to keep trying to navigate through the tough Penn run defense. Instead, they put the ball into the capable hands of senior quarterback Chris Boden. And Boden never looked back. The San Clemente, Calif., native threw for a boot-shaking 424 yards. He completed 33-of-43 passes and found the Penn end zone twice by air. This was the 28th straight 'Nova game in which Boden has thrown for a touchdown. "They not only have those skill kids but they've got a quarterback who not only knows where the balls should go," Bagnoli said, "he throws it on time and he becomes very frustrating to play against just because of what he can do." Boden broke his own single-game school record for passing yardage but he was irked by his three errant throws that got picked off by Penn. "I had no idea I was close to a school record," Boden said. "I was just pissed at the three interceptions I threw.? I knew we were throwing the ball a lot but I made some stupid throws and threw some balls." Part of the reason that Boden might have thrown into trouble on Saturday was the failure of the Penn secondary to challenge the much-quicker 'Nova receiving corps. Whenever a team completes 77 percent of its passes, averaging nearly 13 yards per completion, you know that the opposing secondary is overmatched. The Wildcats had four receivers catch more than 60 yards each. "We have a ton of weapons," Boden said. "We're just waiting to use them all." The stats testify to Villanova's dominance over the Penn D-backs. The 'Cats had 18 passing first downs -- more than twice as many as the Quakers -- and converted on 57 percent of third downs. On the opposite side of the ball, there is an eerily similar story of 'Nova speed and Penn sluggishness. While the Wildcats were cruising in fifth, the Quakers were slipping out of gear all evening. Penn managed to rack up only 215 yards of total offense, split right down the middle with 107 on the ground and 108 in the air. In his second Franklin Field start, Gavin Hoffman failed to find many open receivers. Although he connected on 14-of-28 passes, Hoffman was never able to open up the field. "They did well on defense," Hoffman said. "Their secondary was a lot better that I thought this week watching film on them. They had some good athletes out there." Those stellar 'Nova athletes held the Quakers to a scant average of 7.7 yards per catch. More importantly, no Penn receiver seems to have emerged as Hoffman's go-to target. Rob Milanese was the only Penn wideout to tally three catches. Three others -- Mike Verille out of the backfield, Ben Zagorski and Jason Battung -- netted a pair of receptions. Brandon Carson, who is touted to be tops on the Penn depth chart, managed only one catch for eight yards. The inability of the Penn receivers to find daylight on Saturday obviously has a lot to do with the strength of competition, but it is more than a little disquieting to see just how little offense Penn could generate. "Just from casual observation you can see why they're the 14th-ranked team," Bagnoli said. "I'm confident that we're not going to see anyone in our league who has that across-the-board speed." Bagnoli is right to doubt the fleetness of the rest of the Ancient Eight, but the Quakers are going to have to improve in all aspects of offensive production if they hope to repeat as Ivy champions. No team, not even less physically imposing Ivy squads that dominate the remainder of the Quakers schedule, are going to roll over and play dead if Penn continues to falter on passing offense and defense.
