Penn Wins Ivy South

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Coming off their first loss of the season to the Princeton Tigers, the University of Pennsylvania Quakers were looking to cap their fall 15’s season with a victory at home at Penn Park. Nevertheless, it was Cornell’s Big Red that came out firing from kickoff pinning Penn within their own five-meter line.

Despite their strong start, the Big Red were not able to capitalize on their possession in the Quakers half due in large part to a tough Quakers defense. A raucous crowd filled with alumni back, on campus for Penn’s Homecoming, no doubt aided the home team in their early defensive struggle.

After weathering the early storm, Penn was able to capitalize on a Cornell turnover ball and put in a try with Arthur Rempel touching it down. With the scoring open, Penn was emboldened and quickly added another try off a stolen Cornell scrum. The quick transfer from offense to defense was lead by Daleroy Sibanda who produced a 40-meter linebreak, which Doug Swift, running swiftly in support, capitalized on for the score. The next try also came off a scrum, but this time Penn was in possession. With the ball in hand and a broken defense, the result of a linebreak by a rampaging Arthur Rempel, in front of him, Bill Barron was able to put down Penn’s third try of the day

Cornell then answered with a penalty kick for its first points of the day making it 17-3. However, Penn quickly answered with another try from Barron off the ensuing kickoff. With their fourth try of the day, the Quakers seemed to take their foot off the pedal slightly and the Big Red capitalized. A bit of poor passing by the Quakers in their own half, resulted in a costly turnover that Cornell easily worked into the try zone. Looking to redeem themselves for their sloppy play, Penn spent the next several minutes in Cornell’s half, which eventually resulted in a Cornell turnover and a Nabil Darwich try. With the conversion, the score line was 31-10 and the half ended

The second half opened with the teams playing at a stalemate with plenty of good tackles and handling errors. The choppy play was eventually broken by another Penn try off of the set piece, with Bill Barron running in his third try of the day. With the score 38-10, the Quakers seemed pacified by their large lead and allowed Big Red to take control of the game. Now in charge of the tempo and in control of the momentum, Cornell put in two successive tries that came off of hard work in the forwards and good continuity among the backs. While the Quakers made some nice tackles, their defensive work cracked under the pressure of their sloppy lines and unnecessary penalties. Reawakened by Cornell’s two tries, Penn put one more try in, coming at the hands of Christian “Fonz” Collins, to seal the game and the Ivy South title. The game end soon after with a score of 45-22.

Scoring Summary

Penn try Arthur Rempel, 5-0
Penn try Doug Swift, 10-0
Penn conversion Doug Swift, 12-0
Penn try Bill Baron, 17-0
Cornell penalty kick Sorenson, 17-3
Penn try Bill Baron, 22-3
Penn conversion Doug Swift, 24-3
Cornell try Sorenson, 24-8
Cornell conversion, 24-10
Penn try Nabil Darwich, 29-10
Penn conversion Doug Swift, 31-10
Halftime Penn 31 - Cornell 10

Penn try Bill Baron, 36-10
Penn conversion Doug Swift, 38-10
Cornell try Solomon, 38-15
Cornell conversion, 38-17
Cornell try Chuck Motzer, 38-22
Penn try "Fonz" Collins, 43-22
Penn conversion Doug Swift, 45-22
Final Penn 45 - Cornell 22