Volume LXVVIII, No. 6
October 21, 2017
YALE FOOTBALL NEWS Published by the Yale Football Association
Bulldogs Beat Penn 24-19 Yale bounced back from its only loss of the season with a dominating win over Holy Cross. This week, in a tough battle at Penn, it proved capable of overcoming a late deficit and staving off a desperate opponent to close out a victory.
Chris Williams-Lopez caught the go-ahead touchdown, a 4-yard pass from Kurt Rawlings, with 4 minutes, 11 seconds remaining in the game to lift the Bulldogs to a 24-19 victory over Penn on Saturday at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Yale’s defense stopped the Quakers on the next drive before the Bulldog offense took over and ran out the final minutes to secure the win.
It sets up a showdown with undefeated Columbia this weekend at the Yale Bowl. The Bulldogs (5-1, 4-1) can claim a share of first place with a victory. Columbia (6-0, 5-0) is thirsty for its first league championship since 1961.
For Yale, the victory helped ease concern after failing to hang on to a fourth-quarter lead at Dartmouth two weeks ago. The Bulldogs four other wins this season were all by at least three touchdowns and in the bag before the fourth quarter. “It’s something we haven’t done this season, we’ve been fortunate that we’ve had games where we’ve had big leads,” said Tony Reno, Yale’s Joel E. Smilow Head Coach of Football. “So, this was a great piece for us. As a coach, you don’t ever hope for a game like this, but we needed this to see where we were at. We needed to see if we could do what we needed to do at the end. We had to come back in the fourth quarter and score a touchdown. We had to make a stop and we had to run the clock out. I’m very proud of the guys and very proud of their ability to focus on winning plays.”
Penn (2-4, 0-3) has been a thorn in Yale’s side for most of the new millennium, particularly in Philadelphia. The Quakers were 19-6 against Yale over the past 25 seasons. And the last time the Bulldogs won at Franklin Field was in 2007. Will Fischer-Colbrie, the Penn quarterback, gave his team an early 7-0 lead when he found Justin Watson for a 23-yard touchdown pass early in the first quarter. Yale tied it later in the first when freshman running back Zane Dudek (12 carries, 103 yards) scored on an 8-yard run, his eighth rushing touchdown of the season.
The teams traded second-quarter field goals before the Bulldogs took the lead just before halftime. A poor Penn punt set up strong field position for Yale, which marched 53 yards on four plays. Quarterback Kurt Rawlings hit Reed Klubnik for a 13-yard touchdown, with linebacker Matt Oplinger catching the 2-point conversion pass to make the score 18-10 in Yale’s favor.
Publication authored by Chip Malafronte coverage and made eye contact with Kurt and I knew. He put a great ball on me and we got it. But, our success today relied on our offensive line and Kurt.” Once again, Yale’s defense allowed the opponent little room to establish a running attack. Penn managed 60 yards on 37 carries. The Bulldogs also got through Penn’s offensive line for five sacks. With another win in the bank, Yale can look ahead to a crucial game with Columbia.
“One of the good things that make the Ivy League so great is the parity that exists,” Reno said. “The way the Ivy League is set up is that no one gets a huge advantage in recruiting. Columbia has done an incredible job if you look at what they’ve done with facilities and they’ve really made a commitment to win football games. I think you’re seeing the result of that right now.”
There’d be no more scoring until the fourth quarter, when Penn took charge. A 44-yard field goal cut Yale’s lead to 18-13. And when Rawlings fumbled away possession, the Quakers scored a touchdown to take a 19-18 lead with 9:03 remaining.
Yale wasn’t down for long. Rawlings completed 6-of-7 passes on the next drive, hitting Williams-Lopez for the winning score from 4 yards away.
