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The Best for Last
A
third straight football victory over Harvard made up for thwarted
Ivy title hopes, but a pack of women runners made the biggest mark
on the fall sports season.
by
Carl Bialik '01 and David Goldenberg '01
February 2001
Carl
Bialik and David Goldenberg covered the football team for the Yale
Herald this fall.
They
began Yale as roommates, sharing a first-floor double in Farnam
Hall in the fall of 1997. Pete Mazza was excited to be rooming with fellow football player
Eric Johnson, but when he said as much to freshman Matt Proto, an
offensive lineman, during workouts on campus the previous summer,
Proto said, "That guy's a jerk. I met him during spring practice.
He wouldn't talk to anybody." But Mazza soon found out that Johnson
is "one of the nicest guys on campus." Off the field, the two became
best friends and four-year roommates. On it, they were, in the words
of head coach Jack Siedlecki,
"the captain and big-play offensive player in this senior class
that has put Yale back on the football map."
Mazza and Johnson
were two of 35 freshmen who would suit up for the woebegone football team that
fall, Siedlecki's first recruiting class. "My wife referred to me as an evangelist
when I first started recruiting here," said Siedlecki. Indeed, he hung a sign
in the locker room that read, "Belief Without Evidence." Though Siedlecki had enjoyed much success as head coach at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Amherst
College, both in Division III, he was an unproven commodity in Div. I-AA. And
all available evidence pointed towards impending hardship: Yale was coming off
five straight losing Ivy seasons.
Mazza and Johnson,
like many of their freshman teammates, had been used to leading winning teams.
Mazza played on four state championship teams in his four years at Cheshire High
(Conn.), and he captained the Rams his senior year. Johnson also captained his
football squad his senior year at Needham High (Mass.), along with
the basketball and
volleyball teams. But during their first Yale campaign, the roommates had to play
behind upperclassmen who had become accustomed to losing, and they continued to
do so, going 1-9 in 1997.
Three years later,
Johnson, the star receiver and punter, and Mazza, the team captain and standout
linebacker, are once again winners. And they leave the Yale football program with
the legacy of winning, and the accompanying expectations.
To be sure, the Bulldogs
did not win the Ivy championship this year. But in the last three seasons, they
have placed second, first, and third in the league, with a combined record of
15-6 in league games and 22-8 overall. This season began on a winning note, with
the program's 800th victory coming in a 42-6 trouncing of Dayton. And it ended
with an even sweeter win, Yale's third straight against Harvard, 34-24. (Yale
hadn't beaten the Cantabs three times in a row since 1976-78.)
The remarkable turnaround
by the football team was equaled, if not surpassed, by the women's cross country
team. After finishing a disappointing seventh at the Heptagonal Games cross-country
championships last year, Yale's female harriers vowed at preseason training to
set higher goals. "We didn't talk about doing well in Heps and Regionals," said
Kate O'Neill '03. "We decided to have a goal of winning Heps, qualifying at Regionals,
and doing well at Nationals."
That is just what
the Bulldogs did. First, they captured the Heptagonal title, the biggest one-year
team turnaround in the history of the race. They then went on to place second
at the District 1 Qualifiers two weeks later -- good enough to go to Nationals
for the first time in ten years.
The Bulldogs had
achieved their remarkable success -- and rapid turnaround -- by sticking together,
running in a pack for the first mile of each race. "We're similar in speed, tactics,
and our approach to the race," O'Neill said. "It worked really well for the group
that we have." After splitting up in races, the runners yelled out "Yale" throughout
the race, letting each other know they were within earshot. "It helps to know
that your teammates are there," said Kate O'Neill's twin sister Laura. "Hardly
any other team has so many runners up front, so it makes other teams nervous."
The runners were
not about to abandon the formula during Nationals. Though the course was crammed
with runners throughout -- an average of three women crossed the finish line every
second -- the Bulldogs held true to form. Kate and Laura finished 31st and 32nd,
respectively, the entire team finished within a minute of each other, and the
team took home seventh place. All of the scoring Yale runners were All-Ivy this
season, and the twins became All-Americans. The Bulldogs will again be a formidable
squad next year, as five of their top seven runners return, and the team's success
has helped with recruiting. "We already have a lot of people applying early who
are very talented," Kate O'Neill said.
After two years of
just barely missing qualifying for the NCAAs, the men's soccer team had broken
through last year, earning a top 25 ranking and beating their first NCAA opponent
before losing to Connecticut in the Sweet 16. This year's team had lost two of
the top goal scorers in Yale history in Jac Gould '00 and Phil Harris '00, but
returned two first-team All-Ivy players in Jay Alberts '03 and Brian Lavin '02.
