Penn Looks For Piece Of Ivy Crown Saturday At Cornell

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It is a pretty simple equation for the University of Pennsylvania football team. Win on Saturday at Cornell, and they earn at least a piece of the Ivy League title for a second straight season.

This scenario was made possible by the Quakers impressive 27-14 win over Harvard last week. Penn scored the game-winning touchdown with just fifteen seconds left on a two-yard touchdown pass from Alek Torgersen to Justin Watson. While that was the headline play, the game was dominated by the Penn defense. That unit harassed the Harvard offense all night long, intercepting Crimson quarterback Joe Viviano three times and sacking him six times.

"I think we won certain downs, which enabled our guys to sort of pin their ears back and go after him," Penn head coach Ray Priore tells KYW Newsradio about their pass rush. "A lot of times, the rush comes with the coverage. I thought we really played really good tight coverage on them, which kept the quarterback with the ball in his hands, which allowed us a couple of extra seconds to hassle him and then ultimately take him down."

Listen to the entire interview with Penn head coach Ray Priore:

Junior defensive end Louis Vecchio led the charge on defense for Penn against the Crimson. He finished the game with three sacks, a forced fumble and an interception he returned forty yards for Penn's first touchdown. The performance earned Vecchio Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week honors.

The Quakers are 6-3 overall on the season. Their 5-1 Ivy league record has them tied with Princeton and Harvard. If all three teams win on Saturday (Princeton plays Dartmouth, Harvard battles Yale) they would all share the Ancient 8 title. Priore is happy they control their own destiny.

"It's what we work for 12 months out of the year," he says. "To get to this point in time. Our kids are laser-focused on the job at hand and fully expect our team to come out and play well."

Cornell is 4-5 on the season (2-4 in the Ivy). The Big Red started the season 3-0, a start which including an impressive come-from-behind win over then nationally-ranked Colgate. A five-game losing streak followed, but Cornell got back on the winning track last week, beating Columbia, 42-40.

"Quarterback (Dalton Banks) can throw it, they have some real good wide recievers," Priore says. "They can push the ball down the football field and really make big plays happen. So that's one of our biggest concerns coming into this one."

Banks, a sophomore, a thrown for 2,192 yards and 16 touchdowns this season for Cornell.

Last season, these two teams met at Franklin Field with Penn winning, 34-21.

Saturday's game in Ithaca, New York begins at noon.