(09/21/99 9:00am)
This is Sean MacMillan's final cross country season in a Penn uniform, and he's running like it. In his first race of 1999, the Penn senior captain captured second-place at the Naval Academy Invitational. His time of twenty-four minutes, 49 seconds was eight seconds off the lead and 36 ticks better than the time he posted when he last raced at Annapolis. Penn was only able to secure a split at this past Saturday's tri-meet, however. They dispensed with Mount St. Mary's 19-42, but fell to Navy 23-32. "It was disappointing not to get the win but there are some positives," MacMillan said. "We realize that a lot of our guys are in pretty good shape and we haven't really been working too hard yet.? Some guys really came to race this weekend." MacMillan averaged 4:59 per mile, trailing only Navy's Aaron Nichols. He was one of four Penn trail junkies to finish in the top 10. Sophomore Matt Gioffre was sixth (25:24), senior Mark Granshaw was eighth (25:34) and junior Bryan Kovalsky was ninth (25:36). "A lot of our guys did well," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "[It] showed that we have what it takes to be a good team but that we're not a good team yet." Saturday marked a key race for Gioffre. He ran a personal best and demonstrated the kind of poise that he will need if he wants to compete with the elite of the Heptagonal conference. "I ran a PR," Gioffre said. "I didn't realize that I was going to be the second runner, but I was glad I kept my head about me." One of the principal reasons for the Penn split was its inability to keep a pack of runners together. "We didn't run as a team, which is something I somewhat take the blame for," MacMillan said. "If we kept together longer, we might have had a better team score." Running as a team is an integral component of cross country success but it is especially significant against Navy. The Midshipmen are notorious for taking a race out at a breakneck pace and then holding on for a win. "A couple of our frontrunners strung out too fast and when Navy made a big surge at about two or three miles, it was something that our younger guys just weren't ready for," Powell said. Navy, unlike any of its other Heptagonal competitors, begins working out in very early July. The tracksters from the service academy, therefore, have an early leg up on their Ivy foes. "They're always real good at this time," Powell said. "It's a good awakening early in the season that gets us out of any false sense of security." Another major cause behind Penn's bridesmaid status was the absence of senior captain Scott Clayton, who would have added another dimension to the Penn arsenal by running alongside MacMillan from the start. "I'm very confident that we can beat this team with Scott Clayton," Gioffre said. "As we get stronger, drop our mileage and get into better racing shape, we'll roll over them."
(09/20/99 9:00am)
Penn's Kris Ryan rushed for 99 yards in the first game of the post-Finn era Jim who? The job done by the Penn running game on Saturday wasn't spectacular enough to make Quakers fans forget the name of 1998 Ivy League Player of the Year Jim Finn. But, by the looks of it, that time may someday arrive. Rather than electing one ball-carrier as Finn's successor, Penn appears content to go with the running-back-by-committee approach. Sophomore Kris Ryan, sophomore Matt Thomas and junior Mike Verille emerged from Saturday's 17-6 win over a sickly-looking Dartmouth as the ruling triumvirate of the Penn backfield. "I just think we've got three good players that complement each other real well," Bagnoli said. "We need to keep them healthy and find room for them in this offense. It's a nice problem to have." On Saturday, the Quakers were able to move the ball on the ground. Ryan led all rushers with 99 yards on 15 carries. Thomas had seven carries for 34 yards, and Verille netted seven yards on as many attempts. For the sake of perspective, compare the job done by the Penn backs on Saturday to the performance in last year's opener at Dartmouth's Memorial Field. In their 1998 meeting, Finn carried the ball a mind-numbing 41 times for 151 yards against the Big Green. Jason McGee chipped in with four yards on five tries. So, even with Jim Finn taking handoffs, Penn gained only 11 more yards on the ground in last year's Dartmouth game. This year's trio of Thomas, Ryan and Verille actually averaged 1.5 more yards per carry than Finn and company. "Well, Kris and myself are sophomores. Mike's a transfer, so you don't know what's going to happen with guys with that little experience," Thomas said. "Personally, I'm happy, but that doesn't really matter. I think the offense really meshed together." Each of the three tailbacks brings a different set of abilities to the table. "In a perfect world, Kris Ryan is going to break some tackles and get north/south," Bagnoli said. "Verille's going to catch the ball and be a cut back runner. And Matt Thomas is going to hit the hole a hundred miles an hour. And that's what ended up happening." Ryan proved himself more than just a banger on Saturday. In one spectacular