Click on above cover for 2002 Ivy Football e-Guide

IVY OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Robert Carr, Yale (Soph, Running Back, Baytown, Texas)
After Yale QB Alvin Cowan went out with injury, Carr led the Elis to a 50-23 victory at Cornell and broke a long-standing school record in the process. Carr carried the ball 28 times, gaining 235 yards and scoring four touchdowns. The 235 yards bettered Rich Diana's 1981 school record by 13 yards. Carr, who gained all 60 yards in Yale's first drive, ended the game with 295 all-purpose yards (adding 60 on four kickoff returns).

IVY DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Vince Alexander, Penn (Sr, Cornerback, Detroit, Mich.)
Alexander picked off passes in back-to-back series in the first quarter as the Quakers built an early lead in knocking off No. 4 Lehigh and snapping the Mountain Hawks' 26-game winning streak. Alexander, who also broke up two passes in the end zone, returned the first interception 47 yards and the second 10 yards. Both set up Penn scores. He finished the day with a career-best six tackles with the two interceptions and three other breakups.

IVY SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Tyler Lavin, Dartmouth (Soph, Kicker, Potomac, Md.)
Lavin booted four field goals in the 29-26 Big Green loss to New Hampshire. He had a 43-yarder in the first quarter and a 45-yarder in the third. He had two three-pointers (21, 29) in the second quarter. Lavin is the nation's highest scoring kicker (11.0) and has made six-of-six field goals. Three of those six have been longer than 40 yards.

IVY ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Derek Javarone, Princeton (Fr, Kicker, Imperial, Pa.)
Javarone has had to fill some big shoes (and a very strong leg) in replacing All-American Taylor Northrop and did so admirably in the Tigers' 34-19 victory over Lafayette. Javarone was three-for-three on extra points and connected on field goals of 32 and 39 yards.

IVY HONOR ROLL
Cameron Atkinson Princeton (Sr, Running Back)
The Mantua, N.J., native had his fifth career 100-yard rushing game and his first three-touchdown performance as he gained 121 yards and broke into the end zone three times (11, 4, 1) in the Tigers' 34-19 victory over Lafayette.

Mike Baumgartel, Cornell (Soph, Punter)
The Mars, Pa., native averaged 41.7 yards per punt in seven tries as the Big Red fell to Yale, 50-23. His longest punt of 77 yards matched the fourth best of all-time in Ivy play, but was four yards shy of his own career best!

Ryan Fitzpatrick, Harvard (Soph, Quarterback)
The Gilbert, Ariz., native entered the game midway through the first quarter and Harvard trailing Brown 18-7. Fitzpatrick led the Crimson to a 26-24 victory, throwing for two scores (19, 8) and rushing for 131 yards in 22 attempts.

Brian Garcia, Harvard (Jr, Defensive End)
The Lutz, Fla., native had four tackles, including one for a five-yard loss in the Crimson's 26-24 win at Brown. Garcia also added a pass deflection on a Brown fourth-down play to end a scoring threat late in the fourth quarter with Harvard protecting a slim two-point advantage.

Brian Mann, Dartmouth (Sr, Quarterback)
The Canton, Mass., native recorded his second straight 300-yard effort in a 29-26 loss to New Hampshire. Mann, who now ranks second nationally in total offense, was 30 of 48 for 303 yards and also ran for an additional 66 yards on 12 carries.

Rob Milanese, Penn (Sr, Wide Receiver)
The Wyckoff, N.J., native caught a game-high 10 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown (5) as the Quakers' down Lehigh, 24-21. During the first half he broke the Penn career receiving yardage record (now has 2,496) and threw a block that sprung Stephen Faulk for a TD at the end of the half.

Chris Carey, Columbia (Jr, Linebacker)
The Bernardsville, N.J., native had 14 tackles in the Lions' 38-6 loss to Colgate, including a pair of tackles behind the line. Carey had eight solo stops, one sack and one pass deflection.