“I saw Chris out there and took a shot, put it in his hands,” Rawlings said. “I really got to give it to the guys up front, they seal the deal, we just have to put up the points to get the win. I give it to Chris on that, and give a lot to our defense.” Said Williams-Lopez, “I had to go based on where we were on the field, I looked at the
“We had to make a stop and we had to run the clock out. I’m very proud of the guys and very proud of their ability to focus on winning plays.” Tony Reno, Joel E. Smilow ‘54 Head Coach of Football
BULLDOG BITES
Yale 24, Penn 19
SCORING BY QUARTERS Yale 7-11-0-6-24 Penn 7-3-0-9-19
1st QUARTER P – Watson 23 pass from Fischer-Colbrie (Soslow kick), 9:21 Y – Dudek 8 run (Galland kick), 2:32 2nd QUARTER P – FG Soslow 34, 13:00 Y – FG Galland 35, 7:26 Y – Klubnik 13 pass from Rawlings (Oplinger pass), 0:30 3rd QUARTER 4th QUARTER P – FG Soslow 44, 10:51 P – Solomon 2 run (pass failed), 9:03 Y – Williams-Lopez 4 pass from Rawlings (pass failed), 4:11
Jon Bezney (61), senior right tackle, a cog in Yale’s sly and very effective offensive line.
Spencer Matthaei, Yale’s talented sophomore defensive end.
Jon Bezney, Yale’s senior right tackle, spent his summer trying to find a cure for cancer. As a molecular, cellular and developmental biology major, he worked at Yale’s Bindra Laboratory exploring treatment plans for pediatric brain tumors, an extension of research he’d done the previous semester in the department of therapeutic radiology.
BLITZING BULLDOGS
“Thirty percent of children with these brain tumors have specific mutations and I’m using that mutation to create a targeted therapeutic drug to treat brain cancer,” Bezney said. Bezney has put much of the lab work on hold because of the football season. He’s expected to take the spring semester off from classes to recapture a final season of football eligibility next fall – he sat out last season with an injury. That time will be spent continuing his medical research on a full-time basis. Bezney, a Cincinnati native, plans to attend medical school after Yale, though he’s still undecided on which avenue of medicine in which he’ll specialize.
GAME STATS TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs
PENN
20
21
Rushes-Yards
34-217
37-60
Passing Yards
199
207
19-27-0
19-33-0
Total Offense
416
267
Fumbles/Lost
3-3
1-1
Penalties/Yards
9-86
3-17
Punts (Avg.)
5-38.6
6-37.7
Time of Possession
27:49
32:11
Passes
2
YALE
“I like oncology, and I’ve gotten to shadow doctors around the lab and the hospital,” Bezney said. “I really enjoy it and I’m interested. But right now I really don’t know.” Bezney is a cog in what’s been the Ivy League’s most effective offensive line. The Bulldog line is the quiet force behind the league top rushing offense and most efficient passing quarterback. They’ve also allowed only four sacks all season, fewest in the nation among Football Championship Subdivision teams. The offensive line’s cerebral approach to the game has played a major role in its ultimate success. “That’s what’s unique about the offensive line,” Bezney said. “We take a lot of pride in bringing not only an extremely physical game to the field, but a very mental game to the field. We’re always toying with the defensive line and our technique, making sure they can’t read our calls or read how we’re blocking it.”
Yale has been leading the Ivy League in quarterback sacks since the start of the season. On Saturday it faced an offensive line that’s given up the second-fewest in the conference, behind only the Bulldogs. Yet Penn could do little to stop the pass-rushing tide. The Quakers had allowed only three sacks to the opposition in the first five games. Yale burst through to record five in its 24-19 victory. J. Hunter Roman led the attack with 1.5 sacks; Foyesade Oluokun, Matt Oplinger and Spencer Matthaei had one a piece; Kyle Mullen was credited with a half-sack. It’s all part of a team identity in which every player has full trust in the ability of the next. “Our motto is you defend the run with 11, you defend the pass with 11,” coach Tony Reno said. “The success of one individual part on defense really relies on the other. You’re not going to have a great pass defense if you don’t have a great pass rush. You’re not going to have a great run game if you don’t have a great O-line. You need both.”
EXTRA BITES
• Foyesade Oluokun, Yale’s senior linebacker, was named the Ivy League’s defensive player of the week. He made a season-best 10 tackles at Penn, 3.5 for losses, two sacks, and forced a fumble in the first half that allowed Yale to seize momentum. • Freshman tailback Zane Dudek was named the league’s rookie of the week for the second time this season. He rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries, while catching one pass for 14 yards.
