Dartmouth, Columbia Rule Gridiron

Dartmouth and Columbia are the teams to beat this year in the Ivies, and they proved that once again in last weekend's football action.

The Big Green of Dartmouth (3-0, 1-0 Ivy) ran over Fordham 20-7 on Saturday, notching its 10th straight regular season victory.

Dartmouth's "Gang Green" defense held the Rams to only five rushing yards for the entire game, allowing the Dartmouth offense to gain an insurmountable lead at home.

Lloyd Lee earned Ivy League defensive player of the week honors for the second straight week on Saturday, picking off two Fordham passes. Dartmouth also outgained Fordham 543 to 251 in total yardage.

Columbia (3-0, 1-0) enjoyed similar success on the road against Holy Cross. The Lions' offense simply would not be denied, rushing for five touchdowns against the Crusaders.

Jason Bivens headlined the offensive attack for Columbia. Bivens carried 29 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns, earning co-Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Penn (2-1, 0-1) notched a big victory Saturday against Bucknell in dramatic fashion.

The Quakers needed a second overtime period to take down the Bison in a 30-21 showdown at Bucknell.

The story in the game was special teams. After going ahead 24-21 on a Jeremiah Greathouse field goal, Penn's Roger Beckwith, who was not even slated to start the game, blocked a Bison field goal attempt that would have sent the game into a third overtime.

Beckwith's block, his fourth in three games, was then returned for a Penn touchdown, clinching the Quakers' 30-21 win.

In more amusing action, Yale (1-2, 1-0) fell to host Army 39-13 Saturday in a no-brainer for the Cadets. Army ran more plays on offense (87) than Yale had yards (86).

Enough said.

Princeton lost at home to Lehigh on Saturday, 20-14. The Tigers (1-2, 0-1) had an opportunity to win the game in the final minutes, but could not get down the field for the score.

Lehigh did it both on the ground and in the air, as its balanced attack kept Princeton at bay for most of the second half.

Brown is certainly not a happy place right now. The Bears fell to 0-3 (0-1) this weekend as the Colgate Raiders handed them a 44-27 loss.

The Bears are off to their worst start since 1992, a dreadful year that did not see a Brown football victory.

The Big Red of Cornell out-gained the Buffalo Bulls 550 to 459 in total yardage, but in the end the difference was turnovers as Buffalo pulled out a 41-24 victory at home.

Cornell (1-2, 1-0) lost the ball twice to Buffalo and the Bulls promptly converted both turnovers into TD's en route to their fourth straight win.

And last but not least--Harvard fell to Lafayette at home 17-7 on Saturday.

Despite edging Lafayette in total yards, rushing yards, time of possession and first downs, the Crimson (1-2, 0-1) could not overcome key penalties and mental mistakes, suffering its second loss of the season.

The losses by both Cornell and Harvard set the stage for this weekend's matchup between the Crimson defense and the Big Red offense.

Coming into Saturday's contest, the Crimson are ranked third in Division I-AA in total defense (186.7 yards per game) and are number two against the rush (53.3 yards per game).

The Big Red roll into town with the nation's third-ranked offense (473.7 yards per game) and second best passing offense (301.3 yards per game).

Cornell also looks to extend it's ten game win streak against Harvard, dating back to the 1985 season.