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Yale Bulldogs Place 2nd in 2003
Ivy League Championship, Harvard Wins
In the first round of the Ivies, Saturday April
12, the Bulldogs (3-3) had their most exciting
game of the season against Cornell. The fourth
game of a very rainy day, the No. 7 Bulldogs and
No. 2 Big Red were set for a low-scoring battle
on the muddy New York Athletic Club home field.
Captain Micah Block '03 left the game early in
the first half with a pulled leg muscle, and third-string
scrumhalf Garin Geist '06 filled Block's position
for the rest of the tournament.
Cornell took advantage, scoring first to take
a 5-0 lead. "[The field conditions] especially
hurt us because we are strong in our backline,"
flanker Matt Pawlowicz '04 said.
Yale scored its only points on the game's final
possession. Wing Shawn Fields '03 received a reverse
hand-off and ran it in for a try. With time expired,
Mark Marion '03 kicked in the winning conversion
and the players on the sideline rushed the field.
"It was amazing," B-side flanker Nick
Moscow '06 said. "It was a relief [since]
we thought we were going to win it."
The first-round upset got the players pumped
up for their second-round match against No. 4-seeded
Brown.
"The win really showed us we could play
with these types of teams," Pawlowicz said.
In a much better offensive effort, the Bulldogs
shut out the Bears, 17-0. Two of the team's three
tries were scored by Luis Neiman '03 and Matt
Reagan '05. Reagan's score came at a cost, however,
as he hurt his leg on the play and was sidelined
for the championship game against Harvard.
Despite being seeded No. 4 for the Ivy Championship,
Yale considered the Crimson, along with Dartmouth,
one of the top two teams in the tournament. Because
the seedings are determined by the previous year's
championship results, Harvard's strong play this
season had no effect on its seeding, putting the
tournament's two toughest teams against each other
in the second round. After the Ivy League Championship,
Harvard went on to compete in the final four of
the men's nationals after winning several matches
in the earlier rounds.
Although the Bulldogs, a second division team,
lost to the Cantabs, a first division powerhouse,
by almost 30 points in the fall season, their
second meeting on April 13 was much closer.
Yale maintained a 7-0 lead for most of the first
half, but Harvard scored several tries to go ahead
at the end of the half.
Still, Pawlowicz said he was impressed with the
team's defensive effort. "We shut down what
they wanted to do on offense -- something we didn't
do in the fall," he said.
One of the Yale's highlights came from Second
Team All-Ivy center Andrew Williams '04, who tackled
a Harvard player in the end zone before the Cantab
could touch the ball to the ground, stopping him
from completing the try.
Yale's second-place Ivy League finish will give
Yale the No. 2 seed in next year's tournament.
BY JEFF FRIEDMAN
Contributing Reporter
Yale Daily News
Published Wednesday, April 30, 2003
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