Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 92

E12 THE HARTFORD COURANT Sunday, September 24, 2000 STATE COLLEGE FOOTBALL Ivy League All Conf Elis Seeing Red After Missed FG Ward Stands Tall To Lead Trinity QB's Two Big Completions Come At Right Time Pf PA Penn 1 0 0 0 45 28 Cornell 1 1 1 0 39 61 Harvard 1 1 1 0 67 58 Yale 1 1 0 1 75 30 Brown 1 1 0 1 77 62 Columbia 1 1 0 0 S3 38 Princeton 0 2 0 0 35 44 Dartmouth 0 2 0 0 63 84 Cornell Snaps Yale's 10-Game Winning Streak Saturday Cornell 24, Yale 23 Harvard 42, Brown 31: Neil Rose passed for 412 yards and three touchdowns to lead Harvard in Providence. Bucknell 12, Columbia 10: Lucas Phillips threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Jim Horan with 24 seconds left to lead Bucknell (2-1) in Lewis-burg, Pa. New Hampshire 42, Dartmouth 21: Ryan Day passed for four touchdowns and Stephan Lewis scored three times as New Hampshire (4-0) won in Durham, N.H. Penn 45, Lafayette 28: Gavin Hoffman passed for 301 yards and three touchdowns to lead Penn over Lafayette (1-2) in Philadelphia. Lehigh 20, Princeton 18: Brant Hall threw two touchdown passes and Sam Perryman and Jason Pinkney combined to break up a late game-tying two-point conversion attempt to lead Lehigh (3-0) in Princeton, N.J.

Sept. 30 Brown at Rhode Island, noon Dartmouth at Penn, 12:30 p.m. Holy Cross at Yale, 1 p.m. Cornell at Lehigh, 1 p.m. Princeton at Columbia, 1:30 p.m.

Harvard at Lafayette, 1 :30 p.m. and over hill and dale. He's 6 feet 5 and at 230 he's heavier than 63 of 77 teammates. He was 19-for-28 for 381 yards (19 yards short of the school record set by Joe Shield in 1983) and had touchdown passes of 69 and yards to Fabrizio. Ward also ran for a 2-yard touchdown.

"He kept his composure, stayed in the pocket, made a couple of good runs and read the field very well," said Fabrizio of Ward. Fabrizio could have been talking about himself. The sophomore scored four touchdowns (the two passes and runs of 1 and 12 yards), rushed for 108 yards on 26 carries and caught seven passes for 194 yards. He totaled 302 yards. He averaged over nine yards every time he touched the ball.

"I don't think our offense can be stopped," Fabrizio said. "We have too many weapons. It's an open offense that gives you freedom. And we change up so defenses can't get a read on us." On one play the Bates defense didn't even see Fabrizio, who stayed on the right side of the field during a huddle in the second quarter and caught a pass unguarded that went for 57 yards. Trinity free safety Steve Cella intercepted three passes, returned six punts 101 yards (including one for a 52-yard touchdown) and six kicks 118 yards.

Trinity leads the series 27-7, winning the last 13. But Bates' 34 points is the most it has scored against Trinity. Sophomore running back Sean Atkins had a lot to do with that. He gained 218 yards rushing on 25 carries and scored three touchdowns. He also caught three passes for 91 yards.

"We had something going but we made a lot of mistakes and couldn't hold the lead," Atkins said. By WOODY ANDERSON Courant Staff Writer Offenses bullied defenses for 939 yards, 80 points and five touchdowns on plays 31 yards or longer. But Trinity's 46-34 opening day victory over Bates Saturday may have happened because first-time quarterback Greg Ward didn't get the yips. And he could have midway through the third quarter when Bates cornerback Tim Price intercepted a Ward pass and ran 18 yards for a touchdown that gave the Bobcats a 31-30 lead. It was a stunning turn of events since Trinity had led 30-14 in the second quarter.