Mark Patterson, Yale (Sr, Defensive End)
The Topeka, Kan., native recorded three sacks and deflected a pass as the Bulldog defense held Cornell to 143 total yards in the 50-23 Eli win. Patterson had six tackles on the day.

Kyle Slager, Brown (Jr, Quarterback)
The Columbus, Ohio, native was brilliant in the Bears' 26-24 loss to Harvard. Slager completed 22 of 31 passes without an interception for 301 yards and three scores (27, 60, 9). He leads the nation in total offense at 384 yards a game (two yards ahead of Dartmouth's Brian Mann).

The Game Princeton and Columbia are meeting for the 72nd time with the Tigers holding a decided advantage over the Lions, 58-12-1 ... Last season the Orange & Black claimed its fourth straight win in this series with a 44-11 victory in Princeton ... Tiger QB David Splithoff (Glenview, Ill.) threw for two long touchdowns and ran for two others while WR Chisom Opara (Lutherville, Md.) caught three passes for an average of 42 yards per catch ... Columbia's last win in this series, which began in 1874, came in a 17-0 shutout in 1997.

The Coaches Columbia Coach Ray Tellier (Connecticut '73) is the senior head coach in the Ivy League after taking control in 1989 ... His coaching affiliation with the Ivies actually dates back to 1974, when he was an assistant freshman coach at Dartmouth College under Jake Crouthamel ... Tellier has posted a 3-4 record against Princeton at Wien Stadium ... Princeton Coach Roger Hughes (Doane '82) secured his first head coaching victory against the Columbia Lions at Wien Stadium in 2000 ... But his Tigers needed a wild overtime victory as Taylor Northrop ended it, 27-24, with a 24-yard OT field goal ... Princeton had scored 10 points in the final 2:25 of regulation play to get the overtime opportunity ... Even though Princeton has averaged 28 points and outscored the opposition by 46 points in Ivy play in Hughes' tenure, the Tigers are just 6-8 in those games ... The media expects that to change, as Princeton was selected to finish second in the preseason media poll.

The Incidentals For the second straight week, the Princeton Tigers built a big lead, only to see it challenged with a big charge ... But this time, Princeton held on for a 34-19 victory over the visiting Lafayette Leopards ... The Tigers took a 24-0 lead late in the second quarter on senior RB Cameron Atkinson's (Mantua, N.J.) second of three touchdown runs, but Lafayette was able to sneak in a score before halftime to draw within 24-6 ... The third quarter was all Lafayette as the Leopards pulled within five late in the quarter, but early in the fourth the Tigers got a field goal from freshman K Derek Javarone (Imperial, Pa.) and added another Atkinson touchdown for the win ... On the day, the offense was paced by Atkinson's 121 rushing yards and senior WR Chisom Opara (Lutherville, Md.), who caught eight passes for 138 yards ... Opara, now ranked eighth nationally in receiving yards (113 per game), has 109 career catches and is 15 shy of Phil Wendler's fourth-place Tiger total of 124 ... With 64 more receiving yards, Opara will be third on the all-time Tiger list behind the dynamic duo of Derek Graham (2,798) and Kevin Guthrie (2,646), who lit up the Palmer Stadium scoreboard in the early 1980s ... Opara presently has 1,652 career receiving yards ... Junior QB David Splithoff (Glenview, Ill.) had yet another of his multi-dimensional performances, completing 15 of 22 passes for 213 yards and a TD and scrambling for 62 yards on 19 carries ... He is ranked eighth nationally in total offense (288.0) and the Tigers average 6.8 yards every time Splithoff runs or throws ... Defensively, junior LB Zak Keasey (Clarkston, Mich.), last season's top tackler, was the team's biggest performer ... He had 13 tackles, including nine solos, and picked a terrific time for his first interception of the season ... On a potential Lafayette game-tying fourth quarter drive, Keasey collected a tipped ball and ended the Leopards' last real threat ... The tip was made by junior S Brandon Mueller (Valencia, Pa.), who recorded two interceptions ... Sophomore DB Jay McCareins (Naperville, Ill.) had his third interception in a span of four games ... The Columbia Lions had a tough 38-6 loss to Colgate after opening the season with a dramatic victory -- a 13-11 decision over Fordham in the first-ever Liberty Cup ... Junior WR Travis Chmelka (Fremont, Neb.) is among the national leaders in receiving, averaging seven catches a game ... In fact, six of the 12 Division I-AA making at least seven catches a game are Ivy Leaguers ... Chmelka also scored the first touchdown of his career in the Colgate game, a surprising stat when considering that he now has 65 career receptions ... His scoring play was a 27-yard pass from sophomore QB Jeff Otis (Chesterfield, Mo.), who completed 10 of 12 passes for 120 yards in relief of junior Steve Hunsberger (Bethlehem, Pa.) ... While it was his first score, Chmelka had set up the Lions' lone touchdown in the Fordham game with a diving fingertip grab in which he landed inside the one ... Against Colgate, Chmelka had 192 all-purpose yards, including nine catches for 94 yards ... Sophomore K/P Nick Rudd (Orinda, Calif.), who was the Ivy Special Teams Player of the Week after nailing a 37-yard field goal with 10 seconds left to beat Fordham, averaged 47.3 yards per punt against the Raiders, including a career-long bomb of 58 yards ... Senior FS Philip Murray (Mesquite, Texas) had his second straight double-figure tackle effort and shares the team lead in stops with junior LB and Lion captain Chris Carey (Bernardsville, N.J.) ... Each has 21 ... Murray had previously recorded his 14th career interception against Fordham ... That put him just two behind Columbis's all-time leader, Lou Kusserow, who had 16 from 1945 to 1948.