Yale started strong by dismantling Cornell, 3-0, but the offense seemed to disappear
against Dartmouth in Hanover less than a week later. "Dartmouth was a difficult
team to play," said captain and goalkeeper Danny Moss '01. "They are very direct
and don't play possession ball." The Bulldogs eventually keeled in double overtime,
1-0, as a long-range shot was deflected into the far corner of the Yale net in
the final minutes. As went the game, so went the season. Yale lost two more Ivy
games by a single goal, eliminating any chances for a repeat selection to the
NCAAs.
The women's soccer
team, returning their top three scorers from a squad that reached the ECAC tournament
last year, came through in October with a 1-0 upset victory over No. 18 Connecticut,
the team's first win over the Huskies ever. But a 3-2 overtime loss to Brown to end the season left Yale with a 3-4 Ivy record and out of postseason play. The
women's volleyball team won the Rider and Quinnipiac tournaments in the midst
of a nine-game September winning streak, but the women managed only a 4-3 Ivy
record, and were knocked out of the league tournament by Princeton in the semifinals.
With new coach Dan Ireland, previously a Georgetown assistant, at the helm, the
men's cross country team had an up-and-down season. The runners, led by senior
captain Rob Doyle, beat Harvard but finished eighth at Heptagonals. Women's field
hockey was also guided by a new coach, former assistant Ainslee Lamb, who saw
the team lose its first 11 games before bouncing back at the end of the season.
The Bulldogs beat Columbia and Penn en route to winning three of their last seven.
The football team,
coming off an Ivy championship season, entered the year with high expectations.
The Bulldogs gained national prominence in their season opener on September 16
by becoming the first collegiate football team to win 800 games. (The Bulldogs
now lead Michigan, 806 to 805.) They also played a nearly flawless game in defeating
the University of Dayton, 42-6, and served notice that despite losing record-setting
quarterback Joe Walland '00 to graduation, they would again be a force in the
Ivy League. Junior Peter Lee, the new signal caller, hardly missed a beat, completing
19 of 23 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Rashad Bartholomew
'01 ran for 201 yards, the third-highest single-game total in Yale history.
The national media
made much of the milestone victory -- ABC Sports even broadcast the last minute
of the rout. But for the most part, the Yale players shrugged off the victory
and focused on the upcoming Ivy season. And for good reason: In the 1999 season
opener, Brown beat Yale 25-24 on a fluke two-point conversion with 40 seconds
left. The loss marred what was an otherwise perfect season.
This year's Bulldogs
were determined to prevent a repeat against Cornell, but the Big Red seemed to
have stolen the game with a fourth-quarter comeback to take a 24-23 lead with
just over two minutes left. Still, a resilient Lee led the offense on a six-play,
63-yard drive to set up a potential game-winning 32-yard field goal by Mike Murawczyk
'01, who had come into the game having converted 24 straight kicks from within
40 yards. This one sailed wide left, though, and again the Bulldogs started the
Ivy season 0-1.
Previous Yale teams
might have folded, hoping for victory but not expecting it. But Mazza, Johnson,
and their classmates reeled off five straight wins, beginning with three fourth-quarter
comebacks. The Bulldogs stifled the potent Penn passing attack in a 27-24 win
and subsequently drubbed Columbia the next week 41-0, a game in which the Bulldog
secondary gained more yards on interception returns (115) than the Lions' passing
offense accrued (100). After that fourth week of league play, the Bulldogs were
in a four-way tie atop the league standings and in control of their destiny. With
two games remaining before the Harvard game, both against sub-.500 teams, the
league title seemed well within reach.
But suddenly, the
offense stalled. Against Brown, the previously mistake-free Lee threw four costly
interceptions, and an injured Bartholomew could only muster 66 yards on the ground.
The Bears, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Brown Field before a raucous crowd,
spoiled things for Yale for the second straight year, winning 28-14.
That disappointment
paled before the heartbreak of the following week's 19-14 home loss to Princeton.
In the second half the Bulldogs failed to score, and the Tigers scored 16 to win.
The mood in the post-game
press conference was one of abject sorrow. Siedlecki, flanked by senior leaders
Mazza, Johnson, and Bartholomew, took the blame for the loss, citing his passive
play calling on offense. Mazza, in turn, placed the burden of the defeat on his
shoulders, for failing to complete a tackle on a broken running play by Princeton
fullback Marty Cheatham '01 that became a 44-yard gain and set up the winning
score. "I was right there," Mazza said of the play. "I could have had him. But
I stopped running. And I won't know why until the day I die."
