Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 76

E10 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2004 THE HARTFORD COURANT STATE COLLEGE FOOTBALL Ivy League Standings Breakthrough Win For Bantams Conf AH Thrilling 5-Minute Ride By WOODY ANDERSON COURANT STAFF WRITER PF PA Harvard 1 0 3 0 108 57 Princeton 1 0 3 0 86 61 Cornell 1 0 1 2 39 43 Perm 1 0 2 1 109 34 Brown 0 1 2 1 89 55 Yale 0 1 2 1 62 64 Dartmouth 0 1 0 3 39 97 Columbia 0 1 0 3 53 86 WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. After blowing a ripe scoring chance at the end of the first half, Trinity opened the third quarter with a four-point lead. Then, the Bantams made their own scoring chance. Trinity pinned Williams deep on the first possession, then defen There was confusion as to who should be on the field for the punt Blair had jogged off and was pushed back on. His block and Quinn's return boosted the Bantams' lead to 17-6 only 91 seconds into the second half.

"I'm pleased with the defense because Williams is a big-play offense and we didn't give them any big plays," Trinity coach Chuck Priore said. Priore used three quarterbacks, including Virginia transfer Bill Schweitzer for the first time. Schweitzer was injured in preseason and wears a brace on his left knee. He was icing it after the game. He isn't 100 percent, but his passing (5-for-9, 66 yards) gives the Bantams a different look.

It began raining in the fourth quarter and with 10:45 remaining, lightning flashed and officials ordered both teams off the field for 30 minutes. Priore said his team needed the rest. "We made a couple of adjustments," he said. the last team to beat Trinity, 30-13 in 2002. Senior tailback Drew Finkeldey had a career-high 203 yards on 33 carries, including an 8-yard run in the second quarter that gave the Bantams a 7-6 lead.

In the fourth quarterhecaughtal5-yardtouchdownpass from Josh Pitcher to make it 24-12. Several times Finkeldey ran around Wil-liamsends. "Williams runs a lot of stunts so we tried to stretch them out to open up the inside," Finkeldey said. "It worked pretty welL" The Bantams outrushed Williams, 274-173. Gennaro Leo added 51 yards on 10 carries.

"Both of their tailbacks are excellent," Williams coach Mike Whalen said. "The come at you with a 1-2 punch like that and most of the NESCAC doesn't have one like that" Trinity's defense was relentless, with nine tackles for loss and eight pass breakups. But the key play almost didn't happen. sive end Michael Blair cut inside and blocked Brendan Fulmer's punt TRINITY 30 WILLIAMS 12 The ball went straight up, Kevin Quinn grabbed it out of the air and ran 7 yards for the momentum-turning touchdown. It was the key play in a convincing 30-12 victory Saturday at Weston Field.

The victory not only stamped the Bantams (2-0) as the team to beat in the New England Small College Athletic Conference, but extended their winning streak to 16 games, longest inDivisionm. Williams is Mw Wh: Saturday Yale 31, Colgate 28 Princeton 27, Columbia 26 (OT): In New York, Derek Javarone's extra point lifted Princeton to its first 3-0 start since 1995. Princeton converted the kick after Jon Veach scored his second TD on a 2-yard run. Columbia's Ra-shad Biggers opened the scoring in OT, but Princeton defensive back Jay McCareins blocked the PAT attempt by Nick Rudd. Perm 35, Dartmouth Pat McDermott threw three TD passes to Dan Castles, and Sam Matthews ran for 137 yards as Penn handed visiting Dartmouth its first shutout since 1982, also against Penn.

Harvard 38, Lafayette 23: Clifton Dawson rushed for 172 yards and three TDs to lead Harvard past Lafayette (3-2) in Easton, Pa. Brown 20, Rhode Island 13: Nick Hartigan ran for 161 yards and two TDs, lifting Brown past Rhode Island (2-2) in Kingston, R.I. Towson 21, Cornell Hi Andrew Goldbeck threw for a career-high 285 yards and two TDs as Towson (2-2) defeated Cornell in Tow-son, Md the program's 200th victory. Oct. 9 Yale at Dartmouth, 12:30 p.m.

Cornell at Harvard, 12:30 p.m. Brown at Fordham, 1 p.m. Princeton at Colgate, 1 p.m. Penn at Bucknell, 1 p.m. Lafayette at Columbia, 1:30 p.m.

