PROVIDENCE, R.I. —
This was the win Penn needed. An overtime victory, on the road, against the defending co-champs, the best offense in the league, two weeks before the de facto Ivy championship game in Boston against fellow undefeated Harvard.
This win did more than just keep Penn’s title hopes alive. This win made a statement, a booming declaration to the rest of the Ivy League — the 2009 Quakers can win in overtime.
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Coach Al Bagnoli started the press conference playing a broken record: “We’ve certainly had our share of overtime games and certainly the results have been less than desirable.”
Three years ago, in the current seniors’ first year, Penn lost three straight conference games in overtime, an NCAA record. In all three games, the Quakers went first in the extra period, twice failing to move the ball and missing a field goal and once not even making an attempt after a botched snap. In that third game, which went to double overtime against Princeton, another muffed snap on an extra point after a potential game-tying touchdown sent Penn to its demise.
In 2007, the Quakers appeared snakebit in losing a triple overtime homecoming game to Yale after a penalty negated a miraculous improvisational halfback pass from Joe Sandberg to Nick Cisler for a fourth-down touchdown.
Last year in the season opener against Villanova, the Quakers took the ball second in overtime and had a great opportunity after Chris Wynn blocked an extra point, but Bradford Blackmon fumbled away their chances. Then earlier this year in Easton, Pa., three straight unsuccessful (and questionable) pass plays in the pouring rain followed by a rain-soaked missed field goal by Andrew Samson gave Lafayette the chance for its game-winning kick.
Six games, six chances to win, six blown opportunities.
“Enough is enough,” Wynn said after Penn finally took one in overtime.
“We had enough,” echoed fellow senior captain Jake Lewko. “This is the new streak of winning in overtime. The hell with the old history of bad breaks, bad snaps, missed kicks, interceptions, fumbles — it’s over.”
Most importantly, “[This game] sends a message to the league that we’re not the team that buckles under pressure in overtime,” Wynn added. “I think that’s kind of what the team was through the years, but we showed today that that’s over with.”
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In regulation Saturday, Penn did everything it could to let Brown win: another missed field goal by its All-American kicker (Samson’s eighth miss of the year, albeit into a strong wind), four second-half interceptions — including one for a pick-six and another in Brown’s endzone — a failed third-and-four conversion in Brown territory early in the fourth quarter, a three-and-out with just over two minutes to go and the game tied, and a defensive lapse that allowed a seven-play, 54-yard drive with just 1:20 remaining that gave the Bears a chance for a last-second game-winning field goal.
Were it not for a variety of Brown’s own miscues — three missed field goals, two fumbles just moments after Penn turnovers, a 1-for-13 third-down ratio — the Quakers would not have even made it to overtime.
But once the final seconds ticked off, Penn put those mistakes behind it and ignored the now-ancient history of overtime losses and four straight defeats to the Bears.
“The toughest part to do after an interception is to clear your mind and just think of the next play,” quarterback Kyle Olson said of his career-high four picks. “A little adversity struck that I had to deal with, four times. … I knew it just had to come down to that next play. Those next plays were in overtime. It was huge.”
Indeed, Olson’s two early overtime strikes to Kyle Derham were quick and decisive and showed no signs of hesitation after it seemed like everything that left his hand in the second half might get tipped into the Bears’ grasp.
And if it wasn’t Olson overcoming adversity, it was the defense, which stepped up from an already impressive shutout of the league’s best offense to pressure top Ivy passer Kyle Newhall-Caballero on every play in overtime, sealing the victory.
“To win in overtime … at this point senior year,” Wynn said, “it just came at the right time.”
Noah Rosenstein is a junior political science major from Hollywood, Fla., and is Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is rosenstein@dailypennsylvanian.com.
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