But Bates scored 17 consecutive points, including the play by Price. "I didn't think about it for more than two minutes," said Ward, a sophomore from Avon. "Coaches told me to go back to basics and think about what got us here." Four minutes later he threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to running back Brian Fabri-zio. And after Bates had crawled to within 36-34 in the fourth quarter, he completed a 49-yard pass to tight end Peter Nesbit to set up Fabrizio's 13-yard touchdown run that put the game out of reach. It was Nesbit's first catch of the game but it was also the biggest.

Trinity had run the play three times earlier in the game, but not involving Nesbit. "But Chuck Priore, in his coaching debut, noticed how the Bates cornerback had come up to the line. Pribre ordered a change in the route to go more toward the post and Nesbit was stunningly alone in the middle of the field. Ward saw it develop and hit Nesbit in the numbeES. Of course, Ward can see everything over the line, beyond the defensive backs seconds left, then went on to tie Brown for the league title with a 5-1 record.

Yale and Cornell (1-1) shared divergent emotions in the final minutes. Trailing 23-17, Cornell had a fourth-and-6 at the Elis 37. Rahne threaded a pass between safety Than Merrill and cornerback Todd Tomich to Joe Splendorio for 19 yards. "Somehow it got in there," Rahne said. Three plays later Splendorio beat corner-back Josh Phillips for a 15-yard touchdown pass.

Peter Iverson's PAT put the Big Red ahead 24-23 with 2:16 remaining. It kx)ked like Yale had given away its final chance at victory when Derek Kingrey intercepted a Lee pass with 1:52 left at the Yale 47. Cornell forced Yale to use its final two timeouts, but could not make a first down. After a punt, Yale had the ball at its 23 with 42 seconds remaining. That Cornell was ahead could be deemed mystifying to some.

Yale led 17-10 at half-time and 20-10 after three quarters. Tomich had two interceptions to blunt Cornell threats. Bartholomew ran 31 yards for a touchdown and Jay Schidze 1 for another in the second quarter. With his 180 yards on 24 carries. Bartholomew moved past Rudy Green and into fourth on the all-time rushing list with 2,164.

And Murawczyk boomed field goals from the 40 in the first quarter and 42 in the third. Cornell stayed close because Evan Simmons ran for 1 17 yards and Rahne passed for 212 yards (17 of 20) and ran 11 yards for a first-quarter touchdown. Rahne also threw 18 yards to Justin Dunleavy for a fourth-quarter touchdown. By TOM YANTZ Courant Staff Writer ITHACA, N.Y. Players from Yale dropped to the turf in anguish when Mike Mu-rawczyk's 32-yard field goal hooked left on the final play Saturday at Schoellkopf Field.

Thousands of Cornel fans rushed the field in a raucous celebration. Rashad Bartholomew stared incredulously at the scoreboard: Cornell 24, Visitors 23. "It hurts so badly," the Yale tailback said. "We played our heads off." Bartholomew rushed for 180 yards and one touchdown, and Yale had 442 total yards before a crowd of 16,634. Wide receiver Eric Johnson had nine catches to pass Dean Ath-anasia (112) to become Yale's career leader with 114.

"I know we're going to look at the stats and be crying," coach Jack Siedlecki said. Murawczyk's kick came after Peter Lee passed 33 yards to Keith Reams, who managed to get out of bounds at the Big Red 14. With no timeouts left and two seconds on the clock, Murawczyk's kick from the left hash sailed wide. "I thought it was good at first," Cornell quarterback Ricky Rahne said. "My heart goes out to him." After the game, Murawczyk shook his head and said he didn't want to talk.

The loss between the preseason favorites tovin the Ivy League championship ended Yale's 10-game winning streak stretching back to last season. It was the longest current streak in Division I-AA. Yale (1-1), of course, could try to take solace in that it lost to Brown 25-24 in its Ivy opener last season on a touchdown with 14 The later TD brought the Big Red to 20-17 with 14:07 remaining. Murawczyk's 30-yard field goal with 4:30 to go made it 23-17. Murawczyk was 3 of 5 on field goal attempts.