bit of running, he showed that he has the makings of a big-play threat. With slightly more than ten minutes left in the first half, Penn led the game 3-0. The Quakers had the ball at the Dartmouth 48 following a 14-yard lightning fast draw play from Thomas. The call went to Ryan and looked mundane enough off of a quick Hoffman handoff. Ryan headed for a small hole forged in between Penn right guard Todd Giblin and right tackle Matt Bane. Forty-eight yards and three broken tackles later, Ryan crossed Franklin Field's east goal line to the delight of most of the 9,377 in attendance. The Quakers' margin of victory was secure. Ryan was just one yard shy of the century mark on Saturday, and he looks very much like a top-tier Ivy back. Thomas didn't amass Ryan's yardage, but demonstrated an uncanny knack for bursting through the line of scrimmage with explosiveness. He didn't enter the game until the start of the second quarter, but was electric from the first time he touched the ball. His first draw up the middle was good for 11 yards and a first down. By the time Thomas logged his fourth carry, he had earned 43 yards. His 5'8", 180-pound frame had catapulted through line virtually unscathed. "The smaller kid [Thomas] hurt us with some draws. It's a nice change-up they have with them," Lyons said. Thomas is a much smaller back than Ryan. Consequently, he won't be one to run over tacklers. But with speed and an eye for daylight as developed as his, he has a bright future in a Penn jersey. Verille did not have a stellar day running the ball against Dartmouth. He, instead, showed his versatility out of the backfield, catching four passes for an average of 10.5 yards per catch. "When you have three guys going at the same time in rotation, you're going to have days when some guys are doing something well and other guys aren't," Verille said. "In that sense, it's a bit of a luxury for the offense because you don't have to count on one guy to do everything." With multi-talented Verille, jet-propelled Thomas and scrappy Ryan in the backfield, Penn fans may remember Jim Finn, but they won't miss him very much.
(09/17/99 9:00am)
You may forget their names, but you can't forget their handiwork. Unlike 1998 Penn football co-captains Jim Finn and Joe Piela, this year's tandem of center Carmelo Rubano and middle linebacker Jim Hisgen will likely not become household names in this neck of West Philadelphia. Finn was a workhorse last season, amassing 1,584 yards of total offense and 323 carries. Piela was electric at all ends of the field, setting a school record in punt return yardage and leading the team with 89 tackles. Those guys got noticed. Marquee numbers aside, however, Rubano and Hisgen might be nearly as integral to the success of this year's Penn squad as Finn and Piela were to the 1998 version of the Red and Blue. "There's no way to understate the importance of these two guys on the field," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "The roles of these two guys are exactly the same. We've got the inside linebacker calling an awful lot of the defensive stuff and we've got the center calling all of the protections. So both of those guys have to be really sharp and have to have a great grasp of what it is we're trying to do." Bagnoli and his coaching staff are asking these two seniors to do much more than excel on the gridiron. They are asking these two to provide paradigms of just what it means to be a Penn athlete. "These guys need to be leaders on the field and off the field," Penn offensive assistant Steve Downs said. "They need to be leaders in the locker room, in the meetings and in the personal lives of the guys as well." Although these two are cut from very different cloth, they are both ideally suited to lead these 1999 Quakers on their quest to chuck those goal posts back into the Schuylkill. The Quiet Riot Ask anyone on or around the Penn football team about Jim Hisgen and you're bound to hear the words "quiet" and "leader." The senior from Albany, N.Y., had a breakthrough season in 1999. En route to an honorable mention All-Ivy selection, Hisgen was third on the team with 64 tackles. He sacked the opposing quarterback twice and recovered three fumbles. "He's definitely the center of our defense. He calls all the plays, and we're lucky to have him back," senior defensive tackle Mike Germino said. "As a leader, he's more of a keep-us-in-line type guy. Some other of us make all the noise and fly off the handle. He just keeps his head about him." The most memorable of those fumble recoveries has to be the one that put a halt to a Dartmouth drive at the conclusion of Penn's victorious 17-14 season-opener in Hanover. "I really didn't think about it," Hisgen said of his pivotal scoop against the Big Green. "I just grabbed the ball. The feeling I got on the sideline after that play was probably the most exhilarating moment of my Penn career." This is really the most excited Jim Hisgen will get while talking football. "I don't like to go around and hoot and holler," Hisgen said. "I'd rather lead more by example." The 235-pounder's laid-back style of