The Game Penn and Dartmouth are meeting for the 70th time with the Quakers holding a 36-31-2 series advantage ... Penn has won four in a row against the Big Green, including last season's 21-20 nailbiter when junior Kyle Chaffin (Philadelphia, Pa.) blocked a potential game-tying extra point with 1:38 left in the game ... Not only did the Green hold Penn scoreless in the second half, only one team scored more points against the Red & Blue in 2001 (Harvard 28-21 in Cambridge) .... Penn won the first meeting of these two schools in 1896 by a 16-0 count ... The Quakers, ranked 23rd by the Sports Network and USA Today, have now won 11 in a row at home.

The Coaches Penn Coach Al Bagnoli (Central Connecticut '75) had a memorable 100th game as Penn's head coach, defeating No. 4 Lehigh, 24-21 at Franklin Field on Saturday ... That marked his 69th win in 100 contests (and his first ever against the Mountain Hawks) ... That is four more victories in his first 100 games at Penn than the legendary George Munger won in his first 100 in Philly ... Munger was 65-28-7 in the same span ... Bagnoli is one of three of the 171 former and present head coaches of Ivy League football who has posted winning records against each of the member schools (other than his own) ... Two did it prior to the official formation of the Ivy League and both are College Football Hall of Famers -- Munger and Princeton's Charles Caldwell ... Dartmouth Coach John Lyons (Penn '74) returns to Franklin Field, where he was a second-team All-Ivy defensive back in the early 1970s for Coach Harry Gamble ... The Quakers were 11-3 at Franklin Field during Lyons' playing career, but victories at 33rd and Spruce have been more elusive as of late ... Lyons has won just one of five matchups at Penn as a head coach (winning 23-15 in 1997) ... His 2002 Big Green team is currently ninth in the country in total offense (451.5) and has done so methodically, with just three plays longer than 25 yards.

