NEW YORK--On a picturesque fall Saturday that felt more like summer, Columbia celebrated its 80th Homecoming at Baker Athletic Complex with a 23-14 over Penn.
Sporting light blue uniforms for the occasion as an ode to the 1961 Ivy League Championship team,
Dante Miller ran for a career-best 187 yards and a go-ahead 75-yard touchdown to earn the John Toner Homecoming Player of the Game award, in front of an announced crowd of 11,054, the ninth-largest Homecoming crowd in school history at Robert K. Kraft at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium. Miller finished with his second consecutive 100-yard game as he rushed for 136 yards and a touchdown at Central Connecticut State last Saturday.
Long-time Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football Al Bagnoli is now 3-3 vs. Penn, the team he coached to a record nine Ivy League Championships.
"We'll take the victory," Bagnoli said. "It's a huge victory at Homecoming. You always want to play well and kudos to our kids. I guess we're going to keep the throwback Jerseys."
Mike Roussos had a 19-yard catch and Dante Miller had a 22-yard gain to get Columbia moving on the Lions' second drive. It ultimately set up a 32-yard field goal by Alex Felkins to open up the scoring at 3-0 with 3:31 left in the first quarter.
Paul Akere momentarily knocked out Penn quarterback John Quinnelly for his fourth sack of the season on third down and 10 play midway through the second quarter.Â
"For our defense whenever we can get a sack and put them behind the chains, that put us at an advantage, so we can just roll with that and I think it was also a big energetic play for our defense knowing that we can crack through their offensive line and we can keep going," Akere said. "Getting back there and putting them in positions they don't want to be in, we saw how the quarterback was after he took a few hits, he was a bit slow to get up so it's always good to see for us."
After Columbia (4-1, 1-1 Ivy League) missed a 52-yard field goal wide left and a muffed punt set the Quakers up on Columbia's 30-yard line, Penn backup quarterback Marcus McDaniel scored a 5-yard rushing touchdown to put Penn (3-2, 0-2 Ivy League) ahead 7-3 with 4:10 left in the first half.
Columbia answered on the next play from scrimmage when the speedy Miller—who is also a sprinter on the track team— ran off left tackle, squeezed through the hole set up center Tyler Worrell and left guard Will Hamilton, and rambled 75 yards down the sidelines for a touchdown to make it 10-7. The run proved to be the go-ahead score as Columbia never trailed again.
"The offensive line the entire week has been focused on details, and our line this year has been phenomenal," Miller said. "Whether I'm watching anybody on the offensive line, I'm just waiting to get leverage. Once I get leverage, take advantage of it. That's what we coach up, we focus on details and we take advantage of details.
The Lions extended the lead to 17-7 after Mike Roussos returned Penn's punt 23-yards to set up Wills Meyer on a 41-yard touchdown catch off a pass from Green with 2:16 left in the half.
"It's huge, especially to get a touchdown off of it, especially at that point, change the momentum," Green said. "We went up 10, so it was a very good play and Wills really did the work."
Heading into the game, Penn ranked as a top-10 defense nationally in several major categories, including scoring defense with 15 points a game.
After a pass interference call on Columbia's defense on a third-and-10, Isaiah Malcome scored a 33-yard touchdown on a draw play to make it 17-14 heading into the half.
Green, who had a career-high 182 yards and a touchdown while completing 12 of 22 passes, found Ernest Robertson down the middle of the field for a 49-yard gain on the first possession of the second half. It set up Felkins' 31-yard field to extend Columbia's lead to 20-14.
Miller helped ice the game with a 41-yard run down the right sideline after finding the edge, setting up a 20-yard chip shot for Felkins to make it a two-possession game with 2:53 remaining at 23-14.Â
While Columbia's offense racked up 426 yards, the Lions' defense gave up only 267 total yards, stopping the Quakers on both of its fourth-down attempts and holding the visitors to 4-of-15 on third downs. Penn also completed only six of 25 passes for 83 yards.
"We had a good balance in what we're trying to do and attacking the game on the offensive rushing attack," Penn Head Coach Ray Priore said. "We were able to run the ball some, but we weren't able to throw the ball effectively to be successful."
Matt Sugam has been covering sports in the NYC Metropolitan area for over a decade. He has spent the last eight years covering college and professional sports as a stringer for the Associated Press, while also contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He will be covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia's School of Professional Studies. Follow him on Twitter
@MattSugam
