Schires to play a leading role
Harvard, already banged up on offense, has suffered its most crippling loss of the season. Junior quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick fell to the artifical turf at Cornell's Schoellkopf Field last Saturday during his team's 27-0 victory, broke a bone in his right (throwing) hand, and will be lost for approximately a month.
The undefeated Crimson will now go with junior Garrett Schires, who has thrown three passes all season. Fitzpatrick was leading Division 1-AA in pass efficiency (183.01) and total offense (366.5 yards per game). He had completed 65 of 101 passes for 1,129 yards and 10 touchdowns and was the Crimson's leading rusher with 337 yards for a 5.1-yard average and six TDs.
"If it happened on grass, the injury probably doesn't happen," said Harvard coach Tim Murphy, whose team will face Ivy killer Lafayette from the Patriot League Saturday at the Stadium. "Hopefully, he'll be back in a month, but I've told our team that there are no excuses. We have the same game plan and the bottom line is that if anybody feels sorry for themselves, they've picked the wrong sport and the wrong team."
Schires, who has rushed for 48 yards on 11 carries this season, will be making his first career start behind an offensive line that has lost several starters. In addition, wide receiver Rodney Byrnes is just coming back from two weeks on the injured list and Murphy said it's possible he could suit up this week or next.
Lafayette, fresh off a 41-27 victory over Columbia, has also knocked off Princeton, 28-13, and is looking for an Ivy sweep Saturday. Lafayette quarterback Marko Glavic threw for a school-record 453 yards with wide receiver Jeremy Burkes hauling in eight passes for a school-record 234 yards and three touchdowns against Columbia. Glavic and Burkes were named 1-AA's Offensive Players of the Week by the Sports Network. "Lafayette is a hot team and a good team," said Murphy, whose own team -- with Fitzpatrick the key -- is leading 1-AA in total offense at 491.5 yards per game and is ranked 22d nationally. "Glavic is one of the better quarterbacks we'll see this season. This is the toughest year I've had at Harvard in terms of injuries on one side of the ball so early in the season, so now, for us, it comes down to leadership."
Super subs
Starting quarterback Mike Mitchell and defensive leader Steve Lhotak were among the injured scratches last Saturday at Franklin Field, where the University of Pennsylvania held off Bucknell, 14-13, Penn's 10th straight victory overall and 16th in a row at home. When the defending Ivy League champion Quakers, who are ranked 15th in 1-AA, play Saturday at improved Columbia, Penn coach Al Bagnoli will welcome back Mitchell, but he has to wait another week for Lhotak's return. Mitchell was knocked out of the Dartmouth game with an ankle sprain two weeks ago, leaving the inexperienced Pat McDermott at the throttle. The sophomore responded by taking Penn on a late scoring drive, and last weekend he connected on 11 of 22 passes for 132 yards. Linebacker Lhotak suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in the opening half in the second game of the season, against Lehigh.
Penn, which has relied more on its running game since Mitchell went down with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter against Dartmouth, has gotten a big lift from sophomore Sam Mathews, a transfer from the Naval Academy, who ran for 105 yards and a touchdown and had three receptions for 32 yards and another score against Bucknell. Defensively, junior linebacker Ric San Doval had a career-high 14 tackles (seven solo) and sophomore defensive back Casey Edgar chipped in with a career-best 10 stops and a 15-yard interception return. Bagnoli's 80 career victories at Penn are two shy of George Munger for second place in team history. Penn has won 27 of its last 29 games.
Nick has a knack
Brown sophomore tailback Nick Hartigan ranks seventh nationally in rushing at 130.5 yards per game. Hartigan, who has run for at least 100 yards in three of his team's first four games, became the eighth player in Brown history to rush for 200 or more yards when he totaled 214 last Saturday against Fordham, the fifth-best rushing performance in school history. Hartigan's day included an 82-yard run, the seventh longest in the Brown record book. Hartigan ranks 13th nationally in all-purpose yards at 158.25 per game. He gained 127 yards and caught a 14-yard TD pass Sept. 27 vs. Harvard. "Nick has been our most consistent player on offense and has been a big playmaker in every game," said Brown coach Phil Estes, whose team hosts Princeton Saturday. "He's a tough runner inside and outside and, with a young offensive line, he has created his own holes. He also sets up his blocks very well and has gotten better and better every game."
Flying start
Yale, off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 1981, plays at 18th-ranked Colgate (6-0), which owns the nation's longest 1-AA winning streak at 12 games. Yale, which knocked off Dartmouth, 40-17, last Saturday, leads 1-AA in turnover ratio (2.25), is second in pass efficiency (169.68), and third in scoring average (41.0). Junior quarterback and captain Alvin Cowan, the Ivy Offensive Player of the Week, threw for 318 yards and two touchdowns and had a team-best 83 rushing yards against Dartmouth, which plays Saturday at Holy Cross. Yale junior wide receiver Ralph Plumb of Portsmouth, R.I., caught nine passes for 161 yards and one touchdown, while Ivy Special Teams Player of the Week Robert Carr had an 86-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Dartmouth.
