Football to face Ivy's worst, best in consecutive weekend games

In the span of one week, the football team plays the Ivy League's best and worst teams in two games that may decide if this season is a success or a failure.

Tomorrow, struggling Cornell (0-5 overall, 0-3 Ivy League) arrives at Princeton (1-4, 1-2) for a 1 p.m. showdown. The Tigers also make a short trip to Philadelphia next Saturday for a jaunt with No. 22 Penn (5-0, 3-0).

The Tigers are coming off two tough losses on the road to Brown and Harvard, with both games being decided in the fourth quarter. In fact, senior Taylor Northrop, one of the nation's best kickers, missed a 49-yard field goal as time expired to send Princeton to a 28-26 loss to Harvard.

The Tigers must regroup to take on the Big Red in a game that might reveal the direction of the rest of the season. If Princeton tops Cornell, it will have momentum heading into two winnable games — Yale at home Nov. 10 and at Dartmouth the following week — to end the season with a winning record in the conference. If the Tigers, however, lose to the Big Red, their confidence may be shot and a one-win season would not be out of the question.

Cornell's major strength is at the most crucial position on the field — quarterback. Ricky Rahne has thrown for 589 yards in his two previous games against the Tigers, and he will need another big day for the Big Red to put points on the scoreboard. Rahne is the fourth most prolific passer in Ivy history and needs 406 yards to become third on the list.

"I think Ricky Rahne's a tremendous quarterback," Cornell head coach Tim Pendergast said. "He's a tremendous person, a tremendous student of the game, a leader. He makes outstanding decisions."

Although Rahne has continued his journey to the league's record book, his team has struggled against conference opponents this season while playing well against the Patriot League.

"We need to eliminate as many of those costly mistakes we've had over the last few weeks as we can, particularly turnovers," Pendergast said. "To me, those are concentration errors."

The Big Red has been outscored 115-40 in its three Ivy matchups, however, including a 49-21 loss to Brown last week. The Tigers have done just the opposite, struggling against non-conference teams and playing Ivy opponents tough.

The Big Red lost to Colgate on the road, 35-32. The Red Raiders whipped Princeton, 35-10. Cornell almost upset Lehigh, eventually falling 38-35, while the Tigers were beaten 34-10.

Last year's Princeton-Cornell game was one of the those games. The Tigers came back from a 25-18 deficit to score a touchdown with 2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Northrop, who is perfect on extra points this season, slipped as he attempted the PAT and missed it, allowing Cornell to escape with a 25-24 victory.

The Tigers aren't dwelling on last year's heartbreaking loss, preferring instead to look at the positives in last week's Harvard game.

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"We're excited about how we played — the intensity and the physicalness — last week," head coach Roger Hughes said. "We're excited to be back home and have a chance to redeem ourselves and elevate our level of play."

"Our offensive line took a step forward last week," offensive coordinator Dave Rackovan said. "[Junior wide receiver] Chisom Opara came back last week and helped us out, but he isn't back to full strength yet."

Princeton will need Opara back to 100 percent and to take a leap forward if it is to have a chance against Penn next week. The undefeated Quakers are coming off a dominating 21-3 win over Yale, in which they held the Elis to negative 19 yards rushing.

Penn's defense is fierce, ranked fourth in Division I-AA, but its offense often gets more press. Quarterback Gavin Hoffman, who won the Bushnell Cup last season as the Ivy League's most valuable player, leads an explosive offense. Tailback Kris Ryan, whose streak of five straight 100-yard games on the ground was halted last week, still leads the league in rushing.

The Tigers will have their hands full on both sides of the ball against the Quakers. Cornell may pose less of a challenge, but if Princeton is to make this season a solid campaign, it needs two strong showings in the next week.