Football

Race for the #IvyFootball Title is Wide Open

Complete Football Weekly Release in pdf format

PRINCETON, N.J. --In consecutive days, last year’s co-champions each suffered their first defeat of the season, leaving the race for the 2017 #IvyFootball title wide open.

LEAGUE NOTES

  • Dartmouth scored a touchdown on fourth and goal as time expired to defeat Penn, 16-13, in a game that was broadcast on NBCSN. The next day, Columbia scored the gamewinning touchdown with just over a minute remaining to upend Princeton, 28-24. The losses by the 2016 Ivy League co-champions means the 2017 title is anyone’s to win.
  • #IvyFootball continued its impressive non-conference play, going 3-1 last week to improve to 13-3 overall, its best out-of-conference mark since 1970, when it opened 12-0 over the first three weeks.
  • The Ivy League leads FCS with a non-conference winning percentage of .813 and ranks second overall in Division I, just behind the SEC’s mark of .816.
  • Six teams appear in the national rankings. Yale is receiving votes in both polls, while Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn aand Princeton re receiving votes in the STATS FCS poll. The Lions are in the polls for the first time this season.
  • The #IvyFootball slate continues this week with another meeting of unbeatens when Dartmouth hosts Yale on Saturday on the Ivy League Network (ILN) and ESPN3. It marks a matchup of the nation’s third-best scoring offense (Bulldogs) against the nation’s fourth-best total defense (Big Green).
  • In total, three games will be broadcast live this week on ILN, now available on Apple TV, Roku and the ILN app on Apple and Android devices.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Columbia sophomore wide receiver Ronald Smith II (St. Louis) had himself a game against Princeton, leading the Lions to their first win over the Tigers since 2010 and their first 3-0 start since 1996. Smith finished with 236 receiving yards on 10 receptions and two touchdowns, including a 63-yard touchdown catch and run with 1:12 remaining that proved to be the gamewinner. Smith’s 236 receiving yards is fourth-most in the FCS this season as well as a Lions single-game record and the 11th-best mark all-time in Ivy League history.
 
Smith, who competed in football, basketball and track & field in high school and was all-state in the long jump, triple jump and 300m-hurdles, is enrolled in the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is the first Lion to be named Offensive Player of the Week since Sean Brackett in 2010.
 
Smith’s Statistics for the Week
10 rec., 236 yds., 23.6 avg., 2 TDs at Princeton
 
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Dartmouth senior linebacker Jack Traynor (Lake Forest, Ill.) led a stout Big Green defense in its 16-13 win at Penn. The Quakers were averaging over 580 yards and 50 points a game only to have Dartmouth hold them to 243 yards and 13 points. Traynor finished with nine tackles, one tackle for loss and a pass breakup in the red zone in the third quarter that forced Penn to settle for a field goal.
 
Traynor is an engineering major who likes to play the piano in his spare time. He earns his first career Ivy League weekly award.
 
Traynor’s Statistics for the Week
8 tckls, 1 assisted, 9 total, 1.0 TFL, 1 PBR, 1 PD at Penn
 
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Harvard junior wide receiver/kick returner Justice Shelton-Mosley (Sacramento, Calif.) amassed 169 total yards in the Crimson’s win at Georgetown, highlighted by a 91-yard punt return for a touchdown. It marks the longest punt return for a touchdown in Harvard history and ties the third-longest in Ivy League history, matching Columbia’s Travis Chmelka from Sept. 20, 2003.
 
Shelton-Mosley, whose favorite hobby is fishing, earns his second career Special Teams Player of the Week and seventh career Ivy League weekly award, as he was a four-time Rookie of the Week in 2015.
 
Shelton-Mosley’s Statistics for the Week
4 PR, 86 yds., 21.5 avg., 1 TD; 1 KR, 43 yds., 43.0 avg.; 4 rec., 34 yds., 8.5 avg.; 1 carry, 6 yds. at Georgetown
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Needing a lift in the second half of its game against URI, Brown turned to freshman running back Darius Daies (St. Louis), and he did not disappoint. The Bears’ rookie ran for 78 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries in the second half to help turn a 14-3 halftime deficit into a 24-21 victory. For the game he totaled 95 yards on 16 carries.
 