The Incidentals One week after the Princeton Tigers nearly ended Lehigh's long regular-season winning streak, the Penn Quakers actually did it ... The Red & Blue built an early lead and held on for a 24-21 victory at Franklin Field on Saturday night, its first win over Lehigh since 1982 ... The big play of the game came as time expired at intermission ... Senior QB Mike Mitchell (Orlando, Fla.) had spiked the ball on the 34 to stop the clock with one second left and Penn leading 10-7 ... With Lehigh in deep prevent, Mitchell hit junior WR Joe Phillips (Medford Lakes, N.J.) at the 20 ... Phillips then pitched to a speeding Stephen Faulk (Inglewood, Calif.) at the 22 and Faulk danced down the sideline for the tide-turning score ... Faulk would not have scored without a key block from senior WR Rob Milanese (Wyckoff, N.J.), who would later say it is easy to block a guy who isn't looking ... It was a sensational night for Milanese, who caught 10 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown ... Along the way he broke the Pennsylvania career receiving yardage record of Don Clune ... With 2,496 career yards, Milanese is within 40 yards of both Carl Morris of Harvard and Chas Gessner of Brown ... Morris and Gessner are both preseason first-team All-America selections ... With 14 catches for 199 yards this season, Milanese is ranked in the nation's top 20 in both categories ... Faulk has now scored five TDs just two games into the season (second nationally at 15 points a game) ... Prior to this season, Faulk was an all-League defensive back for Penn, but Kris Ryan's graduation allowed Faulk to return to the offensive side of the ball ... His old mates on the defense have been coming up with big plays, forcing Lehigh into five turnovers ... Senior CB Vince Alexander (Detroit, Mich.) intercepted two passes in the first quarter, leading to Penn's 10-0 lead ... He would later deflect two passes in the end zone that would likely have resulted in touchdowns without his efforts ... Dartmouth came very close to knocking off New Hampshire, but senior QB Brian Mann (Canton, Mass.) was intercepted on the goal line by UNH LB George Yasso with 16 seconds left as the Green lost 29-26 ... Mann had his second straight 300-yard game, this time with 303, and moved into third place on Dartmouth's all-time passing list ... With 3,771 career yards, Mann is 742 yards behind second-place Mark Johnson ... With Jay Fiedler's school record out of reach, Mann could become the 10th member of the Ivy 5,000-yard club (assuming Harvard's Neil Rose, who is within 300 yards, joins before him) ... Mann is ranked second nationally in total offense (382.0), two yards per game behind Brown's Kyle Slager ... Mann has two receivers in the top five nationally in receptions ... With 12 catches against UNH, junior TE Casey Cramer (Middleton, Wis.) now averages 8.5 catches per game (fourth) and 111 yards per (10th) ... Cramer's classmate -- WR Jay Barnard (Dallas, Texas) -- averages 8.0 receptions a game (fifth) for 97 yards a game ... Sophomore K Tyler Lavin (Potomac, Md.) has already booted three 40-yard field goals this year, two more than the rest of the Ivy League combined ... Now six-for-six on field goals, Lavin averages 11 points a game, which is more than any other I-AA kicker in the nation ... Lavin, who kicked a 47-yarder in high school, was four-for-six in FG tries as a freshman.

The Game Brown and Rhode Island are meeting for the 87th time with the Bears holding a 64-20-2 series record in the in-state matchup ... The Bears lost to the Rams in Providence last year in a wild 42-38 affair, but Brown was victorious in the last game in Kingston (29-19 in 2000) ... Each of those games featured a Brown wideout catching a school-record 19 passes ... Last season, Chas Gessner (Hyattsville, Md.) snared 19 for 269 yards and QB Kyle Rowley threw for a school-best 474 yards ... In 2000, Stephen Campbell caught 19 passes for 218 yards en route to an NCAA I-AA record 120 receptions for the season.

The Coaches Brown Coach Phil Estes (New Hampshire '80) has not only never suffered a shutout in 41 games as the head coach in Providence, his Bears have never been held under 10 points ... Under Estes, the Bears have averaged more than 33 points and 320 passing yards per game while threatening for the Ivy title annually ... For the third straight year, Brown has a new starting QB ... In the three seasons, the Bears are just 1-5 in the first two weeks of the season, but have won 12 of 15 starting in the third week and after ... Rhode Island Coach Tim Stowers (Auburn '80) won a national championship as the head coach at Georgia Southern in 1990, but was shown the door in 1995 after winning 51 games in six seasons ... Last year he proved that he could get it done in New England as well as the Deep South ... After taking a struggling URI program in 1999, he led the team to an 8-3 record and had the Rams ranked as high as fourth.