He had missed from the 27 with just over five minutes to go in the third quarter. "We had to kick too many field goals and didn't make enough touchdowns," Siedlecki said. "It was too much like an NFL game." Still, one more field would have been enough for Yale. Lee (20 of 35 for 225 yards and one interception) completed 4 of 5 passes to set up the final field goal try. "That was Cornell's Super Bowl," Yale ide receiver Tommy McNamara said.

Northeastern 35, UConn 27 Northeastern 9(7 1135 Connettioit 131400-27 SCORING SUMMARY First Quartet Com Fitzsimmons 40 pass from Tracey (kick failed), 1326. NE Klemic 19 pass from Galli (kick failed), 11:23. Coon Fitzsimmons 16 pass from Tracey (Heyl kick), 714. NEFG Connolly 24, 1:37. Second Quarter Conn Small 56 pass from Tracey (Heyl kick).

8S9 NE Philcon 4 pass from Galli (run failed), 4: 10. Conn O'Connor 16 pass from Tracey (Heyl kick), 1:34 Third Quarter NE Klemic 3 pass from Galli (Connolly kick). 9:47. Fourth Quarter NE Hill 15 interception return (run tailed), 14 46 NE Connor 1 run (Connolly kick), 6 48. TEAM STATISTICS NE Conn 27 22 52-220 22 84 235 321 22-30-1 22-39 2 0-0 00 46 36 3 3-41 7 0-0 0-0 6-71 10-78 36 53 2307 First downs Rushes-yards Passing Comp-Att-lrvt Return Yards Punts-Avg.

Fumbles-Lost Penalties-Yards Time of Possession INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS (hS RUSHING Northeastern: McKanas 47-225 Connectkut Small 15 69, Tracey 5-11 PASSING Northeastern: Galli 22-30-1-235 Connecticut Tracey 22 39 2 321 REaiVING-Northeastem: Klemic 8-94, Mack 6-80, Delgado 4-38 Connecticut: Fitzsimmons 6-104, Hill 5-45, O'Connor 4-54, Small 3-73 MARK MIRKOTHE HARTFORD COURANT UCONN'S CARL BRADFORD goes 22 yards on this fourth-quarter kickoff return before being tackled by Keith Brooks and Kurt Abrams. But a holding penalty one of 10 against UConn pushed the Huskies back to their 20. Loss To I-AA NU Especially Painful Wesleyan Wins Opener; Central Loses Staff And Wire Reports Sophomore Greg Thomas ran for 137 yards on 28 carries and scored a touchdown as Wesleyan defeated Tufts 16-7 Saturday in their NESCAC opener in Medford, Mass. Vin Balsamo gave Wesleyan a 3-0 lead in the first quarter with a 32-yard field goal. The next score came with 6:50 left, when Thomas capped a 10-play, 76-yard drive with a 1-yard dive to give Welseyan a 10-0 lead.

Scott Tracey hit Matt Corne with a 10-yard TD pass with 3:25 left to pull Tufts within 10-7. Tufts forced Wesleyan to punt and got the ball back at its 19 with 1:41 left. But Wesleyan's Derrick Brantley intercepted Tracey's first pass and returned it 23 yards for the final score of the game. Monmouth 28, Central 0: Freshman quarterback Bill Rankin threw for 189 yards and three touchdowns passes to lead Monmouth (1-2, 1-2 Northeast Conference) past Central Connecticut (1-2, 1-1) in Long Branch, N.J. Monmouth scored 1:02 into the game when Rankin hit Matt Mer-klinger with a 53-yard touchdown pass.

Merklinger scored again with 9:50 to go in the period on a one-yard TDrun. UMass 39, New Haven 29: Quarterback Richard Lucero passed for five touchdowns to help rally UMass- (2-1) past New Haven (2-2) in Amherst, Mass. New Haven was within 19-14 at half-time and led Division I-AA Atlantic 10 Conference co-champion UMass 22-19 early in the third quarter. Lucero passed for three touchdowns in the third period. The first, an 18-yard pass to Jeff Howard, the second for 15 yards to Eric Bross and finally a 13-yard pass to Jimmie Howard, giving the Min-utemen a 39-22 lead.

