After weeks of picking up momentum for the showdown of the year in Ivy League football, Penn and Princeton, both 7-0 overall, 4-0 Ivy League, finally set their collision course in stone this weekend.
It's been 25 years since two undefeated Ivy League teams played each other this late in the season, and it looks like Saturday's rumble in Philadelphia will be worth the wait.
Penn has the league's highest scoring offense. Princeton's defense has the lowest point-per-game average among the Ancient Eight. Princeton has the league's second most-prolific offense. Who has the league's second stingiest defense? Surprise: it's Penn.
But depending on who you ask, or which statistic you trust, any one of those ratings could flip flop -- only the final score will determine who is actually number one and who is number two.
The game has dramatic implications for Dartmouth's chances at a fourth consecutive league title. Both Princeton and Penn would have to lose one league game this season for Dartmouth to grab a piece of the title.
The Big Green can see to it that Princeton gets that one loss on the last game of the season when the two teams meet in Hanover.
Penn's loss won't be so easy. The Quakers finish the year with Harvard and then Cornell, which are both middle-of-the-pack this season. That means that you might see more Big Green faithful in Philadelphia rooting for Princeton than in New York for Dartmouth's game against Columbia.
The lining up of the two biggest planets in the Ivy League solar system highlighted a weekend in which the league's three worst teams, Brown, Yale and Columbia, scored a total of 13 points. Penn 48, Yale 7
Jim McGeehan threw for three touchdown passes and ran for one more as Penn handed Yale a 48-7 trouncing for its most lopsided league loss in program history.
Penn led by only 14-0 at the half and 21-7 mid-way through the third quarter but stoked up its offense for 27 points despite having to deal with the Yale Bowl's rain-slicked turf. Penn's high horsepower passing attack was limited to just 129 yards, but the Quakers scored touchdowns on a 57-yard fumble recovery and a 63-yard punt return.
Yale quarterback Steve Mills was 11 for 23 with 100 yards on the day -- his worst performance of the season -- and the Eli's running attack netted only 34 yards.
The win was the 100th in Penn Coach Al Bagnoll's career. Yale (2-5 overall, 1-3 Ivy League) has not won in the Yale Bowl this year. Princeton 14, Columbia 3
Keith Elias garnered Offensive Player of the Week honors with 226 yards in 34 carries and two touchdowns to propel Princeton to a 14-3 win over hapless Columbia (1-6 overall, 0-4 Ivy League).
Columbia did not get so much as a first down in the first 20 minutes of play, and its offense struggled all day long. The Lions most successful drive was a sluggish 10-play, 33-yard limp that set up a 27-yard field goal -- their only score of the game.
Still, Columbia stayed in contention throughout the game as Elias did not score his second touchdown until early in the fourth quarter.
Columbia has not beaten Princeton at home in the history of Ivy League play. Cornell 21, Brown 3
Pete Fitzpatrick ran for 105 yards and one touchdown to lead a Cornell running attack that accounted for all three of the Big Red's scores in a 21-3 thumping of Brown.
Cornell held Brown tailback Marquis Jessie to 44 yards on 25 carries and forced six turnovers out of a Brown offense that managed only 184 yards of total offense.
The Bear's only score, a 27-yard field goal late in the second quarter, was set up by a 38-yard interception return from John Vitullo.
Cornell quarterback Bill Lazor passed for 166 yards to go over the 5,000-yard plateau for his career.