Daies is the second Bear to be named Rookie of the Week this season, joining Scott Boylan (Sept. 18).
 
Daies’ Statistics for the Week
16 carries, 95 yds., 5.9 avg., 2 TDs vs. URI
 
HONOR ROLL
Will Allen
, Columbia (Fr., DB/KR – Pembroke Pines, Fla.)
4 KR, 73 yds., 18.3 avg., 38 long at Princeton
 
Charlie Booker, Harvard (Jr., RB – Houston)
13 carries, 65 yds., 5.0 avg., 2 TDs at Georgetown
 
Stephen Carlson, Princeton (Jr., WR – Jamestown, N.Y.)
8 rec., 146 yds., 18.3 avg., 1 TD vs. Columbia
 
Connor Coughlin, Brown (Sr., FS – Medford, N.Y.)
9 tckls., 2 assisted, 11 total, 2.0 TFL, 3 yds., 3 PBR, 3 PD vs. URI
 
Zane Dudek, Yale (Fr., RB – Kittanning, Pa.)
10 carries, 56 yds., 5.6 avg., 2 TDs at Fordham
 
Kurt Frimel, Cornell (Sr., LB – Cream Ridge, N.J.)
6 tckls., 4 assisted, 10 total, 3.0 TFL, 13 yds., 2.0 sacks, 10 yds., 1 PBR, 1 PD vs. Colgate
 
Jared Gerbino, Dartmouth (So., QB – Rush, N.Y.)
11 carries, 71 yds., 6.5 avg., 1 TD at Penn
 
Jack Heneghan, Dartmouth (Sr., QB – Atherton, Calif.)
23-30-0, 76.7 comp. %, 199 yds., 1 TD at Penn
 
Anders Hill, Columbia (Sr., QB – Boulder, Colo.)
27-40-1, 67.5 comp. %, 400 yds., 2 TDs at Princeton
 
Thomas Johnson
, Princeton (Jr., LB – Moorestown, N.J.)
7 tckls., 6 assisted, 13 total, 1.5 TFL, 7 yds., 1.5 sacks, 7 yds., 1 QBH vs. Columbia
 
Raishaun McGhee, Harvard (Sr., DB – Windsor, Conn.)
1 tckls, 3 assisted, 4 total, 1 INT, 1 TD, 1 PD at Georgetown
 
Benjamin McKeighan, Columbia (So., DB – Scottsdale, Ariz.)
3 tckls., 2 assisted, 5 total, 1.0 TFL, 2 yds., 2 INT, 2 PD at Princeton
 
Nick Miller, Penn (Jr., LB – New Market, Md.)
10 tckls., 2 assisted, 12 total, 1 QBH vs. Dartmouth
 
Jakob Prall, Brown (So., WR – Tipp City, Ohio)
7 rec., 103 yds., 14.7 avg. vs. URI
 
Deshawn Salter, Yale (Sr., RB – Syracuse, N.Y.)
8 carries, 118 yds., 14.8 avg., 3 TDs at Fordham
 
Jake Smith, Harvard (Fr., QB – Ithaca, Mich.)
16-30-2, 53.3 comp. %, 214 yds. at Georgetown
 
Jack Soslow, Penn (Jr., K – Bryn Mawr, Pa.)
2-2 FG, 31 long, 6 pts.; 1-1 XP, 1 pt.; 4 KO, 240 yds., 3 TBs vs. Dartmouth
 
Mike Wagner, Princeton (Jr., LB – Victor, N.Y.)
4 tckls., 4 assisted, 8 total, 3.0 TFL, 15 yds., 2.0 sacks, 14 yds. vs. Columbia
 
Justin Watson, Penn (Sr., WR – Bridgeville, Pa.)
6 rec., 55 yds., 9.2 avg., 1 TD; 2 carries, 26 yds., 13.0 avg. vs. Dartmouth