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Ivy Round-Up: Harvard, Penn On Top

In a weekend featuring four league match-ups, Ivy football fans were treated to a little of everything. The conference’s only two undefeated teams—Harvard and No. 22 Penn—each won, but in vastly different ways, while previously winless Columbia held on to an early lead to upset Dartmouth 27-20.

The Crimson (5-0, 3-0 Ivy) escaped with a 28-26 victory over Princeton when Tiger placekicker Taylor Northrop’s field goal attempt from 49 yards went wide left with seven seconds remaining in the game. The Quakers (5-0, 3-0) posted a more convincing win, pounding Yale 21-3 for their ninth consecutive victory.

Brown rolled past Cornell 49-21 to hold onto the No. 3 spot in the league, and the Lions’ victory moves them into a four-way tie for fourth place in the league. With 1-2 conference records, Dartmouth, Yale and Princeton are all in fourth place as well.

Cornell remains the only Ivy team without a conference win.

Penn 21, Yale 3

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The always potent Penn offense was overshadowed by the might of its defense, which posted 10 sacks and held Yale (3-2, 1-2) to -19 yards rushing to lead the Quakers to victory at Franklin Field on Saturday.

Yale’s only field goal was set up by a 32-yard pass from backup quarterback Alvin Cowan to wideout Billy Brown on a fourth-and-one fake punt from Yale’s 32. Following the score, which came on Yale’s first drive of the game, the Penn defense shut out the Elis for the remaining 54:42 of the ballgame.

Led by senior defensive tackle John Galan, who recorded a career-best 3.5 sacks to earn Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week honors, the Quakers harassed Yale senior quarterback Peter Lee all afternoon. With the running game shut down, Lee completed just 19-of-44 passes for 245 yards and no touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Penn senior quarterback Gavin Hoffman was efficient as usual, completing 18-of-26 passes for 235 yards. On the ground, though, Penn didn’t fare much better than Yale.

Quaker tailback Kris Ryan was the game’s leading rusher with 79 yards, but needed 29 carries to reach that mark. Each of Ryan’s two touchdowns came on one-yard runs.

In between Ryan’s scoring plunges, Galan forced a fumble that was returned by senior defensive back Kunle Williams 41 yards for a touchdown.

The win was the 150th of Penn Coach Al Bagnoli’s 20-year career, and his 63rd at Penn.

Penn will travel to Brown on Saturday, while Yale will visit Columbia.

Brown 49, Cornell 21

Brown senior quarterback Kyle Rowley completed 22-of-34 passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Bears (3-2, 2-1) past Cornell (0-5, 0-3) in a shootout that saw a combined 937 yards of total offense at Cornell’s Schoellkopf Field.

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