One play later, Matt Handlon's interception of Chris Brown at the Colgate 46-yard line gave the Bulldogs possession again. Chandler Henley (six receptions, 80 yards) and Robert Carr (24 carries, 169 yards) then helped.each other with key plays on Yale's tying drive. Henley made the block that sprung Carr for a 31-yard run to the Colgate 13. One play later, Carr had the key block that gave Cowan time to find Henley with a 12-yard scoring pass with 2:21 left "Alvin said, 'If we run a sprintout you've got to take the guy out' Carr said. "I was more proud of that than any one of the runs." Henley leapt and split two defenders for the catch that made it 28-27 before Sullivan's extra point "I must have got some extra spring somewhere," Henley said.

"It's almost like we had been trying too hard. We worked at playing loose. Pitch and catch is what we do." Yale's defense then held Colgate to give Cowan's offense a chance for the 35-yard, game-winning drive in the fi-'nal 75 seconds. "Sully's a kicker, so he gets his fair share of ribbing," said Cowan, who bruised his ribs on Yale's first series but still threw TD passes to four different receivers. "We never lost confidence in him.

There is no one I'd rather have on the field at the end. back of his shorts," Roy said. "I managed to get my arm under his and get him to the surface. I was exhausted. I thought I might go down with him." Others helped drag Carr to shore.

Nunnally gave him mouth-to-mouth and when Carr came to, his first reaction was to give him a punch. He settled for a handshake. "He didn't remember a lot of it so we thought maybe there was brain damage," Robert Sr. said. Devastated initially, Robert and Cynthia arrived the next day at Dan-bury Hospital, the Fourth of July.

Rob looked good. He was eating. He seemed fine. It didn't last long. A fever spiked to 105.

His urine turned purple. He coughed up blood. He had developed pneumonia. "The doctor warned us he might get worse before he got better, but we didn't expect it to be nearly that bad," Robert said. "They had him on an ice blanket It was scary." Two days later, with antibiotics, he began to improve.

Through the Dan-bury News-Times, the Carrs got to meet Roy and they returned to Candlewood Lake, even taking photos. Rob returned home to Texas for a week. "His mom didn't want him to go back," Robert said. "He couldn't do anything. He was weak, short of breath.

But his improvement from there was amazing." Carr ran for 172 yards at Dayton. His return had been remarkable enough that his 41 yards on 15 carries in the loss at Cornell left him with something to prove in his senior home opener. Siedlecki challenged him in front of his teammates to run for as many yards as Walter Payton award winner Jamaal Branch. BOB MACDONNELLTHE HARTFORD COURANT SAM FLETCHER catches his second of two touchdowns, this one with 51 seconds left, as Wesleyan comes back from a 21-point deficit. Wesleyan Takes To The Air By TOMMY HINE COURANT STAFF WRITER NEW HAVEN Yale's defense was exhausted and its offense faced a late two-touchdown deficit Then, suddenly, the Bulldogs came alive.

After struggling through two games and much of the third, Yale finally found some consistency Saturday. Scoring 17 points in the final five minutes, Yale defeated Colgate 31-28 before 17,089 at YALE 31 Yale Bowl in what COLGATE 28 the Bulldogs hope will be the spring board to the season they expected. "Without question, that's one of the best team wins we've ever had," Yale coach Jack Siedlecki said. "We needed to get our confidence. If we don't have it now, we never will." Andrew Sullivan's 37-yard field goal, the longest of his career, was the difference with 7 seconds left "If I didn't put it through, the way our offense was playing, I knew we'd win it in overtime," said Sullivan, a senior who kicks barefoot Knocked to the ground, he didn't see the ball clear the crossbar.

"It was hugging the right post" said Sullivan, who looked up to see the signal from the officials. "Then I saw one guy nod to the other dude." Yale (2-1) and Colgate (2-2), the 11th-ranked team in Division I-AA, each had 364 yards in total offense. "Our skill guys had to match up and step up with their skill guys," Siedlecki said after Yale erased a 14-7 halftime deficit with a quick third-quarter touchdown, Alex Faherty's 14-yard reception from Alvin Cowan (19 of 31, 211 yards, four touchdowns). "Colgate then controlled the ball for 15 of 18 minutes, and for us to come back the way we did shows a lot of character." It didn't seem likely, not after Ja-' maal Branch (31 carries, 130 yards) scored on a 5-yard run to put Colgate ahead 28-14 with 9:12 left. Ted Stem's 7-yard reception, his first career touchdown, capped a nine-play, 67-yard drive and pulled Yale to 28-21 with 4:47 left.

Jacobs CONTINUED FROM PAGE El Yale's 132-year history. "Every time I step on the field it's a blessing," Carr said. "It's a miracle and I thank God for it every day. My parents are so happy just to see my playing ball." Happy is Carr's word. Joy is his mom's.

