Penn solves Hex, prize is Ivy title

Two second-half TDs, McGeehan's 309 yards lead Quakers to victory BOSTON – The players didn't even wait for him to get to the sidelines as they engulfed their captain with their hands in the air and a rallying cry. You'd think they'd had just won a share of the Ivy Title. No, this football team had just lost the opening coin toss. No matter, Harvard was pumped to face the Penn football team for the last game at Harvard Stadium in the 23-year history of Crimson coach Joe Restic's career. Harvard Stadium. A stadium that looks more like a coliseum than a football field. There's more Ivy on this stadium than most of Penn's campus. It's just teeming with tradition. Perhaps most importantly, the tradition of the Harvard Hex – Penn's 20-year history of losses on the road to the Crimson. Another chapter in that almost incomprehensible history was almost written on Saturday as the Crimson (1-5 Ivy League, 3-6 overall) showed the Quakers that emotion and desire combined with a tinge of overconfidence can be a tough test for even an undefeated team. Harvard had a hex and hype on its side which carried it for half the game until the Quakers (6-0, 9-0) eventually prevailed in a 27-20 win. There was no question that the emotion Harvard showed on the sidelines spilled into its play. The Crimson scored a field goal in their first possession and were up 20-10 at halftime. At times, especially early in the second quarter when Harvard cruised to five-consecutive first downs on the vaunted Penn defense, the Quakers seemed unprepared for any Crimson attack, let alone the 20-point onslaught that ensued. "They came out with a lot more desire, a lot more heart than our defense did," sophomore free safety Sheldon Philip-Guide said. "Our defense didn't really expect that. To be honest, we didn't expect them to try that hard or come out playing that well." "We were really out of sync, especially defensively which is really unusual," Penn coach Al Bagnoli sai "Some of our best players just weren't making the plays?We just weren't recognizing formations, we weren't recognizing plays." Even though in the first half the Quakers managed a touchdown off a 31-yard pass from senior quarterback Jimmy McGeehan to sophomore wideout Miles Macik and a 21-yard field goal off the bare foot of senior kicker Marc Horowitz, it took until halftime for Penn to fully regroup. "I told the team [at halftime], that mistakes happen," McGeehan said. "We might have lost our heads a little bit. It was all a matter of relaxing?We won because we relaxed. We didn't tighten up." Penn's turnaround came in dramatic fashion just over six minutes (6:11) into the third quarter as Harvard running back David Sprinkle met with junior defensive end Michael Turner four yards from a Crimson touchdown. Turner caused a fumble which senior linebacker Andy Berlin scooped up. After one incomplete pass, Penn's offense capitalized on the turnover in a play executed to perfection. McGeehan faked a handoff to junior running back Terrance Stokes and rolled right, appearing to spot sophomore tight end Matt Tonelli on a play the Quakers have seemingly run 1,000 times this year. The Harvard defense, blitzing with single man-coverage, followed McGeehan's lead and covered Tonelli like a blanket, leaving Stokes (who had spent much of the first half on the sidelines due to neck pain) wide open for the pass along the Harvard sideline. After catching the ball, Stokes beat the awakened Harvard secondary in an 80-yard mad dash to the end zone. "I was pretty surprised [that I was open]," Stokes said. "When I first went out there, the linebacker seemed to be running with me?I guess he was looking at Jimmy all the way and I just snuck in behind him and no one was there?I had that sense that it was a touchdown when I caught it." McGeehan quietly had another record-breaking afternoon. On the day, he completed 19 of 32 passes for 309 yards and three touchdowns. After seeing its lead diminish in just two plays and 18 seconds, Harvard didn't even have a chance to regroup. On the Crimson's next drive, senior quarterback Mike Giardi's (19 of 32, 275 yards, 3 interceptions) pass was intercepted on the Penn 46-yard line by senior cornerback Jerel Hopkins. Three plays and just over a minute elapsed before McGeehan found Macik (10 catches for 125 yards, 2 touchdowns) in the front corner of the end zone for a touchdown and a 24-20 Penn lead. Horowitz later added a 38-yard field goal to give the Quakers their final margin of victory. "We lose the football and they get 14 points like that," Restic said. "It was a complete turnaround. A bizarre kind of a thing.?That's where the complete complexion of the game turned. After that it was an uphill battle, they got back in it and now we had to fight for our lives." The Quakers had scored 17 points in just over five minutes of play and their defense wasn't about to let go of the 27-20 lead. "Technically we didn't do much, but we actually started teaming up and getting after people and making some plays," Bagnoli said. With four minutes left to go in the game, Giardi's 23-yard pass was deflected and intercepted at Penn's 24-yard line by Philip-Guide who was wearing a large cast on his arm from an injury earlier this season. And if that wasn't enough, junior cornerback Jamie Daniels came up with an interception with 42 seconds left in the game to eliminate any chance of a Hex to still haunt the Quakers. After the game it was Penn's turn to rush the field but this time it was in celebration of clinching a tie for the Ivy title. But the celebration was somewhat tempered because the Quakers still have a game to go to make it perfect. "We are all pretty much focused on a 10-0 season," senior receiver Jared DeLancey said. "I don't think we'll be satisfied with just a silver ring. We can't really consider ourselves champions of the league if we lose a game."

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