Steve Cedar returned an interception 8 yards for a touchdown for the Chargers' first score and Jeff Peters ran 25 yards with the second steal to give New Haven a 14-9 lead. Western 43, William Patterson 17: Ben LaBelle ran for 128 yards and two touchdowns to lead Western over William Paterson in Wayne, N.J. William Paterson (0-3) took a 7-0 lead when Abdul McCray returned the opening kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown. But Western (4-0) responded 21 seconds later when quarterback Matt LeFever hit Corey Enman for a 76-yard touchdown pass. The Colonials took the lead for good with a 24-yard touchdown run by Dwaine Reid with 11 minues left in the first quarter.

Michael Forest caught two TD passes in the second period for Western Connecticut, and the Colonials led 30-17 at the half. Springfield 47, Coast Guard 6: Full back Jason Miller scored four touchdowns and ran for 240 yards on 17 carries as Springfield (0) defeated visiting Coast Guard (1-2) in a Freedom Football Conference game. Next for UConn: Louisville (2-1) No. 2 Seminoles Rout Cardinals Player Of The Game UConn was never able to stop Northeastern running back LJ. McKanas, who rushed for 225 yards on a school-record 47 carries.

His effort helped NU control the ball for 36:53, to UConn's 23:07. Play Of The Game UConn wide receiver Ayo Sorrells had a pass bounce off his hands and chest and into the hands of Northeastern safety TJ. Hill. Hill returned the interception 1 5 yards for a touchdown to give NU the lead for good, 28-27, with 14:46 remaining in the game. Thumbs Up UConn wide receiver John Fitzsimmons had another highly productive game.

The senior from Seekonk, had a team-high six receptions for 104 yards and two touchdowns. He had a third touchdown called back. Fitzsimmons has six TDs in the first four games. He extended his streak of consecutive games with at least one catch to 30. Thumbs Down It may be a while before Sorrells plays.

His continuing problem with dropping makeable catches really hurt the team. He had three drops, including one that resulted in an interception return for a touchdown. Later, he had a drop when the Huskies were driving into Northeastern territory for a potential go-ahead score. A catch would have put UConn in range for a field goal, at least. Of Note Shelton quarterback Dan Orlovsky said his oral commitment to UConn for 2001 is rock solid.

"Michigan State called and offered an official visit this week and I turned them down," Orlovsky said. "I'm with UConn." Orlovsky led Shelton to a 21 -8 victory over top-ranked West Haven on Friday night. He completed 22 of 33 passes for 160 yards, including a spectacular 7-for-7 for 60 yards and a touchdown on the game's opening drive. There had been talk that Orlovsks father was not happy with his son's choice of schools. That's not the case.

"I'm thrilled, said Dan Orlovsky Sr. "In the beginning, I asked him, 'How do you turn down Michigan State and Orlovsky, Sr. said. "How do you? I couldn't be happier with the choice of UConn and I'll tell you why: The coaching staff. You can hear it in Randy Edsall's voice you know they're going to win.

It's a great fit for him." Michigan State calls Orlovsky every week and he is still hearing from Purdue and Northwestern on a regular basis. Orlovsky, who is 6 feet 5, may graduate from Shelton at mid-year and enroll at UConn in January, so he can start training with the team UConn plans to red-shirt Orlovsky in 2001, but he figures to be the starting quarterback in 2002. Former UConn defensive back Jordan Younger was among the last cuts of the Arizona Cardinals. Younger was signed to the Cardinals practice squad. Injuries UConn middle linebacker Jamie Lenkaitis suffered a right knee injury with 12:35 remaining in the first quarter and is likely out for the season.