Living in Baytown, Texas, a half-hour outside Houston, Cynthia Carr hadn't made many Yale games in previous seasons. Her husband was the one who traveled. The trip for the 2004 season opener at Dayton, however, was one she would not miss. "I told my husband I had to come and see for myself the blessing the Lord had performed," Cynthia said. "That my son was really, really OK.

You should have seen me the morn-ingof that game, I was so emotional It was an awesome feeling to see him on the field. It could have been different if God hadn't intervened. God, Cynthia said, and "our redhead." The redheaded stranger was Brandon Roy, 19, of Easton. He was on vacation in California Saturday and will return to Porter and Chester Institute this week. Studying automotive technology, he wants to own a speed shop some day.

"I like anything," Roy said, "that goes fast" He must like Carr, because he's really fast At 5-feet-7, 190 pounds, Carr is built more like Muggsy Bogues than Michael Phelps, but he always had considered himself a good swimmer. What happened July 3 at Candlewood Lake could happen to anyone. Carr got water up his nose, he swallowed it began to choke and panicked. He dropped 15 feet to the bottom of the lake. Screams of help from Yale teammates Don Smith, James Beck and others went out Carr lay at the bottom motionless for a minute, two minutes, nearly four.

Nobody could see him. Nobody could get to him, not Carr's friends, not Roy's friends. "The water there is pitch black, it's so dirty, even if you had goggles it wouldn't have done any good," Roy said. "I've always practiced holding my breath, This was his moment "a life-defining moment," Roy called it One dive. Nothing.

Second dive. Nothing. Folks were starting to give up, Carr's body had gone limp and he had faded into unconsciousness. "Finally, on the third dive I felt the Canter also hit Curry for the two-point conversion. The no-huddle offense, which so baffled as Hamilton faced the contradictory task of running the hurry-up slowly.

Wesleyan stopped the Continentals on three plays and on fourth-and-6 from the 38, Hamilton coach Pete Alvanos decided to gamble. He called for a fake punt but Wesleyan stuffed it and took over at the Hamil-ton39. "We ran that play all week in practice and it hit like the Red Sea," Alvanos said. "I figured they were going to pin their ears back and come for the block and I figured we should try to steal their momentum. If I had to call it again I probably would." Canter hit Curry four plays later on a 13-yard TD pass with 2:59 left He went back to Curry to tie the score on the two-point conversion.

Again, the Wesleyan defense stopped Hamilton on three plays and that set up the final 66-yard drive that culminated with Canter hitting Fletcher on a fade pattern just inside the right pylon. "It didn't look good for a while," Hauser said. "I credit our kids for not giving up. We were down three touchdowns twice and came back to win it" By MATT EAGAN COURANT STAFF WRITER MIDDLETOWN Zach Canter came to Wesleyan looking for playing rime and an offensive scheme that suited his passer's heart After Saturday, there is no doubt he has found both. The sophomore quarterback, who trans- ferred from Colgate, WESLEYAN 41 crammed a season's HAMILTON 35 worth of passing into one afternoon make that one quarter as Wesleyan came from behind to defeat Hamilton 41-35 at Corwin Stadium.

Canter set school and NESCAC records for passing attempts (77) and passing yards (437) as he drove the Cardinals to three touchdowns in the final six minutes, including a 23-yard strike to Sam Fletcher with 51 seconds left "That's just a ton of passes," Canter said. "In the second half we had to go with what worked and that was what was working." The game was not supposed to be a test for Wesleyan (2-0), but Hamilton (0-2) controlled the game for three quarters behind the running and passing of Brandon Holt-slag and an aggressive defense that dared '4, Vv Canter Sets Records: 77 Passes, 437 Yards Wesleyan to win the game in the air. "Last week they played loose against Amherst" Wesleyan coach Frank Hauser said. "This week they played man coverage every down and blitzed their linebackers. You can't run against that" Wesleyan couldn't.

The Cardinals were held to minus 19 yards rushing (minus 31 in the first half) as Hamilton built leads of 21-0 and 28-7. Things didn't improve much in the third quarter as Canter missed on 14 of his first 15 pass attempts. Meanwhile, the Cardinals defense was struggling to contain Holtslag and the Continentals' no-huddle, shotgun offense. Holt-slag rushed for 185 yards and two TDs and threw for 234 yards and three TDs. His final TD pass was a 10-yard lob to Joe Rinaldo with 8:49 left to give Hamilton a 35-19 lead.

