Your Saturday roundup . . .
Yale 34, Brown 22
John Pitsenberger carried 27 times for a career-high 173 yards and two touchdowns as Yale (6-2, 4-1 Ivy League) won its fourth consecutive game in front of 3,009 in Providence. Pitsenberger got his day started with a 62-yard touchdown run on Yale’s first snap of the game. Dante Reno added two touchdown passes to Nico Brown for the Bulldogs, who piled up 463 yards of total offense.
Brown quarterback James Murphy threw for 366 yards but was intercepted twice and sacked seven times for a loss of 43 yards. The Bears are now 3-5 overall and 0-5 in the Ivy.
Cornell 39, Penn 17
After an 0-4 start the Big Red has climbed back to the .500 mark behind the play of quarterback Garrett Bass-Sulpizio, who completed 24-of-31 throws for 265 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score. Gannon Carothers had back-to-back touchdown runs of 22 yards and one yard in the third quarter and TJ Hamilton had five catches for 123 yards for Cornell, now 4-4 overall and 3-2 in the Ivy.
Aided by a 75-yard run, Donte West carried 15 times for 125 yards to pace Penn, now 5-3 overall and 3-2 in Ivy play. Quarterback Liam O’Brien was 15-of-22 for Penn, but for just 112 yards. A crowd Franklin Field crowd of 10,914 saw Cornell post its first road win in more than a year.
New Hampshire 34, Monmouth 13
Monmouth came into the game ranked sixth nationally in one poll and seventh in the other only to see visiting UNH force recover three fumbles, sack the quarterback five times and hold the Hawks 29 points below their season scoring average in a convincing win before 3,127 in New Jersey.
Monmouth used a touchdown with eight seconds left in the second quarter to tie the game at 13-13, but the second half was all New Hampshire, which outscored the home team 21-0 over the final two quarters. Matt Vezza threw for 173 yards and two touchdowns to lead UNH, which had a 197-71 advantage in rushing yardage. New Hampshire is now 6-4 overall and 4-2 in the CAA while Monmouth falls to 8-2 and 5-1 in the conference.
Central Connecticut 40, Stonehill 10
The Blue Devils jumped out to a 17-0 first-quarter lead and were never challenged while improving to 7-3 overall and 5-0 in the Northeast Conference. Stonehill fell to 3-7 and 2-3.
Elijah Howard had a 93-yard touchdown run among his 17 carries for 178 yards to pace Central Connecticut, which got 261 yards and two touchdowns through the air from Brady Olson. The Blue Devils had a 533-220 advantage in total yards and sacked the Stonehill quarterback five times. Central Connecticut needs to win just one of its last two games to clinch the league title and an automatic bid to the FCS payoffs. Attendance at the game in New Britain was listed as . . . zero.
Bucknell 37, Fordham 19
After a pair of Fordham touchdowns cut into a 17-0 lead, the Bison reeled off 20 consecutive points to put the game away. Bucknell improved to 5-5 overall and 2-3 in the Patriot League while Fordham dropped to 1-9 and 1-5 with its fifth consecutive loss.
The Rams' Gunnar Smith was 14-for-30 for 170 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 86 yards before five sacks dropped that total to 56 yards. Fordham linebacker James Conway had nine tackles and now leads just two more in his final two games to break the all-time NCAA Division I career record of 577. Bucknell got an efficient 17-of-22 for 166 yards and three touchdowns from quarterback Chris Dietrich. Attendance at Moglia Stadium was listed as 2,235.
And in case you missed if from Friday night:
Harvard 31, Columbia 14
Leading just 7-0 after the first quarter, the Crimson scored three touchdowns in the second quarter, and a field goal in the third to move in front 31-0 before the Lions closed out the scoring with a pair of fourth-quarter TDs. Jaden Craig threw for 213 yards and two touchdowns, and Xaviah Bascon ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns for Harvard, now 8-0 and 5-0 in the Ivy League. Chase Godwin had two TD throws for Columbia, now 1-7, 0-5. The nationally televised (unless you have YouTube TV) game drew 3,644 to to the northern tip of Manhattan.
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Today's what could have been trivia . . .
The quarterback who might have clinched the Heisman Trophy yesterday by engineering 10-play, 80-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes to preserve No. 2 Indiana's undefeated season and break Penn State hearts, originally committed to . . . wait for it . . . Yale.
That's right. Fernando Mendoza, who grad transferred from Cal to Indiana this year and has the Hoosiers bidding for a national championship, almost ended up at Yale. His other offers? Penn, Lehigh, Bryant, FIU and Cal. (LINK)
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EXTRA POINT
Woke this morning to a reminder that winter is coming:
