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Ivy League Wrap-Up: Penn Beats Cornell

Rose Elected Captain, Morris Named MVP

With Harvard’s victory over Yale in the 118th Game on Saturday, a full season of Ivy League football has come to an end.

Just one team in the conference has another game left on the schedule. Columbia has rescheduled its postponed game from the first week of the season. The Lions will play at Fordham in a cross-town match-up on Thanksgiving Day.

Harvard, of course, won the Ivy League Championship in its first perfect season since 1913. In the final computer rankings, the Crimson (9-0, 7-0 Ivy) is ranked as high as 9th in Division I-AA and 95th out of all football schools in the country.

Harvard will loses 12 starters to graduation but returning to defend the title will be the offensive tandem of quarterback Neil Rose and wideout Carl Morris.

Morris, the junior who holds eight school receiving records, was named 2001 MVP of the squad yesterday at the annual football banquet and Rose was elected as the 2002 captain.

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Pennsylvania came in second in the league with only one loss to its name—that coming in The Stadium two weekends ago. In its final game of the year, Penn (8-1, 6-1 Ivy) defeated Cornell 38-14 off the strength of 152 yards rushing courtesy of tailback Kris Ryan.

Ryan finished his Quaker career with 3,213 yards rushing—a Penn record and the fifth-most ever recorded in the Ivy League.

Gavin Hoffman, last year’s Ivy League Player of the Year, also finished his Quaker career on Saturday. Hoffman finished as the all-time Penn leader in passing yards (7,542), completions (651), and passing touchdowns (50).

Penn will lose 18 starters to graduation this off-season including Hoffman, Ryan and wide out Rob Milanese, but Penn still has a plethora of young players waiting to fill the gaps and keep the Quakers competitive next season.

Brown defeated Columbia 45-21 in its final game of the season and finished third in the conference.

The Bears (6-3, 5-2 Ivy) were led to victory by Michael Malan’s 183 yards rushing on just 22 carries.

Brown is losing 14 starters to graduation this season including Malan, quarterback Kyle Rowley and kicker Steve Jensen. Junior receiver Chas Gessner will be back for another year of action with the Bears and will likely be its key returning offensive threat after a breakout season.

Columbia and Princeton finished tied for fourth place. The Lions (3-6, 3-4 Ivy) were the surprise team of the league. Led by running back Johnathan Reese—who has accounted for thirty percent of Columbia’s total offense—the Lions shocked Yale and Dartmouth in November.

Shortly afterwards, the Lions learned that senior defensive end Matt Stary was academically ineligble to play. On Nov. 15, the Ivy League ruled that the Lions would not have to forfeit either of their two victories as a result of the incident.

But Columbia’s win tally remained at two with its loss to Brown on Saturday.

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