Volume LXVVIII, No. 5
October 14, 2017
YALE FOOTBALL NEWS Published by the Yale Football Association
Bulldogs Bounce Back Winning 32 - 0 One of the hallmarks of a good team is how it responds immediately after a difficult loss. Yale, one week after losing in the final minute at Dartmouth, bounced back in impressive fashion with a 32-0 victory against Holy Cross at the Yale Bowl. It was the first shutout for the Bulldogs since 2011, and the first time a Holy Cross team hasn’t scored a point in a game since 2004. It was another dominant performance against a non-conference opponent. Yale won all three of its non-league games by a combined score of 129-38, and begins the final stretch of the season on Saturday at Penn. “I’m very proud of this football team and how they handled themselves this week, from Sunday on,” Yale’s Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Football Tony Reno said. “We put (last Saturday’s 28-27 loss at Dartmouth) to bed and took on the challenge of Holy Cross, head-first. We really prepared well and were able to have some success today.” While the offense has garnered much of the early attention at Yale (4-1), Saturday’s victory was a day for the defense. Not just for allowing no points, but for dominating an offense led by one of the top quarterback prospects in the nation. Holy Cross fifth-year senior Peter Pujals threw for a school-record 509 yards in a loss to Monmouth a week earlier, the second 500-yard passing performance of his career, and was in the national top 10 with over 1,800 passing yards in five games. But the Bulldogs kept him under heavy pressure all day long, posting four sacks (three by linebacker Matt Oplinger.) When Pujals was
able to get a pass off, he was either hurried or throwing to targets well-covered by the Yale secondary. Pujals completed just 10-of-22 passes for 89 yards. Holy Cross couldn’t find room to run the ball, either, gaining a mere 59 yards on 29 attempts for the game. All told, Yale recorded 11 tackles for losses, allowed only eight first downs and forced the Crusaders to punt on 11 of their 13 offensive possessions. The other two resulted in a safety and a missed field goal attempt. “We felt if we put pressure on him, that would give us the best opportunity for success,” said Reno. “I’m proud of our defensive line and our linebacker corps. Matt Oplinger and the linebackers did a great job of keeping pressure on him and making it hard to throw the ball.”
Publication authored by Chip Malafronte Yale also got an efficient performance from freshman running back Zane Dudek, who ran only four times but gained 45 yards and scored two touchdowns. Alex Galland also enjoyed a prolific day. He kicked a career-long 39-yard field goal to give Yale an early 3-0 lead, and averaged more than 40 yards per punt, pinning Holy Cross inside its own 20 four times. “Field position is a huge part of football,” Oplinger said. “So, being able to pin teams down, it kind of limits their play selection and gives us a chance to get after them. It takes a whole team to win a football game, especially like that, so the special teams are a huge portion of the game that he really stepped up at today, which helps us a ton.”
Yale’s offense did the majority of damage in the second quarter. Sophomore quarterback Kurt Rawlings was efficient throwing the ball once again, completing 27-of-39 passes for 316 yards and two touchdowns, both to receiver Michael Siragusa in the second quarter. Siragusa, who hadn’t caught a touchdown this season, caught a 5-yard scoring pass early in the second quarter to give Yale a 10-0 lead. He added a 33-yarder with 56 seconds remaining in the half, and finished with five catches for 98 yards, a season best. Rawlings, due in part to protection from an experienced offensive line, is completing 70.2 percent of his passes this season. In the entirety of the Football Championship Subdivision, only Princeton’s Chad Kanoff, at 73.9 percent, has been more efficient.
“I’m very proud of this football team and how they handled themselves this week, from Sunday on.” Tony Reno, Joel E. Smilow ‘54 Head Coach of Football
Yale 32, Holy Cross 0
BULLDOG BITES
SCORING BY QUARTERS Holy Cross 0-0-0-0-0 Yale 3-22-7-0-32 1st QUARTER Y – FG Galland 39, 10:32 2nd QUARTER Y – Siragusa 5 pass from Rawlings (Galland kick), 14:27 Y – Dudek 21 run (Galland kick), 7:17 Y – Team safety, 1:26 Y – Siragusa 33 pass from Rawlings (kick failed), 0:30 3rd QUARTER Y – Dudek 22 run (Galland kick), 11:40 4th QUARTER
Kyle Mullen, junior defensive end for Yale, gets his paw on a Pujals pass.