That same day, Harvard
lost its second league game on a missed field goal in the closing seconds, falling
to Penn, 36-35. Both the Crimson and the Bulldogs had been eliminated from league
contention with one week remaining in painful fashion; as Siedlecki said after
the Princeton game, the first team to overcome its depression would win.
For the Bulldogs'
Class of 2001, the loss was a tough one, particularly because it came in their
last home game. But Bartholomew sensed a difference in the younger players. "I
was worried after the Princeton game," he said. "We didn't seem to have a depression.
Some of the younger guys were saying, 'Who cares, it's not our last game at the
Bowl.'"
Mazza could feel
that something different was needed before the game against Harvard. He is intense
when leading the defense on the field, and when he is on the sidelines, he kneels
alone, watching the game just as intensely. But, against his nature, he loosened
things up. "My style is usually a little more high-strung, but this week, I was
thinking it might be better if we took off the pressure," he said after The Game.
"We had a lot of fun yesterday in practice. I was telling the guys before the
game, let's stay loose out there and keep having fun."
That proved to be
the difference in a matchup between two teams that were so similar in so many
ways. Besides their mutual disappointment, the two teams were 1-2 in rushing offense
and rushing defense, with Harvard leading in both categories. They finished the
season adjacent in Ivy rankings in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense,
and passing efficiency. Going into The Game, Harvard had outscored opponents by
82 points; Yale by 83.
But in two areas,
the teams were polar opposites. The Bulldogs were second in Div. I-AA in turnovers
lost (9) and turnover margin (+1.8), while the Crimson had the fifth-worst turnover
margin (-1.5) and lost the seventh-most turnovers (36). And in the pass-happy
Ivy League, which placed four quarterbacks in the top ten in total offense, Yale
was the only team to rank in the top 80 in Div. I-AA in pass defense.
The Yale defense
was the difference in the victory over Harvard. "They just smelled blood," Mazza
said proudly of his corps, which picked up seven turnovers and held Harvard quarterback
Neil Rose '02 to six yards per pass attempt -- two below his season average. "Yale
deserved to win today. In the end, they made fewer mistakes than we did," Harvard
coach Tim Murphy said. "The difference in the last two games was turnovers." The
Crimson turned the ball over 12 times against Penn and Yale -- three more times
than the Bulldogs turned the ball over all season.
The Yale seniors
came up big in this, their last of many victories. Bartholomew gained 119 yards
and the all-time Yale rushing record previously held by Dick Jauron '73. Murawczyk
put aside his struggles during the season to nail two field goals and four extra
points, in the process breaking Yale's all-time scoring record. Safety Than Merrill,
perhaps the team's top pro prospect, recorded 12 tackles and caused three Crimson
turnovers. Cornerback Todd Tomich helped shut down the vaunted Crimson passing
attack and finished his Yale career with the school records for interceptions
(16) and punt-return yardage (788). Mazza made nine tackles to add to his team-
leading total of 107, the second season he led the team. And Johnson caught 13
passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns, adding to his season and career records
for receptions, receiving yards, and touchdown catches.
"These record-breaking
seniors will be remembered for years to come for what they have done for Yale
football," Siedlecki said. "They deserved to win their final game and won it the
way they have won so many others, by battling right to the end and believing in each other right to the end."
Though the seniors
are gone, Yale won't exactly be left empty-handed next year. Lee will be back
to run the offense once again, but next season his primary targets will be juniors
Keith Reams and Billy Brown, both of whom showed promise in breaking big plays -- they each averaged about 15 yards per catch this year. Also returning for the
offense is former All-Ivy fullback Jim Keppel '02, who was third on the team in
receptions this year and provides a big target for Lee coming out of the backfield.
Even the defensive secondary, which is losing first-team All-Ivy performers Merrill
and Tomich, could match this year's success. Strong safety Ryan LoProto '02, who
led the team in interceptions, including two he brought back for touchdowns against
Columbia, will anchor the defensive backfield with Barton Simmons '04. Simmons,
in limited playing time, finished fourth in the league in passes defended and
was the first Ivy freshman ever to win league defensive player of the week honors
for his efforts against Dartmouth. But perhaps the most important Bulldog to return
is Siedlecki, who signed a long-term contract in July and reports that his family
is very happy in New Haven.
After it was over,
in a post-game press conference worlds apart from the previous week's, Mazza paid
tribute to his teammate, roommate, and best friend Johnson. "That guy, he's my
roommate, and he's one of the best players ever to play in . in I don't know
what category," Mazza said emotionally. "I would never bet against that guy on
the football field."
Mazza
and Johnson won't be back, but their "expect to win" attitude will.
So no one should be betting against the Bulldogs on the football
field, either. Siedlecki might have to change the team's motto to
the more prosaic "Belief with Evidence."  |
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