The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 36

C6 THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Sunday, October 29, 2000 Penn's late comeback slays Brown, 41-38 is; -f I I i (VX QB Gavin Hoffman set a school record with 476 passing yards and led Penn to three TDs in 5 minutes. By Bob Ford INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Gavin Hoffman was already Penn's career passing-yardage leader heading into yesterday's Ivy League game versus Brown at Franklin Field. Before the day was over, Hoffman, a 6-foot-5 junior, would add a few more notations to his resume, but that was hardly the story of the game. "The records don't mean anything," Hoffman said. "I've never been part of a game that means so much that was so exciting at the end." Hoffman kept the Quakers moving forward during an amazing fourth-quarter comeback in which Penn erased an 18-point deficit with less than five minutes to play and emerged with a 41-38 win.

The improbable victory keeps the Quakers (4-3 overall, 3-1 league) in a four-way tie for first place in the Ivy League. The comeback was assured when Hoffman, who threw for a school-record 38 completions and 476 yards, hit Rob Milanese on a short swing pass with 28 seconds to play and the junior split end fought his way into the end zone from 7 yards out. "Normally, I don't know if I'd be WINSLOWJOWNSON Associated Pres9 Former Bruins coach Pat Burns gives an interview to a Canadian TV station as another station's interview with his replacement, Mike Keenan, plays behind him on a television screen. Burns was fired Wednesday. On the NHL Tim Panaccio New Bruins coach may not be answer to team's troubles nr-i'i'T -AriiiMiM nil SSWUWMKltMUi i MICHAEL S.

WIRTZ Inquirer Staff Photographer Penn cornerback Joey Alofaituli (8) brings down Brown's Michael Milan by the face mask. Penn was penalized for the infraction in the fourth quarter of yesterday's Ivy League contest at Franklin Field. ty close to coming pretty close. "I was scared out of my mind," cornerback Joey Alofaituli said. "It seemed like the longest game we've ever had." That was one of the few records not set yesterday.

"This league seems to have everything," Bagnoli said. "Drama, big plays, comebacks it's a spectator's delight, but a coach's triggered his outburst in their new, $1.4 million home last Sunday. Roy spent six hours in an Arapahoe County, jail before being bailed out. In court the following day, Roy was flanked by his brother, sister and parents but not his wife. Roy has not been formally charged.

Richest in history. Chris Pronger, who most observers concede is the best blue-liner around, signed a three-year, $29.5 million contract extension that makes him the highest paid defenseman in NHL history. "I don't think any kid grows up thinking about making the type of money we're making," Pronger said. "It's about winning a Stanley Cup and carrying it over your head, having the parades, scoring the game-winner-in the Cup overtime." The new deal, on top of his existing one, keeps Pronger in a Blues sweater through the 2003-04 season. He will earn $9.5 million in each of the next three seasons.

The highest paid defenseman this year is the Rangers' Brian Leetch at $7.68 million. Leetch goes to $9.68 million in wm i jrvlllJlif Jf Bob Ford's e-mail address is bfordphillynews.com Penn 41, Brown 38 Brown 14 0 14 10 38 13 7 0 21 41 Firet quarter PenrnO NeiH 1 6 pass from Hoffman (kick failed), 1 1 :50 Brown-Buchanan 39 pass from Webber (Jensen kick), 6:09 Penrv-Verille 5 run (Feinberg kick), 4: 1 6 Brown-Ferguson 5 interception return (Jensen kick), :44 Second quarter Penn-flyan 1 5 run (Feinberg kick), 1 1 :26 Third quarter Brown-Webber 1 run (Jensen kick), 757 Brown-Campbell 7 pass from Webber (Jensen kick), 2:20 Fourth quarter Brown-Campbell 15 pass from Webber (Jensen kick), 10:51 Brown-FG Jensen 22, 7:28 Penn-Battung 8 pass from Hoffman (Feinberg kick), 4:37 Penn-Hoffman 1 run (run failed), 2:49 Penn-Milanese 7 pass from Hoffman (Milanese pass from Hoffman), :28 fc 13,208 MICHAEL S. WIRTZ Inquirer Staff Photographer With 28 seconds left, Penn's Rob Milanese breaks free for the winning TO. Brown Penn 27 28 27-54 27-121 399 476 34-54-1 38-52-1 8 86 1-1 2-2 3-15 11-107 31:37 28:23 The Bears couldn't move again with coach Phil Estes stubbornly sticking to the pass, which helped Penn's clock situation and the Quakers began their last drive on their own 38 with 1:41 left. It took nine plays to cover the distance, with a third-and-10 catch by Colin Smith the big play in the drive.