THE IVY LEAGUE REPORT
STANDINGS (Ivy/Overall) COLUMBIA YALE DARTMOUTH PRINCETON
3-0 | 6-0 2-1 | 5-1 2-1 | 5-1 2-1 | 5-1
CORNELL HARVARD PENN BROWN
THIS WEEKEND 2-1 | 2-4 1-2 | 3-3 0-3 | 2-4 0-3 | 2-4
Saturday Columbia at Yale, 1 p.m. Dartmouth at Harvard, noon Penn at Brown, 12:30 p.m. Cornell at Princeton, 7 p.m.
LAST WEEKEND...
Princeton 52, Harvard 17:
Chad Kanoff completed 31-of-35 passes for 421 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Tigers. It was the first time an opponent scored at least 50 points against Harvard since 1989, and only the third time in program history. Jesper Horsted had 13 receptions for 246 yards and two touchdowns while Stephen Carlson added 11 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown for Princeton.
Columbia 22, Dartmouth 17:
The Lions survived a late rally by Dartmouth, which scored 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and twice drove inside Columbia’s 20 in the final 3 minutes but were unable to cash in. Columbia, which won its only Ivy League championship in 1961, took over sole possession of first place with the victory.
Cornell 34, Brown 7:
Three different Cornell runners combined for four touchdowns as part of its 276 yards of rushing offense on the day. Brown completed only 11-of-31 passes on the day and was sacked five times.
RENO’S RUNDOWN Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Football Loram ispum dolor sit amet, condecteur ad-
“As a coach, you don’t ever hope for a game like this, but we needed this to see ipiscing edit. Aenean eros ut cursus cursus. where we at.lacus Weidneeded to seenibh if we could do what we needed to do at the In were rhoncus, rutrum gravida, lectus, inback rutrum urna val quarter and score a touchdown. We had end. We accumsan had to come inmassa the fourth Mauris eros had nec risus to make tellus. a stop andin we to fermentum. run the clock out. I’m very proud of the guys and in rutrum massa urna very proud of their ability to focus on winning plays.”
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UP NEXT...
COLUMBIA (6-0, 3-0) at YALE (5-1, 2-1) SAT, OCTOBER 28TH
RADIO: WELI-960
1:00 PM
TV: SNY
TICKETS: 203-432-1400
ONLINE: IVY LEAGUE NETWORK
THE SERIES
Yale leads the all-time series with Columbia 7020-2, its most commanding advantage over any league team. The Bulldogs have won 12 of the last 14 games against the Lions, including a 31-23 victory in New York last October.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT Al Bagnoli has done in three seasons on the job what few have ever done – turn Columbia into a legitimate Ivy League championship contender. The Lions were 3-7 just last fall, but are now the league’s only undefeated team after taking down Dartmouth last weekend. It’s a pivotal game for the Bulldogs, who can claim a share of first place with a win and see their title hopes all but dashed with a loss. Yale’s defense has quelled the run all season, but Columbia is a pass-first offense. Quarterback Anders Hill is a dangerous and accurate passer, averaging 277 yards per game with 14 touchdowns. The Lions are also sound on defense, having allowed 17 points or fewer in four of their six games.
BULLDOGS OF THE WEEK
J, Hunter Roman, Jr., Defensive end, 6-6, 225, New London, Conn.
Huizenga, a part-time player early in his Yale career, is enjoying a regular role on the Bulldogs’ offensive line. He’s the starting right guard on an line responsible for clearing the way for the Ivy League’s top rushing offense.
Roman made the most of his three tackles against Penn, recording 1.5 sacks with another tackle for a loss of yardage. He’s got 15 tackles and 2.5 sacks this season after compiling only seven tackles with no sacks in his first two years combined.
2017 SCHEDULE
Anders Huizenga, Sr., Offensive lineman, 6-5, 290, Trophy Club, Texas
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 W 24-19 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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* Ivy League Game
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