leadership may have something to do with his pedigree. While many of his current Penn football brethren may have cut their teeth talking trash for a high school gridiron juggernaut, Hisgen was learning to keep his shoes smartly polished at Christian Brothers Academy, a military school just outside of Albany. "As for partying and stuff like that, most of that stuff was more formal and regimented in a military school," Hisgen said. "Kids got hit by the brothers and stuff like that, so Penn was somewhat of a culture shock." However you look at it, Hisgen has adjusted fabulously to life here at Penn. He has mastered Bagnoli's defensive scheme and has indeed become the unit's cornerstone. With the graduation of two-time first-team All-Ivy linebacker Darren Macdonald, this year will be markedly different for Hisgen. D-Mac, the consummate fiery competitor, racked up 269 tackles in his career and, more importantly, was instrumental in the success of his junior linebacking mate. "Darren and I were good friends," Hisgen said. "We played a lot like brothers because we knew just what the other guy could do." Quakers fans can only hope that Hisgen can establish fraternal bonds with the new crop of linebackers, which includes juniors Dan Morris and Paul Savini and a host of others. "It's always nice to have a senior that's been there before to take a leadership role with the younger guys," Bagnoli said. "Jimmy knows that this is part of the territory." The Quakers have little to worry about in this regard. The Man in the Middle Carmelo Rubano is never afraid to speak his mind. "If there's one thing that is unique about Carmelo, it might be the way he always makes his feelings clear to the guys on the team," Penn senior guard Todd Giblin said. Giblin is the perfect person to consult concerning Rubano, since the two have been teammates since they both entered their freshman year at Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, N.J. Even all those years ago, Rubano exemplified the kind of intensity that prompted the Penn players to vote him captain at the conclusion of the 1998 campaign. "The thing about Carmelo is that, from the very first time I met him, he showed a sense of intensity and of absolute dedication to the game," Bergen Catholic coach Fred Stengel said. Stengel's Bergen program has amazingly produced three of the last four Penn captains -- Rubano as well as both Finn and Piela. Coach Bagnoli has built a close relationship with the northern New Jersey school over the years. "Our relationship is a feather in his [Stengel's] cap because of the high volume of kids he has going to an Ivy League school," Bagnoli said. "It's a feather in our cap because of the number of high-quality kids we get. This close kinship between institutions was one of the prime motivations for Rubano coming to Penn. "I remember when I was looking around at schools, it felt a lot like Penn was home. There were so many Bergen guys going here at the time that it felt natural. You could feel comfortable here," the Penn captain said. The Penn coaching staff, in turn, feels that Rubano should feel right at home in his new role as captain. "There's no doubt that he'll make a great captain by his leadership and his intensity," Penn offensive coordinator Chuck Priore said. "Obviously the returning center position is an important one just like quarterback or free safety on defense. He's got talent to lead this crew." Rubano means more to the Quakers with the absence of Finn and 1998 All-Ivy quarterback Matt Rader. He is now the linchpin of an offense without an experienced tailback or a quarterback schooled in the Penn system. Ties that Bind Although their respective demeanors may be in sharp contrast with one another, Hisgen and Rubano are similar in three main ways. First and foremost, both are committed senior leaders that put team success ahead of individual glory -- that almost goes without saying. Second, both of these big men have shown an admirable ability to overcome injuries. "I think that both of these guys are great examples to the younger guys of how you have to give more than 100 percent every day, even if you're banged up," Downs said. According to Rubano himself, he is absolutely healthy and feels no effects from the back injury that prevented him from practicing early on in the 1998 season and hampered him throughout the remainder of the campaign. Similarly, Hisgen reports a clean bill of health and no lingering pain from a rather severely sprained knee that kept him out of two games last season. Finally, the 1999 Penn football captains have hopes to spend the next phase of their life on Wall Street. Hisgen, a Whartonite with a concentration in Finance, sees the financial world in the cards. Rubano, an Economics major in the College, has similar aspirations. "Last summer I worked over at Goldman Sachs in New York City and that was a great experience," Rubano said. "That's definitely what I want to do." Even though their futures might be looming on the very-near horizon, these two student athletes have one thing on their minds right now -- another Ivy League crown.
