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Quakers Control Possession With Rush

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There are a lot of things you can do in 2:39 — listen to Joe Cocker’s version of “You Are So Beautiful To Me,” run a really quick half mile, watch a Saturday Night Live skit — but making a 17-point fourth-quarter comeback is not one of them.
In the football team’s 23-6 loss to Penn on Saturday, the Red’s offense only touched the ball for 2:39 in the fourth quarter and 21:08 overall. Penn averages 33:24 of possession per game, but topped even that on Saturday behind a methodical running game — and not much else.
The Quakers ran the ball an astounding 67 times, gaining 282 yards, and held the ball for a total of 38:52. With only 12 pass attempts netting a paltry 22 yards, calling Penn’s offense one-dimensional might be an overstatement.

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Football Hosts Historic Rival Penn

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After such a strong start to the football team’s season — winning its first three games and upsetting preseason Ivy-favorite Yale — it is easy to be disappointed with the squad’s 4-5 (2-4 Ivy) record going into its final contest.
“You are just trying to teach them to live in the present,” said head coach Jim Knowles ’87. “It can be a lesson that will last a lifetime. Things don’t always go the way you planned, but you still have opportunities in front of you.”
Tomorrow, the Red will have the opportunity to send its large class of 33 seniors off with a win at Schoellkopf Field — a place where this graduating class has posted a 15-5 record over its four years on the Hill.

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M. Hockey Routs Colgate in Hamilton

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HAMILTON, N.Y. — For a crowd that is historically raucous, the Colgate hockey fans never really had a chance to get into the game last night against Cornell. The Red scored two power play goals early and then rode the stout goaltending of junior Ben Scrivens to a 4-1 win last night in Hamilton, N.Y.
The win did not come without cost, however. Senior co-captain Tyler Mugford, the Red’s leading scorer, went down with a knee injury in the third period and had to be gingerly helped off the ice by two teammates. With junior Brendon Nash sitting out due to the flu and senior Evan Barlow — who had two assists — getting banged up during the contest, the Red was forced to rely on some less familiar faces.

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The Fearsome Foursome

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It’s easy to lump generic platitudes onto the captains of any sports team. What’s hard is to actually get at the core of what makes each captain a leader. Each of this year’s four basketball captains brings a unique leadership style to this year’s squad.
While it is not infrequent for seniors to be named captain, it is rare that an entire senior class of more than two or three members all get the title of captain.
“I was kind of surprised,” said senior co-captain Conor Mullen. “But it’s kind of fitting because we’ve all been together all four years. We’re all real close knit.”

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Inside Play Crucial For Ivy Title Defense

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For a team that has become nationally recognized for its 3-point shooting, it’s odd to think of the men’s basketball team trying to run its offense through guys on the block.
“We’re going to take advantage of our size and our ability inside, play inside-out as we always did, but maybe even more so this year in terms of getting the ball inside,” said head coach Steve Donahue.
With senior guard Adam Gore out until at least January with a torn ACL and backcourt mate, junior Louis Dale, nursing a hamstring injury, the Red’s strength may lie in its forwards, at least to begin the season.

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Aggressive Defense Emphasized

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Ask any of the players or coaches and they will tell you that it wasn’t the sharp shooting or rim-rocking dunks that allowed the Red to sweep its Ivy League schedule, it was the team’s defense. However, this defense wasn’t without its imperfections.
“We were a good defensive team last year,” Donahue said. “We weren’t great. We made people shoot challenged jumps shots for the most part and that strategy works unless someone’s making shots.”
Superficially, it seems Ivy teams weren’t making shots against Cornell last year — the Red led the league in field goal defense. However, Donahue points out that his squad was second to last in 3-point field goal defense.

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Keeping the Banner

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The crisp red stripe traces the same gentle arc of a dull-by-comparison white line exactly one foot away. The ridges on the sides of the red line reveal it to be a recent addition, placed on top of the floor’s smooth finish.
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Men’s basketball senior center Jeff Foote is thinking about the foot between those two lines and smiling. He’s thinking about the possibility of that one foot — the mere 12 inches that separate the NCAA’s new 3-point line from the old one — spreading defenses out.
“I like it a lot because our guys aren’t so close when I catch the ball,” he said. “So it’s good for me.”

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Secondary makes adjustments, gets big turnovers

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On Saturday at Schoellkopf Field, Dartmouth football head coach Buddy Teevens had no desire to run the ball. When Teevens handed the reigns to freshman quarterback Conner Kempe, he was giving him more than just his first collegiate start, Teevens was giving Kempe the opportunity to be Colt Brennan for a day.
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“They really threw out a total one-sided passing attack,” said Cornell head coach Jim Knowles ’87. “… What they were calling play-wise in the first half [surprised us]. That was different. We knew they had struggled running the ball, but we still thought that they would do it.”

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Red-White Scrimmage First Step On Road to Second Title

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Tomorrow afternoon in Newman Arena, the men’s basketball team will take its first baby steps toward defending its first Ivy championship in 20 years. The annual Red-White game — a full-court, five-on-five intrasquad scrimmage with referees and all official rules — will begin at 4:30.
While official practice has only been underway for three weeks as of today, the Red’s first game is right around the corner. The Red-White scrimmage will be a final tuneup before opening the season at home against South Dakota next Friday.

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Late Comeback Bid Not Enough

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Sometimes, it just doesn’t make sense. Sometimes it just doesn’t add up quite right. Sometimes, you do a lot of things right and still lose. Princeton’s 31-26 win over Cornell Saturday was exactly one of those times.
Head coach Jim Knowles ’87 stared at the stat sheet after the game, a look of bewilderment on his face, while he ticked off one stat after another — 555 total yards of offense, an early, 13-0, lead, 29 first downs, an edge in possession time and third-down conversion rate.
“[To do all that] and still lose the game shows that you are doing a lot of things right,” Knowles said.