Over the top. barely

HANOVER, N.H. -- It's hard to believe that this year's Ivy League championship could be decided by more nailbiting finishes than last season, but if the Penn football team's conference opener is indicative of what's in store for the 2001 Ivy League race, then Quakers coaches might want to invest in a defibrillator for the sidelines.

Thanks to a blocked extra-point try, the Penn football team (2-0, 1-0 Ivy League) escaped Dartmouth's Memorial Field with a 21-20 victory Saturday over a much-improved Big Green squad (0-2, 0-1).

"I told [the team] yesterday, I've been here four times and I think the largest margin of victory was four points," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "I tried to tell them all week, and I tried to tell them at our meetings yesterday, this is a tough place to play. It's one of the great home fields."

With under two minutes left in Saturday's contest, Dartmouth running back Michael Gratch scored what should have been the game-tying touchdown from the Penn two-yard line.

However, Quakers sophomore defensive lineman Kyle Chaffin broke through the line to block the Big Green's extra-point try, ensuring a Quakers victory that looked very much in doubt.

"It's called Field Goal Block," Chaffin said of the play which made him Saturday's unlikely hero. "You either go to the right side or you go to the left, that time it was called to the right. I wasn't able to see, but I heard Ed Galan deflected it and I knocked it down."

For the first 20 minutes, the game was shaping up to be yet another Ivy League shootout, as Dartmouth found the end zone on its first two series, and Penn scored touchdowns on its first three.

"At that point, all indications were that the last team with the ball wins," Bagnoli said.

But, each team's defense adjusted and brought the other's offense to a virtual standstill. After the Quakers scored their third touchdown, they were shut out the rest of the game.

"It got very, very ugly offensively for both teams in the second half," Bagnoli said. "We kind of lost all semblance of [offensive] efficiency, for whatever reason. I don't want to speculate on that until I've seen the tape."

"It was frustrating," was all Penn quarterback Gavin Hoffman had to say of a day on which he threw for 155 yards with one interception on 17-for-31 passing.

Senior running back Kris Ryan was Penn's offensive bright spot, scoring all three Quakers touchdowns while rushing for 134 yards. But they were tough yards, as Ryan ran the ball 34 times for an uncharacteristic 3.9 yards-per-carry average.

But the worst part for the Quakers was that even when they got the offense moving, they managed to squander their opportunities.

Senior wide receiver Rob Milanese had two long pass receptions -- one of which went for a touchdown -- called back on penalties, while freshman kicker Bryan Arguello missed field goals of 28 and 36 yards.

"We missed two relatively makeable field goals and never got it to a two-score lead like we wanted to," Bagnoli said. "You certainly don't want to put the game in the hands of a freshman.... We'll have to look at that."

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