If a drive under that circumstance could be described as "composed," that's what the Quakers were. There was still one last piece of excitement left. Brown, on the final play of the game, tried a desperate multiple-lateral play that came pret- able to break that tackle," said Milanese, one of three Penn receivers to gain 100 yards in the game. "But the adrenaline was really pumping by then. It seemed pretty easy." There was very little about the game that was either normal or easy.

Penn scored early against a Brown defense that has been porous all season, but the Quakers failed to take full advantage of their chances in the first half. A Hoffman interception gave the Bears a gift touchdown in the opening period, and the Quakers were ahead by a score of just 20-14 at the half. The biggest bright spot for Penn was the return of running back Kris Ryan, whose playing time has been limited by injury this season. Ryan ran for 88 yards in the game, including 74 in the first half. "We should have been leading the game by more than we did," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said.

"I knew there would be an explosion from their side because they've got too many skill kids. In the third quarter, i was disappointed because we played with no sense of urgency. I tell them that games aren't decided at the half or after 45 minutes or 50 minutes. You've got to play the full 60 minutes. It's a cliche but in this league teams can move the ball up and down the field." That's precisely what Brown did as it played with the wind at its back in the third period and kept the same momentum as the fourth quarter began.

Quarterback Eric Webber, the second-ranked passer in Division I-AA, found receiver Steve Campbell, the I-AA leader in catches and yardage, for two touchdowns as Brown scored 24 straight points to open the second half and take a 38-20 lead. That was the score when Penn got the ball with 5 minutes, 4 seconds to play on its own 39-yard line. "We knew we had to open it up, try to spread out the field," Hoffman said. "We sort of went after it. We were just looking for soirteone Oklahoma SOONERS from CI (7-1, 4-1), accustomed to steamroll-ing around the Big Twelve, had gone three plays and out three out of four times late in the second quarter, just when Oklahoma was pulling away.

In winning, Oklahoma pulled off a double no team had ever done before, beating a No. 1 and a No. 2 team in successive games, after knocking off then-second-ranked Kansas State two weeks ago. "OU really stopped the running game, and we found ourselves in a lot of long-yardage situations, and we do not like that in our offense," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. The Cornhuskers were not equipped to come from behind.

Quarterback Eric Crouch, who had juked a Sooners safety to one knee in scoring an early touchdown, horribly underthrew one pass that should never have been thrown at man cornerback, Derrick Strait, intercepted and ran 32 yards for a touchdown, the only score of the second half. In the fourth quarter, Strait also forced a Nebraska fumble when the Cornhuskers still had at least a mathematical chance to win. (After completing his first five passes, Crouch was 12 for 27 for the game, for 133 yards.) The Sooners also dominated on special teams, pinning Nebraska deep with their kickoff coverage, and blocking a punt when the score So, the fiery, ill-tempered Mike Keenan has resurfaced in Boston, where outgoing coach Pat Burns openly ripped general manager Harry Sinden for forcing the club to play a free-skating, Western Conference style without suitable players. As befits the times, Burns got the news on the phone, not in person. Could have been a cell phone, but we're not sure.

"He wasn't shocked anyway," Sinden said. Indeed, Burns has seen this coming for more than a year now. Burns and Sinden were famous for exchanging weekly barbs with each other. However, it was the Bruins' recent 1-4 road trip out West that led to Burns' firing. Throughout his tumultuous three seasons in Beantown, you had to love Burns' offbeat sense of humor.

He is a genuinely likable fellow. The players back him up when he says he was forced into playing a system that wouldn't work. "Mangement wanted to open it up," goalie Byron Dafoe said. "That was all fine and dandy the first few games. It obviously wasn't working after that just because of maybe the inexperience back there." The Bruins were trying to do what Craig Ramsay wants to do here with the Flyers.

