1995 IVY LEAGUE FOOTBALL STANDINGS: Quakers escape Bucknell, 20-19

Jeremiah Greathouse kicks a 41-yard field goal with 27 seconds left to lift Penn The Bucknell players started the victory celebration exactly 73 seconds too early Saturday, and that one innocent party foul may have cost the Bison an upset of monumental proportions. A double unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for excessive celebration gave Penn an enormous field position advantage, setting up Jeremiah Greathouse's game-winning 41-yard field goal, and narrowly preserving The Streak at 24 games with an improbable 20-19 victory. In a game that both the Quakers (3-0) and Bison (2-2) tried to give away early and reclaim late, it all came down to some overzealous officials and the leg of a wide-eyed sophomore kicker with ice in his veins. After Bucknell wide receiver John Sakowski tiptoed just inside the end line for the go-ahead touchdown with 1 minute, 13 seconds remaining, dozens of Bison ripped off their helmets and piled on to the Franklin Field turf. The officiating crew, following the letter of NCAA law, dropped their little yellow handkerchiefs and cited Bucknell not only for the pile-up, but for taking off their helmets to do it. The penalties, assessed on the ensuing kickoff, backed the Bucknell special teams up to their own 10-yard line and changed the complexion of the game. "When I knew we had to kick off from the 10, I wanted to give our kids a chance to win," Bison coach Tom Gadd said, explaining his decision to go for a two-point conversion with a 19-17 lead. "If we could go up by four, we could change how they played that last chance. I didn't come here to tie the game. I came here to win the game." But Bucknell squandered the conversion opportunity when quarterback Jim Fox tripped taking the snap from center, and rolled out the red and blue carpet for a Penn comeback. To their credit, the Quakers wasted no time capitalizing on their good fortune. Mark Fabish, who had fumbled three return chances earlier in the day, managed to hang on to the kickoff and sprint 25 yards into the heart of the coverage before he was dropped at the Bison 45-yard line. Quarterback Mark DeRosa connected immediately with his favorite target -- an unusually quiet Miles Macik -- on a quick slant for 14 yards. The next two plays went nowhere, leaving the Quakers with a third and 10, and the daunting prospect of a 48-yard field goal. "I told Chuck, our offensive coordinator, 'We need five or six yards to make this comfortable,'" Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "If we could get it down to that 40-to-43 range, he's got plenty of leg. He's done that very consistently in practice. Obviously, you don't know what's going to happen in a game situation, but it worked out according to script." Running back Aman Abye, who had already run for a career-high 165 yards and two touchdowns, took a DeRosa dump off and scampered another eight yards before stepping out of bounds with 27 ticks remaining on the clock. That brought out Greathouse, who had kicked exactly three career field goals and none from beyond 36 yards. But the snap was perfect, the hold was true, and Greathouse split the uprights with a full five yards to spare. "You can't think about anything else except what you're doing," Greathouse said. "That's how you miss kicks, and I've missed my share of kicks. I know what it takes. I was just concentrating on one thing and that was getting the ball up off the ground and letting it sail through. "I wasn't really coming into this game thinking it might come down to me. I thought this was going to be an offensive exhibition." So did just about everyone else outside of Lewisburg, Pa. But after breezing down to the Bucknell 9-yard line on its 11-play opening drive, the Penn offense fizzled. DeRosa, looking initially for Macik, who was double-covered in the corner, tried to force the ball to Fabish in the end zone. He instead found Bison free safety George Howanitz, who picked it off for a touchback. "That was about as good a drive as we had, and we didn't capitalize," Bagnoli said. "I think that took an awful lot of momentum away from us and gave them an awful lot of momentum." It was momentum the Quakers' defense, led by defensive end Tom McGarrity and linebacker Joey Allen, would be asked to reverse time and time again. McGarrity, who spent most of his afternoon abusing Bison right tackle Mariusz Misiec, set up Penn's first touchdown with a thunderous sack -- one of his four on the day -- that jarred the ball from Fox's grip for Tim Gage to recover. Two plays later, Abye slithered over the goal line on a draw play from six yards out to stake Penn to 7-0 lead. Abye, whose 36 carries marked a career-high at any level, emerged from the Quakers' running back trio with Penn's first 100-yard rushing game since a little guy named Stokes carried the ball. "We were searching for someone to jump start our running attack, and we finally got some kids healthy," Bagnoli said, noting that Dion Camp did not even dress with a groin pull. "Aman's a talented kid, but he hasn't been healthy all year." Meanwhile DeRosa, who struggled to throw for 100 yards on 10-for-23 passing, gift-wrapped Bucknell's first scoring opportunity with his second interception. Pressured by Bison Hunter Adams on a naked bootleg, DeRosa tried to loft the ball over the 6-foot-5 defensive end only to drop it into the hands of linebacker Willie Hill, who returned the ball all the way to the Penn 1-yard line. A goal-line plunge by fullback Jeff Bombich tied the score. The Quakers' special teams, not to be outdone by DeRosa, did their part to let Bucknell back in the game as well. A high snap that got away from punter Jeff Salvino set up a Bucknell field goal, making it 10-7. And in the third quarter, with Penn protecting a one-point lead, Fabish muffed a punt at his own 31-yard line. Only a McGarrity sack on third down kept Bucknell from putting points on the board. The Bison, however, were suffering from their own fits of generosity. Bucknell kick returner Milton Moore had the opening kickoff of the second half bounce off his chest and into the hands of Penn's Steve Gross at the Bucknell 24-yard line. Six plays later, Abye strolled 15 yards untouched to the end zone to give Penn a 14-13 lead. Fox, who doubles as Bucknell's punter, returned Salvino's earlier favor when he mishandled a knee-high snap and gave the Quakers possession in Bison territory. The miscue would turn into a Greathouse chip shot and a 17-13 Penn advantage. But Fox, who left the game once and was beaten around by Penn's front seven all day, took the Bison where their highly-touted running back Rich Lemon (63 yards on 25 carries) could not when he connected with Sakowski for the go-ahead score. "We've been down before and there's always the same feeling," Abye said. "This team kind of comes together, and we just kind of know. It's like a mystique, I guess. We feel we can't be beat."

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