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rinceton scorched Brown, Columbia continued its improbable undefeated start and Harvard rebounded from its first loss to Cornell in a dozen years as the Ivy League hit the halfway point of the football season this weekend. Cornell’s loss to Bucknell was the only out-of-conference loss of the week; Yale, Dartmouth and Harvard all triumphed over non-conference opponents. Columbia’s overtime win over Penn sent the Lions to 5-0, matched only by the Green’s similarly unblemished record.
Princeton 53, Brown 0
Led by 163 rushing yards and four touchdowns — including a school-record 96-yard scamper — from running back Charlie Volker, the Tigers scored 36 points in the first half of their blowout win over the Bears. Princeton outgained Brown, 538 yards to 170, and had more than twice as many first downs on the day. The win marks the Tigers’ first over an Ivy League foe this season and their fourth overall. Brown drops to 2-3 and is still searching for its first conference win. Princeton travels to Cambridge for a Friday night showdown next week, while Brown takes on Cornell for the Red’s Homecoming game.
Harvard 38, Lafayette 10
A week after a devastating loss to Cornell in Ithaca, Harvard got back in the win column by beating up Lafayette, 38-10, on Saturday. Justice Shelton-Mosley returned a first-quarter punt for a touchdown, his second of the year, to give the Crimson its first lead of the day. On the first play of the second half, Harvard’s Adam Scott returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, putting the Crimson up 28-7. A week after totaling just 62 yards on the ground against Cornell, Harvard notched nearly 300 rushing yards against the Leopards.
Yale 32, Holy Cross 0
The Bulldogs blanked Holy Cross at home to move to 4-1 on the year. Yale started slow, but three second-quarter touchdowns helped the Bulldogs turn a contested game into a blowout. Yale’s defense held the Crusaders, who are now 2-5 this season, to just 89 yards in the air and 54 yards on the ground. Up next for Yale is an away contest against Penn.
Dartmouth 29, Sacred Heart 26
The Green continued its undefeated season with a dramatic win over Sacred Heart on Saturday. Dartmouth trailed by 12 points midway through the third quarter, but heroics from Jack Heneghan helped the Green escape from Fairfield, Connecticut with a win. Heneghan had four touchdowns, including two to Emory Thompson. Dartmouth will host Columbia next week in a showdown of the two remaining undefeated squads in the Ancient Eight.
Columbia 34, Penn 31 (OT)
The Lions, the conference’s last place team three of the past four years, knocked off reigning champion Penn on Saturday to move to 5-0 this year, the first such start for the Lions in 21 years. A 24-yard pass from Anders Hill to Josh Wainwright in overtime pushed Columbia past the Quakers to an improbable fifth straight victory to start the season. The Lions trailed by 14 entering the fourth quarter, but 21 unanswered points gave Columbia the lead late in the fourth quarter until Penn’s Justin Watson caught a 17-yard pass to tie up the game. The Quakers kicked a field goal to start overtime, but the Lions found the end zone and finished with the victory on their Homecoming. Picked to finish second to last in the Ivy League, Columbia has now defeated two of the league’s projected top three finishers, Penn and Princeton.