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Nov. 11, 2006 NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The game was marked by two vastly different halves, as Yale racked up 355 yards of total offense in the first half but only 59 in the second half. A 28-14 halftime lead wound up not being enough as Tigers quarterback Jeff Terrell threw for 445 yards and three touchdowns to lead the comeback. "You have to give [ On a brilliant fall day 43,406 fans streamed into the Bowl for the 129th
meeting between these two rivals. The Tigers showed some nerves on the opening drive, including a bizarre
opening play in which an apparent Princeton fumble recovered by Yale was instead
ruled Tiger ball, recovered by Terrell at the The Bulldogs missed a 36-yard field goal attempt on their opening drive, but the Yale defense delivered several big plays on the ensuing Tiger drive. It started with a crunching hit for a four-yard loss on first down by senior defensive end Brendan Sponheimer on Tigers tailback R.C. Lagomarsino. On a third-and-nine from the Yale 48, sophomore free safety Steven Santoro stopped Lagomarsino five yards short of a first down after a short pass. The Tigers gained some measure of momentum by downing Connor Louden's punt at
the one-yard line, but sophomore tailback Mike
McLeod quickly got the Bulldogs breathing room with a pair of runs that got
the ball to the 12. Junior quarterback Matt
Polhemus then found senior wide receiver Chandler
Henley wide open on the left sideline for 21 yards and the Yale needed another big completion when the Bulldogs faced a third-and-10 at
the Tiger 47. Out of Yale's four wide receiver set, Polhemus found sophomore
wide receiver Jarrett
Drake along the left sideline. Drake's clutch grab gave Yale a first down at
the Yale then turned to senior tailback Matt Murray, who dashed through the left side of the line for a 32-yard gain. Two plays later, with the ball on the one, McLeod took advantage of the left side of Yale's offensive line -- anchored by junior tight end Langston Johnson, senior left tackle Ed McCarthy, junior left guard Jeff Monaco and junior center Nick Wachtler -- to power into the end zone with two seconds left in the quarter and cap the 99-yard drive. The Yale defense stopped another Tiger drive at the Eli 39 on fourth-and-five, with Terrell tossing an incompletion under heavy pressure from sophomore defensive end Kyle Hawari. The Yale offense did not need long to take advantage of the improved field position. McLeod dashed untouched toward the right sideline and turned up the field for 46 yards on the first play. Two plays later McLeod found a huge hole on the left side of the line, diving into the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead. A fortunate bounce enabled the Tigers to get back in the game. Terrell
bobbled the snap and took off from the Yale 20 but lost the ball as he was being
tackled. Yale immediately responded. In a drive that featured a 15-yard scramble and a 20-yard run by Polhemus, it was another big third-down grab by Drake -- converting a third-and-seven at the Yale 44 -- that kept the Bulldogs going. McLeod had a 21-yard run and finished it with a three-yard romp into the end zone to make it 21-7 Yale 5:03 before halftime. The Tigers answered 1:20 later with Terrell pump-faking and racing into the
end zone from six yards out. But the Bulldog offense once again had little
trouble moving down the field. Three runs by There was one minute left on the clock before halftime and plenty of time for
one more A holding penalty derailed Yale's first drive of the third quarter and set the tone for the remainder of the game. "The holding penalty on the first drive of the second half hurt us," Siedlecki said. "We were coming off the best half of offense we'd played all year. We're a running football team. You can't put yourselves behind." Still, the Bulldogs got a 61-yard punt from freshman Tom
Mante that pinned the Tigers at their own 10. The teams traded punts and The Yale offense once again could not move the ball, but the defense had a
big play near the start of the fourth quarter. Hawari batted Terrell's pass from
the A face mask penalty on The 11-point Yale lead was erased in a span of two minutes. On The next Yale drive was a three-and-out that took only 80 seconds off the
clock, giving The Yale offense had one chance to make a comeback. The Bulldogs got the ball at their own 31 after a 24-yard kickoff return by Santoro. An eight-yard pass to senior wide receiver D.J. Shooter got Yale a first down -- its first first down by means other than a Tiger penalty since the third play of the half. But McLeod got only two yards on what would turn out to be his last carry of the day. He finished the day with 181 yards but only 30 in the second half. "They were bringing more edge pressure," McLeod said. "You can't run outside with that." Two incompletions forced another Yale punt with 4:51 to play. The Tigers picked up two first downs, and with Yale having used all but one of its timeouts earlier in the half that was enough to kill the clock. "We didn't have the answers in the second half," Siedlecki said. The loss snaps a seven-game winning streak for the Bulldogs, and a four-game
winning streak in the series vs. The Bulldogs can still clinch a share of the Ivy title with a win over the Crimson. "We just have to focus on Harvard," said Barry. "There's nothing we can change about this result." Siedlecki advocated a similar approach. "We've got to go up there and win a football game and be Ivy League champions." report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity |
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