Bad weather trashes plans for good game

VILLANOVA, Pa. -- It was supposed to be a high-scoring matchup of arguably the city's best two football teams in front of a sold-out crowd.

It turned out to be a slow-moving, rain-soaked slugfest in front of a cold crowd of only a few thousand.

Only a sadist could have enjoyed sitting on freezing metal bleachers in the rain for the three hours of Villanova's 17-3 victory over Penn on Thursday night.

The game was expected to be sold out, but the attendance was announced at 8,129, although it appeared much smaller than that. Villanova Stadium holds 12,000 officially.

"Our kids are going on Fall Break starting Friday... we wanted to capture that group," Villanova coach Andy Talley said. "This game's [could have been a] sellout because of Penn's alumni and our alumni.

"I was hoping for a light drizzle, like they said."

Talley did not get his wish, as the rain from earlier in the week continued into Thursday night.

The weather affected both teams as well as the crowd's turnout.

Penn came into the game averaging 41.67 points per game, yet were held scoreless for 59 minutes before a late Peter Veldman field goal.

Penn was averaging 336.67 yards passing per game and came out with just 145 yards from quarterback Mike Mitchell.

Some of this was due to the strong Villanova defense, but much of it could be attributed to the weather.

"I think [the rainy weather] affected both teams," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "I never thought it was going to be a 43-38 game by any stretch.

"Certainly the weather did not hurt that, making it even lower [scoring] than it should have been."

Villanova, too, struggled offensively. The Wildcats came in averaging 444.5 yards of offense per game, yet got only 346 yards of offense on the night, although Penn's staunch rushing defense accounted for some of that.

The Wildcats also nearly had half of their eight punts blocked due to bad snaps.

On the other side of the ball, Mitchell had three bad exchanges from center, including one that the Wildcats recovered after the Red and Blue had driven to their 18.

"This was one of those games you just go out, get a win, and get out of here," Villanova quarterback Brett Gordon said.

Although Bagnoli did not think that the weather affected the play that much, he was upset more with the rain's affect on the surroundings of the contest.

"In the big picture, when this was scheduled, we thought that playing on a Thursday night would work -- you're the only two teams playing, you get a great crowd, it's a local TV game," Bagnoli said. It would have been a "tremendous atmosphere to play.

"Nobody would predict the weather," he said. "The rain negated a lot of positives that could have happened with the game."

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