But Canter was just getting warmed up. He led Wesleyan on a 66-yard drive, connecting with Blake Curry for a 22-yard touchdown pass with 5:04 left. Curry came off the bench in the second half to catch seven passes for 113 yards. seven minutes. Tucker returned his 40 yards for the clinching touchdown with 3:36 remaining.

"We just had to settle down and do what we were capable of as a defense," Tucker said. "Once we settled down, everything fell into place." Marist controlled the ball nearly 29 of the first 46 minutes, as Luft (20-for-39, 248 yards) continually found open receivers. But on third-and-3 from Central's 10 with just under 14 minutes remaining, Tucker and Devon Douglass broke through for a sack, forcing Marist to kick a field goal giving the Red Foxes a 13-7 lead. "Tucker made plays today," Central coach Tom Masclla said. "He's one of our best players on defense and he has to make plays and he certainly did that tonight His plays seemed to turn the game around." Then Smith swung the momentum completely in Central's favor.

He took a reverse at his 35, picked up a textbook block from quarterback Scott Dolch to break free and skirted the left sideline for a 65-yard touchdown and a 14 13 lead with 13:06 left. "Dolch threw a great block, and right after that It was make a couple of guys miss and get In the end zone," Smith said. "Quarterbacks aren't supposed to make a block like that, but he did." Marist got the ball back with 7:11 left, but Monge Intercepted Luft at midfidd on third down. Dolch who completed 10 of 18 passes for 123 yards and moved within 212 of Defense Ignites Another Central Rally By JEFF GOLDBERG COURANT STAFF WRITER NEW BRITAIN For the second straight week, Central Connecticut looked to be in trouble in the fourth quarter Saturday. Trailing by three and with Marist on the Blue Devils' 10, Central needed a play.

They got a bunch of them. Linebacker Coree Tucker's sack forced Marist to settle for a field goal Then Andre Smith took a reverse 65 yards for a touchdown on Central's next play from scrimmage. Two interceptions and two touchdowns later, Central had a 28-13 victory before a homecoming crowd of 2,679 at Arute Field. Central is 4-1 for the first time since 1973. Central, which won three games last season, has scored at least 28 points in three straight games for the first time since 1974, "We knew we were going to pull this one out," Smith said.

"There was no way we were going to lose this one, not after last week. We knew we were better than this team. We just had to go out and prove it" Last week, it was the offense that ted Central from 14 down in the fourth against Wagner to an overtime victory. Against Marist (1-3), it was the defense. Tucker had two th irdown sacks early in the quarter, when Central forced three of the Red Foxes' five turnovers.

Then Nigel Monge and Tucker intercepted quarterback James Luft in the final Central's all-time passing record of 5,145 hit Steven Bergeski with a 36-yard pass. Tom Hunter finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run with 3:52 left for a 21-13 lead. On Marist's next play, Tucker picked offa deflected pass and ran 40 yards for the clinching score. "I think they feel if the game is even in the fourth quarter, they 're going to make something happen," MaseUa said. They're starting to build a lot of confidence In themselves." Sacred Heart 30, Wagner 24 (2 OT): Dan Ammell threw a 24-yard scoring pass to Alvin Franklin in the second overtime to lift Sacred Heart (2-3) past Wagner (3-2) in a Northeast Conference game in Fairfield.

Sacred Heart junior tailback Ed Pricolo rushed for 238 yards, a career high, and two touchdowns on 31 carries. The Hearts' Lars Anderson kicked a 27-yard field goal with 37 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. RPI 28, Coast Guard 17: Jay Bernardo ran for 220 yards and three touchdowns on 41 carries to lead RPI (22) past Coast Guard (1-3) In Troy, N.Y. Coast Guard quarterback Cory Anderson threw for 274 yards and two touchdowns. Western Connecticut 45, Plymouth Stat Joe Dimeglio threw for four touchdowns and ran for one as Western (41) defeated Plymouth State (0-5) In Plymouth, Nil.

Dimeylio completed 18 of 20 passes for 281 yards. Stuff rtpurts included Carr had 169 yards. Branch finished withl30. "It was a great day," Cynthia said. Her son is an interesting visual study.

Across his chest is tattooed the words, "Second chance." Around his wrist is a bright yellow band. It's in support of the cancer research of Lance Armstrong, another Texan who knows a thing or two about miracles. Carr has invited Nunnally to come to the Columbia game. He's still trying to set something up with Roy. And Cynthia? She has become almost as much a regular at Yale games as her husband.

"I have a daughter Kristin who is a law student at SMU, another grown daughter who's a nurse and there's Rolwrt all the way up here in Connecticut," Cynthia said. "I like to tell my husband, 'I can't be everywhere so it's good to know God can." God and the redheaded stranger..