(04/28/99 9:00am)
The Penn men's lacrosse team could not match the high-powered offense of the fourth-ranked Orangemen. After this past Saturday's 16-7 defeat at the hands of No. 4 Syracuse, the Penn men's lacrosse team finds itself in the same boat as much of Penn's student body. Like innumerable other students, the Quakers have one last chance -- one final exam -- to make up for some of the rough spots in what has proven to be a topsy-turvy season. "I think we're lucky to still have Delaware on the schedule," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "They're every bit as tough as Syracuse is offensively and it will give our guys to give one last good account of ourselves, to gain redemption." The loss in Syracuse drops the Quakers (6-7, 2-4 Ivy League) below .500 for the first time this season. If Penn manages to pull out a win against Delaware on May 8, it will mark only the second non-losing season this decade for the Quakers. The only other was in Van Arsdale's rookie season, a 6-6 1997 campaign. The loss was a difficult one to accept for Penn as the Orangemen blew the doors off what had been an evenly played contest by outscoring the Quakers 11-1 in the middle two periods. Penn midfielder Jeff Zuckerman's goal from junior attacker Pete Janney came only 4:58 into the third. The 'Cuse would score nine more before the Quakers would again find the back of the net. More devastating for the Quakers was the knowledge that it was their inability to do the little things that sowed the seeds of their demise. "It's a tough loss to take, coming in the way that it did," senior co-captain Matt Schroeder said. "It's just the overall feeling that we could have made it a lot closer if we had just done some little things better." The Orangemen's 17-goal barrage may, at first glance, point to gargantuan flaws with the Penn defense. But the fault really rested on the Quakers' failure to clear the ball out of their zone. "The problem with the defense is just that we played too much of it," Van Arsdale said. "They pressured the ball very well and they have the athletes to do that but we also made a bunch of unforced errors." The numbers back up Van Arsdale's claim, as Syracuse (7-3) outshot the Quakers 45-23 on the day. When the shooting advantage was a scant 8-6 in the first quarter, the scoring was even at one goal apiece. Once Penn stopped clearing the ball well, the ultra-physical Orangemen were able to open up the contest. Sophomore midfielder Bill Sofield and the rest of the Penn midfield also did a sub-par job of corralling faceoffs, as the Quakers managed to only win 11 of 27. Ground balls were also a Penn sore spot; the 'Cuse scooped 54, while the Red and Blue picked up 46. Penn's defense in straight 6-on-6 situations was solid on Saturday. Senior co-captain Ziggy Majumdar did did a fine job shadowing All-American Ryan Powell, holding the junior attacker to one goal. In the net, Schroeder "did a fine job of making the stops when he needed to," according to Van Arsdale. Still, both co-captains are as culpable as anyone else in their failure to clear the Penn zone. This failure created a domino effect -- Penn wanted to play a slow-paced game but this proved impossible once the 'Cuse built a sizeable lead. As the Quakers adjusted and started to speed things up, they played right into the hands of the bigger and faster Orangemen. "Syracuse was in your face right away everywhere on the field with people that are some of the best athletes in the game," Van Arsdale said. Granted, the Penn attack was handicapped by a minuscule number of chances to shine on Saturday. But even when it had the chance there were too many miscues to propel Penn past a national powerhouse. Zuckerman was the most valued Penn asset, netting three goals and adding an assist. Janney had a hand in three tallies, with one goal and two assists, while sophomore Todd Minerley and junior Chris Wolfe rounded out the list of Penn goal-scorers. The Carrier Dome, inhospitable as it may have been, provided the Quakers with the chance to experience a "big-time event," according to Van Arsdale. Syracuse takes its lacrosse as seriously as its snow removal and a crowd of 3,305 witnessed Penn's lackluster performance.