The Incidentals The Brown-Harvard game was a virtual deadheat as each team had four touchdowns, no turnovers and nearly the exact same yardage ... The difference was that Brown missed all four PATs, two kicks and two two-point tries ... In the battle of Payton Award candidates, Bears' senior WR Chas Gessner (Hyattsville, Md.) posted better numbers than Harvard's Carl Morris with 10 catches for 150 yards and two scores ... Gessner leads the nation in both receptions (10.5) and yards per game (159.0), but is followed closely by Morris in both ... Gessner's two touchdowns give him 30 career scoring catches and make him just the third Leaguer to ever get that many ... Former teammate Stephen Campbell had 33 while Ivy recordholder Sean Morey had 39 for the Bears from 1995 to 1998 ... Junior QB Kyle Slager (Columbus, Ohio), a transfer from the University of Arizona, leads the nation in total offense at 384 yards per game ... He comes from a long line of signalcallers ... His father Richard was a two-year starter at Notre Dame and his grandfather started at QB for the Ohio State Buckeyes ... Rhode Island is glad to be home after three punishing road games at Hofstra, Syracuse and Maine.

The Game Yale and Holy Cross are meeting for the 27th time with the Bulldogs holding a 23-3 series advantage ... In fact, Yale has downed the Crusaders nine straight times dating to 1985 ... The streak nearly ended last Sept. 29, when the Bulldogs needed a 28-yard field goal from Justin Davis with four seconds left for a 23-22 victory at Fitton Field in Worcester ... Billy Brown had scored a TD with just 3:33 remaining to give Davis a chance to win it ... With the season-opening 49-14 victory over San Diego, Yale has won 10 straight non-League games ... Yale's last non-Ivy loss came in 1998, a 35-17 decision to Colgate ... This is the longest such streak for Yale since the official formation of the League.

The Coaches Yale Coach Jack Siedlecki (Union '74) has posted a 29-22 record in his sixth season in New Haven, including an 11-4 mark against non-Ivy competition ... So far his 2002 team is hitting on all cylinders, leading the nation in four offensive categories -- scoring (49.5), rushing (375.0), total offense (587.5) and passing efficiency (210.8) ... Holy Cross Coach Dan Allen (Hanover '78) had his Crusaders ranked in the nation's top 25 after beating Division I-A Army and Patriot foe Georgetown, but Holy Cross has since fallen to Harvard and Towson ... Allen was formerly the head coach of the Boston University Terriers (1990-95).

The Incidentals Junior QB Alvin Cowan (Austin, Texas) broke his fibula on the second play from scrimmage in the 50-23 win at Cornell on Saturday and will be sidelined at least four weeks ... But sophomore RB Robert Carr (Baytown, Texas) took charge, carrying 28 times for a school-record 235 yards and four TDs ... Carr is now second in the nation in rushing ... Not only was it Yale's first 50-point outburst since 1972, it was the first time the Bulldogs scored 50 in a road game since 1905 (winning 53-0 at Columbia) ... After going 10 years without two backs going over 100 yards in one game, Yale has done it in consecutive weeks ... Carr was joined by junior RB Patrick Bydume (Crownsville, Md.), who had 125 rushing yards ... Cowan's replacement, sophomore Jeff Mroz (Greensburg, Pa.) was nine-for-13 for 142 yards.

The Game Harvard and Lehigh are meeting for the 10th time with the Crimson clinging to a 5-4 series advantage ... This is a high profile matchup between two of the hottest programs in the nation ... Harvard has won 11 straight games, which is Division I's third-longest active streak (Miami/Fla., 26; Montana, 18) ... Before falling at Penn last weekend, the Mountain Hawks had won 26 consective regular season games, which was the longest such streak in D-I play ... Lehigh has still won 45 of its last 47 regular-season games ... The Hawks have also won 26 straight at Goodman Stadium ... That streak goes back to the 1997 season, the same year Harvard beat Lehigh at Goodman, 35-30, early in the season.

