allgame seldom comments on the lion football program, so lamentable has been its performance. the current eleven, however, deserves commendation. twenty years ago, my sons and i sat in the top tier of franklin field shrieking our joy at columbia’s overtime victory in penn’s cavernous stadium. defensive star marcellus wiley raised his helmet, at our shouts we thought, in triumphant exhaustion as the lions moved to 6 – 0 on the season and continued the successful journey of what is generally considered one of the three finest gridiron crews in the light blue’s woeful history. this saturday past, some 13,000 fans had the chance to witness their own bit of amazing football as the light blue humbled the quakers for the first time since that beautiful pennsylvania october afternoon in 1996. the 34 – 31 overtime win at wien stadium marks this year’s lion squad as a legitimate contender for a league championship. down early on homecoming day, the lion offense rallied from a 14 point deficit to take a fourth quarter lead. the philadelphians managed to tie it up with two minutes to play and tallied a field goal on their first overtime possession to snag a 31 – 28 lead. columbia’s increasingly unshakeable quarterback, anders hill, one of 31 seniors remaining on the squad from pete mangurian’s last woeful team, hit josh wainwright on third and long with a 24 yard td toss to win it, 34 – 31.
possessed of both an offense and a defense as well as a solid placekicker and punter, al bagnoli has put together a complete team. messr hill and his dangerous sophomore receivers, josh wainwright and ronald smith ii, (who are marvelously complemented by freshman emerson kabus) place almost constant pressure on defensive secondaries. the running game could be better but has provided important contributions to date via the legs of sophomore tom tanner and senior chris schoer who contribute 47 and 38 yards per game respectively. first year qb josh bean has been extremely effective inside the five yard line where he has run for five tds on fifteen carries. oren millstein, dependable as he was last season, has been a perfect 20 – 20 on pats and has drilled three field goals for his 29 points to date. the team has been clutch when trying to extend drives, converting 51% of their third down attempts and a heady 67% of their fourth down efforts. should bagnoli’s boys continue to minimize their mistakes, they seem fit to compete with the five ivies remaining on their schedule. that most important portion of the campaign begins next weekend in new hampshire where the lions take on the rubes of dartmouth. the big green currently shares the league lead with columbia. both teams have notched two close, hard fought wins over league opponents (the green edged yale 28 – 27 at home after downing penn 16 – 13 in philadelphia). the two teams mirror each statistically as well as in their 5 – 0 records. columbia averages 400 yards per game of offense while dartmouth boasts a 390 ypg mark. the big green’s numbers are almost evenly split between their air and ground attacks, while columbia favors the pass. the closeness of the teams’ numbers should make the host hanoverians somewhere between a one and a half and a three point favorite, based on homefield advantage alone. such a line would accurately reflect columbia’s 9 – 7 win over dartmouth last year in new york.
dartmouth is led by a senior trio – quarterback jack heneghan, running back ryder stone and wide receiver emory thompson. heneghan’s completion percentage and qb rating mirror anders hill’s, though he has thrown the ball less often. messr stone with 330 yards gained on the ground has carried the ball with greater frequency and considerably more success than any of the lion rushers. he has also grabbed ___ receptions for 117 yards. back up quarterback jared gerbino, another senior, has rushed for an additional 131 yards. junior wide receivers drew hunnicutt (203 yards) and dylan melior (160 yards) head up the pass catching corps statistically, but each has posted the bulk of their stats in a single game – hunnicutt v. sacred heart and melior v. yale. columbia’s secondary will probably have to devote more attention to messr thompson, qb heneghan’s classmate, who has grabbed passes in every game so far. though the lions can rightly congratulate themselves on three come from behind wins so far, dartmouth’s crew has truly been “heart attack kids.” having demolished the stetson hatters in their opener, the hanoverians have won four straight by a total of eight points. columbia will be lining up against another eleven that has yet to blink this season when games have hung in the balance. the team that scores last is likely to win.
these lions are growing weekly in confidence and a bettor will be wise to take points should the lions be underdogs on the 21st. whatever the outcome in hanover, the ivy league football title chase promises to be an especially close run, crowded affair this season. the princeton squad which fell to columbia back on october 7 has piled on points against everyone else they have played and could very well traverse the rest of the conference campaign without a loss. harvard fell inexplicably to cornell but might also go unbeaten the rest of the way. five of the ancient eight remain capable of posting 7 – 1 or 6 – 2 seasons. and at the moment, one of them might go 8 – 0. which team might finish unblemished will be determined this weekend. go lions! destroy dartmouth!!