Fitzsimmons suffered a contusion on his right elbow, which left his hand numb. "I'll live," Fitzsimmons said. What's Next The Huskies begin the toughest stretch of the schedule with a game at Louisville (7 p.m.) next Saturday. That game is followed by the most anticipated game of the season at Boston College on Oct. 7.

Terry Price Continued from Page E3 the arms of Northeastern safety T.J. Hill. Hill returned the interception 15 yards for a touchdown. Hill's score gave Northeastern a 28-27 lead with 14:46 remaining in the fourth quarter, a lead it never relinquished. "I thought that was a big, big, big play, to go from being down to ahead," Brown said.

Sorrells dropped three catchable passes, including one after the big interception when UConn was driving for a potential go-ahead score. UConn was forced to attempt a 53-yard field goal after Sorrells' third blatant error, but Geoff Heyl's try went wide left and short. Northeastern turned around and drove 65 yards for a touchdown to take a 35-27 lead with 6:48 remaining. UConn had one last chance to tie it, but got only to the Northeastern 35 before the drive collapsed. UConn's defense was chewed to pieces by Northeastern running back L.J.

McKanas, who rumbled for 225 yards on a school-record 47 carries. "He's pretty good," said safety Jamal Lundy, who led UConn with 17 tackles. "He's a good north-south runner. He lowers his shoulder and runs right at you." McKanas' work was complemented by quarterback Logan Galli, who completed 22 of 30 passes for 235 yards, including two touchdown passes to wide receiver Dave Klemic and one to tight end Jared Philcox. "We just did a terrible job on defense all game," Edsall said.

Running back Taber Small played a strong game for UConn. Small rushed for 69 yards on 15 carries and caught three passes for 73 yards, including a 56-yard touchdown pass. Quarterback Ryan Tracey started out hot, completing 11 of his first 13 attempts for 200 yards and three touchdowns. Tracey's passing helped stake UConn to a 20-9 lead with 8:59 remaining in the second quarter. A fourth touchdown pass to Stephen O'Connor with 1:34 remaining in the second quarter allowed UConn to lead 27-15 at the half.

Tracey's four TD passes tied a school record. Northeastern got right back in UConn's face by taking the second half kickoff and driving 70 yards for a touchdown. Klemic's3-yard touchdown pass cut UConn's lead to 27-22, which it maintained until Son-ells' big blunder. "When you get the ball where it's supposed to be thrown and you're not catching it, it drains you," Edsall said. "And we gave them points.

That shouldn't happen. "We're supposed to play football games to the best of our ability and we didn't play to the best of our ability." Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Linebacker Tommy Polley returned an interception for one touchdown and forced a fumble to set up another as No. 2 Florida State beat Louisville 31-0 Saturday night to extend major college's longest winning streak to 16 garrles. Chris Weinke threw for 221 yards and a touchdown, ran 2 yards for another, but was intercepted three times in a penalty-filled game.

Each team was called for 13 penalties for a total of 243 yards. Florida State's defense, which has scored in five straight games, handed Louisville its first shutout since 1992. Louisville (2-1) lost its only real scoring opportunity in the fourth quarter when the Cardinals had a first down at the Florida State 2. Two running attempts and two passes by Dave Ragone failed. The Cardinals averaged 46 points and 435 yards in victories over Kentucky and Grambling, but managed only three of their 210 yards on the ground.

Policy's 4-yard interception return for a touchdown, a 5-yard scoring run by Travis Minor and Matt Munyon's 23-yard field goal gave the Seminoles (4-0) a 17-0 halftime lead. Minor's touchdown came two plays after Polley forced a fumble by Louisville's Tony Stallings that was recovered by Florida State's Derrick Gibson at the Louisville 6. Minor picked up 120 yards on 20 carries, his second straight game over the 100-yard mark, to help the Seminoles overcome five turnovers. The Seminoles have won 31 straight game on their home field, where they have not been defeated in 48 games dating back to a 17-16 loss to Miami in 1991 -n-iao, jh j.a, A. Am.mi JtQ- fc.ftjrfl jirfi Mi A Jki tf fg jft fl M.

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