Press the offensive attack, take advantage of the officials' zero tolerance on stick infractions, get the defense involved in the rush, and score goals. Except, much like the Flyers, the Bruins weren't playing enough defense to support such an offensive style. And Dafoe conceded that to play run-and-gun you have to have a veteran goalie capable of withstanding all those odd-man rushes (sound familiar, Brian and he was not comfortable with that. Keenan is like Napoleon. He'll distance himself from the troops, and a reign of terror will prevail.

Doug Risebrough, the general manager in Minnesota, said of Keenan last week, "There has never been a question about Mike's ability, but he always seemed to have had relationship problems." If his past is any indication, Keenan will make headlines every week, but the Bruins will win again. And a price will be paid somewhere down the line. "I don't have a lot of patience for average performance," Keenan said when introduced to the folks along Causeway Street. He said he'll challenge his players just as he did in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, St. Louis and Vancouver.

"If you don't ask it, and ask for it, you won't get it." As for Burns, he knew the end I was near. Getting off the team char-; ter last week, the jolly ex-cop began singing a paraphrase of a Peter, Paul and Mary ditty: "Leaving on a jet plane, don't know if I'll be back again." Fallen hero. Less than a week after Colorado's Patrick Roy became the NHL's all-time winningest goalie he broke Terry Sawchuk's record his 44 ci Oct 1 zit Washington the Avalanche net-minder was arrested on suspicion of destruction of property. His wife, Michele, who called police, said an argument over their in-laws NHL Scoring Not including last night's games. NAME CP 6 Marian Hossa, Ottawa 9 4 Zigmund Palffy, los Angeles 11 8 Jeremy Roenick.

Phoenix 10 6 UicRobitaille, Los Angeles 11 6 Jason Allison. Boston 9 5 Jaromir Jagr. Pittsburgh 9 9 Peter Forsberg, Colorado 10 8 Brett Hull. Dallas 11 8 Donald Audette, Atlanta 8 7 A PTS 17 16 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 two years. St.

Louis bound? Blues general manager Larry Pleau was reportedly surprised to hear from ESPN's Al Morganti that Eric Lindros has added St. Louis to his wish list of clubs he would like to play for when his health permits him to return to the NHL this winter. No defense. Jaromir Jagr, who has never been accused of playing defense, ripped into his blue-line corps after the Penguins' 3-2 loss to Ottawa Wednesday. "Our defensive guys cannot handle their guys, their forwards," the team captain said.

"And if you're not getting pucks to the forwards, you can't create offense." Alexei Kovalev, another guy known for the and not the backed Jagr up. "We have to stop looking at the puck, start looking at the faces and who we have to cover in front of the net," Kovalev said. "That's what hap pened on two goals they scored. We lost a guy in front of the net." One of the guilty parties was Kovalev, who lost Mike Fisher on the game-winner. Quotable.

Agent Mark Gandler, who represented Alexei Yashin all through last year's ill-advised contract holdout with the Ottawa Senators: "I fight for every ounce of blood for my clients. They deserve the best I can give them." If that were true, then why wasn't Gan-dler's "best" advice last season this: "Play out your contract because the holdout won't Undominating. Dominik Hasek, who always seems to have slow starts in the net, finally picked up a victory Wednesday, 4-1, over Carolina. He came into the game with an un-Haseklike 3.40 goals-against average and an 0-4-1 record. As of Thursday, the 35-year-old netmind-er had given up 19 goals in six games.

This article contains information from Inquirer news services. Tim Panaccio's e-mail address is tpanacciophillynews.com Leaders P1M SH GW GT 22 33 26 43 15 49 27 34 27 182 24.2 23.1 14.0 33.3 184 296 235 25.9 top-ranked Lr JACKSON LAIZURE Associated Press first win Nebraska since 1991 to make a big play." Milanese made the first one, with a 48-yard reception that set up the first touchdown in the comeback, a slant-in pass to Jason Battung with 4:37 left in the game. Brown couldn't move the ball, and Penn, after a good punt return by freshman Joe Phillips, a former Shawnee High player from Med-ford Lakes, took over at midfield. On first down, Hoffman and receiver Doug O'Neill ate up 49 of those yards on a long pass down the middle that set up a quarterback-sneak touchdown, cutting the score to 38-33. overpowers fits 1 a Fans stormed the field after the Sooners' was The celebration was about what you would expect from a school that had not beaten Nebraska since 1991, and had lost by 69-7 in their Isst mcctin in Students cjtiick ly covered the field.

