Tigers tamed by Sprint Football

After two quick Penn scores in the first quarter of Friday’s sprint football game against Princeton, the play that epitomized the game.

The Tigers took control of the ball on their own 11-yard line. On the very first offensive play, freshman quarterback Ned Moffat carried the ball to the left, looking to pitch it back to sophomore running back Kevin Infante. But when Moffat pitched the ball, Infante bobbled it at the eight-yard line, right before getting crushed by senior linebacker Michael McMullen. McMullen then picked up the fumbled football and ran it in for the easy touchdown, giving Penn a very early 19-0 lead.

After that the Red and Blue continued to hit hard and never looked back en route to a 57-7 win over arch rival Princeton at Franklin Field.

“I think we’re very good on all cylinders right now,” running back Mike Bagnoli said. “Our offense clearly can put points on the board, and our defense shut down Princeton’s offense.”

The junior had a huge game Friday, rushing for 172 yards on just 14 carries with three touchdowns. In fact, Penn (2-0) totaled 322 rushing yards as a team compared to just 95 yards on the ground for Princeton (0-2).

The Quakers also dominated the passing game. Sophomore quarterback Todd Busler completed 19 of the 22 passes he attempted for a total of 226 yards, three TDs and zero picks. In stark contrast, Moffat went just 5-for-26 with no scores and two picks.

Although Penn played very well, coach Bill Wagner still believes there’s room for improvement.

“Defensively, we have to work on some stuff in the secondary,” he said. “They completed three big pass plays on us, and we have to take that away.”

The dominant result wasn’t that surprising since the Tigers are usually at the bottom of the league. In fact, the Red and Blue shutout Princeton 47-0 and 43-0 in the teams’ two meetings last season.

At the same time, Penn didn’t take the Tigers for granted.

“You can never underestimate your opponent,” Wagner said. “You can’t look ahead to the next game because you still have to play the first one.”

Though the team finished second last year, Wagner believes this squad has the chance to win it all in 2009.

“Last year, we had a good shot to win the league, and a lot of those kids that played on that team are our leaders this year,” he said.

And this bodes well for a run at the league championship.

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