Matt Oplinger, Yale’s senior linebacker, sacked Pujals three times.
Yale knew Holy Cross quarterback Peter Pujals might be a problem. Only twice in school history has a quarterback thrown for 500 yards at Holy Cross, and Pujals did it both times. The fifth-year senior was coming off a game in which he threw for a school-record 509 yards, completing 36-of63 passes with four touchdowns.
IVY SLOW TO REPLAY
Pujals returned to school this fall after receiving a medical redshirt because he missed most of last season with an injury. He’s considered a legitimate NFL prospect at the position, and spent the previous summer working at a high school football camp in Louisiana owned and operated by Peyton and Eli Manning. So it makes what Yale accomplished on Saturday at the Bowl that much more impressive. Pujals spent the afternoon under heavy pressure, sacked four times, and completing only 10 passes for 89 yards – a differential of 26 completions and 420 yards from the previous week.
GAME STATS HOLY CROSS
YALE
8
23
Rushes-Yards
29-54
35-136
Passing Yards
89
316
10-26-0
27-39-0
Total Offense
143
452
Fumbles/Lost
0-0
0-0
Penalties/Yards
4-37
3-20
Punts (Avg.)
11-37.6
5-40.2
Time of Possession
22:23
37:37
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs
Passes
2
“We knew all about Peter,” Yale coach Tony Reno said. “He’s an exceptionally talented kid, arguably the best player we’ve seen all season. For us it came down to putting pressure on him, we felt that would give us the best opportunity for success. I’m proud of our defensive line and our linebackers making it hard for him to throw the ball.” Matt Oplinger, Yale’s senior linebacker, was particularly nightmarish on Pujals. He made three of the Bulldogs four sacks in the game, raising his total this season to seven. In three previous seasons, Oplinger had a total of nine career sacks. Oplinger said there was an emphasis on the pass rush during practice prior to the Hly Cross game. Yale’s defense challenges itself every week, but it’s clear they took extra pride in making life miserable for one of the best quarterback prospects in the country. “Every team we play is a great team that has the opportunity to be explosive on offense and those are the teams we want to play,” Oplinger said. “We don’t get better by playing bad teams so I’m glad we can go out there and play a prospect and throw up a goose egg on him. That feels pretty good.”
Coaches in the Ivy League have lobbied for instant replay for years, yet the league is one of only two in the country at the Division I level that hasn’t passed the legislation. The issue came to light at Yale last week, when lack of replay played role in the Bulldogs’ loss at Dartmouth. Tight end Jaeden Graham had an apparent touchdown ruled no catch by the referee because his foot was out-of-bounds. Had officials been able to review the play on video, there would have been a good case to overturn the call. Instant replay has been in effect at some Division I leagues for a decade. Ivy League coaches have voted in favor of replay the past few years, only for it to be denied at the administrative level. Cost appears to be the primary factor. “As a coach, it’s nice because the referees’ job is a hard job, let’s call it what it is,” Reno said. “They have to make very hard decisions in a split-second. The benefit of replay is that they don’t have to be perfect every time. By having replay, you allow them to do their job more effectively.”
EXTRA BITES
* Holy Cross fired coach Tom Gilmore on Sunday after losing to Yale. He was in his 14th season, and won the Patriot League title in 2009. * The shutout on Saturday was the first for a Yale team since a 30-0 win over Dartmouth in 2011. Holy Cross hadn’t been shutout in a game since 2004 against Harvard.
THE IVY LEAGUE REPORT
STANDINGS (Ivy/Overall) DARTMOUTH COLUMBIA YALE PRINCETON
2-0 | 5-0 2-0 | 5-0 1-1 | 4-1 1-1 | 4-1
HARVARD CORNELL PENN BROWN
THIS WEEKEND 1-1 | 3-2 1-1 | 1-4 0-2 | 2-3 0-2 | 2-3
Friday Princeton at Harvard, 7:30 p.m. Saturday Yale at Penn, 1 p.m. Columbia at Dartmouth, 12:30 p.m. Brown at Cornell, 3 p.m.
LAST WEEKEND... Harvard 38, Lafayette 10:
Charlie Booker rushed for 159 yards and a touchdown while Aaron Shampklin added 82 yards of rushing to lead the Crimson, who also returned two kicks for touchdowns. Mosely Shelton had an 85-yard punt return in the first quarter and Adam Scott returned the second half kickoff 90 yards for a score.
