Yale tops Bucknell, wins 4th straight
NEW HAVEN — A week after holding off Dartmouth in the final 15 seconds, Yale looked flat Saturday afternoon for 52 minutes.
But the Bulldogs (4-1) were able to score a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put the game away and beat Bucknell 29-9 in a non-league contest at Yale Bowl for its fourth consecutive victory.
“We weren't executing at the level we can,” Yale coach Tony Reno said. “Bucknell made some plays and we weren't at the level we need to be at. The challenge for us is to put a full 60 minutes together.”
With the Yale offense struggling throughout the first half, Bucknell grabbed an early lead in the first quarter.
Midway through the period, a 75-yard run by Rushawn Baker (20 carries for 113 yards) was the key play in the drive as he blasted through the Yale line and was all alone in the Bulldogs' secondary. Wande Owens made a touchdown saving tackle at the Yale 10, but four plays later, Matt Schearer split the uprights with a 39-yard field goal to make it 3-0. It was also the first time Bucknell has led in a game all season.
The Bison defense kept Yale from doing anything and forced a fumble by quarterback Nolan Grooms when he was sacked by John Schlendorf on a safety blitz. Patrick Quinlivan recovered the fumble at the Yale 16. After the turnover, Bucknell drove to the Yale 3-yard line, but a fourth down pass attempt from Alex Brown to Charlie Kreinbucher fell incomplete.
Yale finally got on the board, driving 97 yards with Grooms hitting David Pantelis over the middle in the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown pass that gave the Bulldogs a 7-3 edge with 3:14 remaining before halftime.
Bucknell's defense didn't allow Yale to get outside the hashmarks at all in the first 30 minutes, both with the run and the pass.
“They did a nice job of bottling us up in the first half,” Reno said. “We made some adjustments at halftime.”
In the second half, Yale started to wear Bucknell down, but it took some time before the scoreboard reflected that. Grooms (105 yards rushing and 209 yards passing) was able to get outside the pocket in the second half and that translated to Yale's offense clicking a little better.
Grooms added the first of three touchdown runs give the Bulldogs some breathing room with a nine-yard scamper just four minutes into the second half to make it 14-3.
“I'm able to make checks by what I see from the defense,” Grooms said. “If I see green grass, I'm just going to keep going.”
Bucknell countered with a 15-yard run by Baker less than four minutes later to close it to 14-9.
But with the Yale defense clamping down on the Bison, they picked up a safety when Bucknell quarterback Ethan Grady (13-for-26 passing for 102 yards) threw the ball out of bounds from his own end zone with 26 seconds to go in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Grooms added touchdown runs of 14 and 21 yards to put the game on ice.
“From the middle of the third quarter, we scored and stopped them, scored and stopped them and then we were in victory formation,” Reno said. “We hadn't put anyone away yet this year, but we anchored down and did that. There's a lot of things to clean up, but I'm really happy with how the kids fought. It's hard to win football games.”