Columbia Betters Yale for First Time Since 1983

This was a good week in the Ivy League for Harvard.

Yes, the Crimson lost to associate arch-rival Princeton, 18-7. Yes, it continued to move in Brown's direction on the Ivy League standings. And yes, it failed even to garner an Ivy League Rookie of the Week award.

But Harvard had one thing going for it this week which made all of these setbacks trivial: Yale lost to Columbia.

That's right, Columbia. The same Columbia that the Crimson beat 39-32 earlier this season. The same Columbia that has to scrape and claw every year for even one win in league play. The same Columbia that is widely considered to be the losingest program in college football.

The Bulldogs lost to the Lions, and it wasn't even close: 30-9. In fact, it was Columbia's most lopsided win in 122 games.

The story in the game was the play of Lion quarterback Jaime Schwalbe. In the first half alone, Schwalbe completed 12 of 23 passes for 158 yards. He finished with 265 yards on 20-for-38 passing.

On the strength of his arm, Columbia led 13-3 at halftime and 27-3 late in the third quarter.

Twenty-seven to three? Columbia? What gives?

Seriously, the Lion win was almost predictable.

Since the Harvard loss, Columbia has been playing its best ball in five years. It has tied a tough Lehigh team, 28-28. It has destroyed Lafayette and Fordham. And, most impressively, it has given the best team in the league a scare, falling to Penn 12-3 last week. It is currently tied with four teams in the Ancient Eight.

Yale, meanwhile, has been slipping. The Bulldogs began their season with three straight wins, beating Brown, 27-16, Holy Cross, 47-22, and Connecticut, 28-17. Since, though, they have lost to Lehigh, 36-32, and Dartmouth, 11-13, and now Columbia. All three losses were to very beatable teams.

Speaking of beatable teams, Princeton was about as vulnerable on Saturday as it has been since Columbia last beat Yale. The Tigers went into the game against the Crimson with an impressive 4-1 record. Clearly, though, it was not the team it was two years ago, or even last year, when it had running back Keith Elias.

That fact became evident early on Saturday when the Crimson slid out to a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter. From then on out, the game was a messy free-for-all. Harvard committed five turnovers, Princeton committed two and the game was in question midway into the second quarter, when Princeton's Bill Jordan scored on a 17-yard touchdown run.

Harvard (3-3 overall, 1-2 Ivies) remained tied for fourth in the league, while Princeton (5-1 overall, 2-1 Ivies) remained in third place.

In the two other league games, the league's two top teams defended their cushy positions in the standings.

In the more surprising of the two games, Cornell edged Dartmouth, 17-14.

The game was closer than even the score would indicate. Cornell led 10-0 going into the fourth quarter. The Big Green, however, suddenly came alive, scoring two touchdowns in the first eight minutes of the period. The last, a pass from quarterback Jerry Singleton to David Shearer, gave it a 14-10 lead.

Then the Big Red mounted its most impressive comeback of the season. After taking over on its own three-yard line when Doug Knopp recovered a Dartmouth fumble with just 3:11 to play, Cornell put together a 10-play, 97-yard drive. It ended when Aaron Berryman caught a 15-yard pass from quarterback Per Larson in the end zone with 49 seconds left.

The Penn win was considerably less dramatic. The Quakers scored all of its points in the first half.

Penn (5-0 overall, 3-0 Ivy) won as it has all season: on the strength of a stingy defense and a great running back. The Penn defense held Brown to 45 total yards in the first-half. Meanwhile Stokes carried tailback Terrance Stokes rushed 22 times for 97 yards and two touchdowns.

The victory was Penn's 17th straight, the longest streak in Division I-AA.

Ivy League Notes: Cornell tailback Chad Levitt and Columbia's Schwalbe were named Offensive Co-Players of the Week in the league. Levitt carried the ball 132 times for 172 yards in the Big Red's 17-14 win over Dartmouth.

Also receiving recognition were Cornell free safety Chris Hanson and Princeton free safety Tom Ludwig.

Hanson garnered Defensive Player of the Week honors for his two-interception, one-fumble recovery performance against Dartmouth.

Ludwig was given the Rookie of the Week award for making three interceptions against Harvard.