Princeton 53, Brown 0:
Charlie Volker rushed for 163 yards and four touchdowns on 16 carries as the Tigers cruised to victory. All four of his scores were in the first half, including a 96-yarder, the longest in Princeton football history. Brown finished with just 115 yards of total offense for the game.
Dartmouth 29, Sacred Heart 26:
The Tigers came from behind to win in the fourth quarter or overtime for the fourth successive game, Emory Thompson’s second touchdown reception of the game early in the fourth quarter providing the winning score. Jack Heneghan threw for four touchdowns while Drew Hunnicutt had three catches for 126 yards and a 78-yard touchdown.
Columbia 34, Penn 31 (OT):
Josh Wainwright’s 24-yard touchdown reception in overtime kept the Lions undefeated on the season, snapping a 20-game losing streak to the Quakers. Wainwright had 10 catches for 193 yards and two touchdowns. Nick Miller had a 25-yard interception return for a touchdown for Penn.
Bucknell 26, Cornell 18:
Dalton Banks threw for 160 yards and a touchdown while running back Jake Jatis added a touchdown thrown of his own for the Big Red in a losing effort.
RENO’S RUNDOWN Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Football Loram ispum dolor sit amet, condecteur ad-
ipiscing Aenean eros to ut cursus cursus. a very good opponent. Obviously a very “We knew weedit. were going be facing In rhoncus, lacus id rutrum gravida, nibh explosive offense and a team that had beaten a top-ranked team in the country. accumsan lectus, in rutrum massa urna val They alsotellus. hadMauris comein within a few plays of beating the University of Connecticut. eros nec risus fermentum. Our guysintook the challenge on from Sunday and really prepared well.” rutrum massa urna
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UP NEXT...
YALE (4-1, 1-1) at PENN (2-3, 0-2)
THE SERIES
SAT, OCTOBER 24TH
RADIO: WELI-960 or WAVZ-1300
1:00 PM
TV: CSN Philly
TICKETS: 203-432-1400
ONLINE: IVY LEAGUE NETWORK
Yale leads the all-time series 46-37-1, though Penn has won 19 of the past 25 games, including a 42-7 victory last October in the first true night game in Yale Bowl history.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT After winning its first two games in dominating fashion, Penn has lost its last three games, including close Ivy League losses to Dartmouth and Columbia in overtime, both by three points. Karekin Brooks is an imposing runner, averaging 117 yards per game with six touchdowns. Quarterback Will Colbrie-Fisher has thrown eight touchdown passes, but is prone to turnovers, with four interceptions in his last two games. Linebacker Nick Miller has been the best defensive player, recording at least 10 tackles in all five games with two sacks and two interceptions. But the Quakers have struggled as a unit defensively during the losing streak, particularly prone to opponents with strong passing attacks like Yale.
BULLDOGS OF THE WEEK
Foyesade Oluokun, Sr., Linebacker, 6-2, 215, St. Louis, Mo.
Siragusa, once of several Yale players coming back after missing most of last season with injury, enjoyed his most productive game of the season, catching five passes for 98 yards and a pair of second-quarter touchdowns in the win over Holy Cross. He was a star player at Cleveland’s Saint Ignatius high school and his father, Michael, played for the New England Patriots in 1987.
Oluokun made five tackles on Saturday, part of a suffocating team defensive effort in which Holy Cross was unable to establish any semblance of an offensive attack. Twice a second-team all-Ivy League linebacker, Oluokun has once again been a steady, physical presence for the Bulldogs.
2017 SCHEDULE
Michael Siragusa, Sr., Wide receiver, 6-2, 220, Cleveland, Ohio
SEPT. 16 SEPT. 23 SEPT. 30 OCT. 7 OCT. 14 OCT. 21 OCT. 28 NOV. 3 NOV. 11 NOV. 18
LEHIGH CORNELL* FORDHAM DARTMOUTH* HOLY CROSS PENN* COLUMBIA* BROWN* PRINCETON* HARVARD*
W 56-28 W 49-24 W 41-10 L 28-27 W 32-0 1:00 PM 1:00 PM 8:00 PM 1:00 PM 12:30 PM
JUNIOR VARSITY SCHEDULE SEPT. 24 OCT. 15 NOV. 17
PHOTO CREDITS
MILFORD ACADEMY BROWN HARVARD
L 35-24 CANCELED 1:00 PM
Jack Warhola, Stephen Fritzer, Ron Waite’s Photosportacular
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