Yale visits Cornell in early-season Ivy showdown

For Cornell and Yale, the Ivy League season opener just might turn out to be one of the most important games of the year. Tomorrow, Cornell (0-1, 0-0 Ivy League) welcomes Yale (1-0, 0-0) to Schoellkopf Field in an early-season showdown of the two preseason Ivy favorites. The Big Red and the Elis both received seven first-place votes in the Ivy League preseason football media poll. Penn finished third with two first-place votes of its own. It's hard to call the second game of any season a must-win, but tomorrow's victor will claim the inside track to the Ivy crown, with third-ranked Penn still yet to begin Ivy competition. The all-important clash of the Ancient Eight heavy hitters could not come at a better time for Yale, riding a 10-game winning streak -- the longest in Division I-AA. Further swelling the Elis' sails is their record-setting 800th victory last week against Dayton. Yale beat Michigan -- which has 798 wins -- to the 800-win landmark, becoming the winningest college football program in the nation. And the Elis did it in impressive fashion, thrashing the Flyers, 42-6. Yale got an impressive debut from quarterback Peter Lee. The 6'5" lefty completed 19-of-23 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns. Lee backed up standout Joe Walland last season after transferring from Wisconsin. Cornell's season, on the other hand, began on a downbeat note, with a 38-15 drubbing at Bucknell. The Big Red jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a 15-yard Ricky Rahne touchdown pass to Keith Ferguson, but it was all downhill from there. The Bison rattled off 31 straight points, effectively putting the game away by the beginning of the fourth quarter. Yale knocked Cornell out of Ivy title contention last year with a convincing 37-20 win that propelled the Elis to a share of the league lead with Brown. The Elis outperformed the Big Red in front of 16,071 fans at Schoellkopf Field, putting the game away with two fourth-quarter touchdown runs. News and Notes Yale is tops in the NCAA with 800 wins. Filling out the top 10 are: Michigan (798), Notre Dame (769), Nebraska (744), Princeton (737), Texas (736), Alabama (735), Penn State (735), Penn (734) and Harvard (729).

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