One goal post went down. Receiver Antwone Savage was carried toward his locker room above the crowd, held up by some students. Oklahoma quarterback Josh Heu-pel, a senior, put himself in the thick of the Heisman Trophy race, completing 20 of 34 passes for 300 yards. Heupel's name is prou-nounced HYPE-uhl, as in, "It's no hype." That is what about a hundred signs said yesterday. Three plays after Woolfolk's catch, Heu-pel audibled at the line and called First downs Rushes-yards Comp-Att-Int Return Yards Punts-Avg.

Fumbles-Lost Penalties-Yards Time of Possession INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing: Brown, Malan 22-66, Campbell 1-1, Buchanan 1-(minus 2), Webber 3-(minus 11). Penn, Ryan 16-88, Verille 4-15, Hoffman 4-6, Keslosky 2-6, Milanese 1 -6. Pasting: Brown, Webber 34-53-1-399, Rowley 0-1-0-0. Penn, Hoffman 38-52-1 -476. Receiving: Brown, Campbell 17-186, Malan 4-55, Gessner 4-30, Malepeai 2-39, Brookman 2-25, Buchanan 1-39, Rackley 1-17, Walther 1-5, Borgonzi 1-3, Rowley 1-0.

Penn, Milanese 9-100, Smith 8-132, O'Neill 7-100, Battung 6-60, Verille 4-58, Zagorskt 2-1 3, Holohan 1 -9, Keslosky 1 -4. Nebraska ception back, got burned for an early touchdown when he followed a receiver's eyes and left the outside open. At that point, seven minutes in, Nebraska had gained more than 30 yards on three separate plays. The Cornhuskers never hit a play like that again. "It doesn't stop here," said Oklahoma linebacker Rocky Calmus.

"That's what people have to realize." Mike Jensen's e-mail address is mjensenphillynews.com Oklahoma 31, Nebraska 14 Nebraska Oklahoma 14 0 0 24 0-14 0-31 First quarter Neb-Davison 39 pass from Crouch (Brown kick) ,12:02. Neb-Crouch 37 run (Brown kick), 8:1 1. Second quarter Okla-Griffin 1 run (Duncan kick), 14:13. Okla-Fagan34 pass from Heupel (Duncan kick), 10:52. i Okla-FG Duncan 19, 6:06.

Okla-Norman 8 run (Duncan kick), 2:41 Okla-Strait 32 interception return (Duncan kick), 10:23. 75,989. Neb Okla Firstdowns 16 20 Rushes-yards 43-195 35-118 Passing 133 300 Comp-Att-Int 12-27-1 20-34-1 Return Yards 2 40 Punts-Avg. 543 Fumbles-Lost o-o 0-0 Penalties-Yards 4-50 4-21 Time of Possession 31:05 28 55 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing: Nebraska, Crouch 24-103. Miller 4-50, Alexander 8-25, Buckhalter 5-15, Newcombe 2-2.

Oklahoma, Griffin 21-52, Heupel 8-46, Savage 1-13. Norman 1-8, Mackey 1 -1 Littrell 1-1, Fagan 1-(minus2), team 1-(minus 1). Passing: Nebraska, Crouch 12-27-1-133. Oklahoma, Heupel 20-34-1-300. Receiving: Nebraska, Newcombe 5-26, Davison 4-79, Wistrom 2-23, Gibson 1-5.

Oklahoma, Fagan 6-95, Woolfolk 5-66, Savage 3-58, Mackey 2-16, Griffin 2-(minus 2), Norman 1-45, Littrell 1-16, Works 0-6. for split end Curtis Fagan to run a post play. Heupel got hit, but threw a 34-yard strike. Fagan slowed his stride for a second, then caught the ball at the 5-yard line and ran into Heupel does not look especially pretty throwing the ball, but Stoops said, "There's a feel to it. Hey, the kid's blessed.

You can discredit it all you want but there's a touch there." The real stars of the game were Oklahoma's defenders. Stoops and his brother, Mike, who is OU's defensive coordinator, said there were no major adjustments after Nebraska quickly scored twice. It was just a matter of not overpursu-ing, and getting used to the speed of the play. Strait, who ran the inter-.