The Coaches Harvard Coach Tim Murphy (Springfield '78) has his Crimson riding an 11-game winning streak, the longest for Harvard since Percy Haughton oversaw 22 consecutive victories from 1912 to 1914 ... Remarkably, Harvard has scored at least four TDs in each of the 11 games ... Another notable during the streak is that Murphy's Crimson have suffered just 10 turnovers in the 11 games ... Lehigh Coach Pete Lembo (Georgetown '92), a former Dartmouth assistant, has posted an impressive 14-2 record for the Mountain Hawks in his second season ... Lehigh is 8-0 under Lembo at Goodman Stadium, averaging a remarkable 44 points and allowing 13 per in those eight games ... But the Princeton Tigers gave Lehigh all it could handle in the last Goodman game before falling 31-24 ... Harvard has won four straight road games and eight of nine.

The Incidentals Harvard is ranked 24th in the latest USA Today poll released on Monday ... The center of attention in Cambridge this week is sophomore QB Ryan Fitzpatrick (Gilbert, Ariz.), who went in for an ailing Neil Rose (Mililani, Hawaii) ... Fitzpatrick led the Crimson to the 26-24 win at Brown by passing for two scores and rushing for 131 yards ... Rose, now day-to-day with lower back pain, has completed 24-of-27 passes for 318 yards and two TDs in 2002 ... In the game, senior WR Carl Morris (Sterling, Va.) and Brown's Chas Gessner each surpassed the 2,500-yard mark as receivers ... Only five Ivy Leaguers before them had managed that feat ... Morris has caught at least one TD pass in 13 of the last 14 games ... Senior RB Nick Palazzo (Cleveland, Ohio) rushed for 82 yards on 13 carries and scored twice ... He should end up among the top five career rushers in Crimson history ... Fifth place is 1,825 yards and Palazzo is at 1,448 ... Harvard has been facing rugged competition, in fact, they will likely face four ranked teams in a seven-game stretch ... Last year Penn was ranked 19th in the showdown ... All three non-League opponents this year will have been ranked -- Holy Cross, Lehigh and Northeastern.

The Game This is the first meeting between Cornell and Towson ... The Big Red has faced all its other 2002 opponents at least 41 times prior to the season ... Cornell will try to end a six-game skid against non-League foes.

The Coaches Cornell Coach Tim Pendergast (SUNY-Cortland '80) is in his second season as the head coach at Ithaca and is looking for his first victory at Schoellkopf Field ... Cornell was 2-7 last season with the victories coming at Princeton (10-7) and at Dartmouth (28-24) in back-to-back weeks ... Towson Coach Gordy Combs (Towson '72) has his Tigers playing very well -- beating highly-touted Brown and Holy Cross in back-to-back weeks ... Even more impressively, Towson's offense has put up 98 points and more than 1,000 yards in those two wins ... Combs has been a part of the Tiger football program as a player, assistant and head coach since 1970.

The Incidentals The Big Red have opened the season 0-2, but sophomore RB Marcus Blanks (Cincinnati, Ohio) has emerged as a backfield talent ... Averaging 86 yards a game rushing, Blanks scored both the first and last touchdowns of the Yale game on Saturday ... He might be hard to recognize in the locker room though, because his twin brother David is a cornerback for the Big Red ... Marcus is second in the League in rushing behind Yale's Robert Carr ... Throw in third-place Ryan Fitzpatrick of Harvard and the Ivies top three rushers are all sophomores ... Sophomore OLB Joel Sussman (Great Neck, N.Y.) has 22 tackles this season, third in the League ... He also blocked a field goal attempt by Yale which was scooped up by soph CB Kyle Thomas (Indialantic, Fla.), who rambled 48 yards for a touchdown as time expired on the first quarter ... It was the first returned field goal for a TD in Cornell history ... Big Red sophomore P Mike Baumgartel (Mars, Pa.) has now unleashed two of the longest punts in the history of the Ivy League in the first 11 games of his career ... Baumgartel, who booted a League-record 81-yarder against Harvard a year ago, drilled a 77-yarder against Yale ... The 77 yards matches the fourth-best effort in League annals.