It was upset Saturday in the Ivy League last week, as both Harvard and Yale went down in stunners. Remaining on top, though, was No. 8 Penn, which beat up on Princeton to clinch at least a share of its 13th Ivy League title. After Penn? Who knows? That is why we play the games.
Brown 55, Yale 44
The Bulldogs have been one of the Ancient Eight’s more consistent squads over the course of this season, boasting perhaps the most dominant offensive duo in the league in quarterback Alvin Cowan and running back Robert Carr. And Yale’s offense didn’t disappoint Saturday afternoon. It’s defense, however, did. Brown’s Kyle Slager had one of the best passing games in the league this season, completing 32-of-48 passes for 376 yards and five touchdowns. Four of the touchdowns were caught by Lonnie Hill, including a score with 23 seconds remaining that put the game away.
Yale had a 44-41 lead late in the fourth but was unable to hold on for the win. Brown’s stud running back Nick Hartigan ran for 166 yards to become the third Bears player to surpass 1,000 yards in a season.
Penn 37, Princeton 7
Penn alums went home happy after watching their nationally-ranked Quakers demolish Princeton by 30 points on Homecoming. Penn has now won 14 straight games, the second-longest streak in all of Division I. The contest was never in doubt, as the Quakers scored on their first four possessions of the game. They would take a 30-0 lead into halftime after kicker Peter Veldeman connected on a season-high three first-half field goals.
Quarterback Mike Mitchell passed for 306 yards and two touchdowns. His favorite target was Joe Phillips, who caught nine passes for 117 yards, both of which are career highs.
Princeton quarterback Mike Verbit went 19-for-29 for 273 yards, but the Princeton running game was limited to just 1.9 yards per carry by the Quaker defense.
With the win and Harvard and Yale’s losses, Penn clinched a tie for the Ivy League title.
Columbia 16, Harvard 13
Harvard thought it had already suffered the upset of the season a week ago with its 30-16 loss to Dartmouth in Harvard Stadium. The Crimson certainly didn’t count on Saturday’s result. Columbia continued its surprisingly strong season, as it beat its first ranked opponent in eight years.
Defense was the story of this contest, as the Lions held the highly prolific Crimson offense to just 262 yards of total offense. Harvard entered the game averaging 504. On the other side, Harvard linebacker Bobby Everett recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass by Columbia quarterback Jeff Otis, both of which resulted in Crimson touchdowns.
Harvard’s star quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was again out after making a brief appearance last week against Dartmouth. Fitzpatrick is still nursing a broken hand that he suffered last month against Cornell.
Archived article by Owen Bochner