Two ends who ran like sprinters and a quarterback who couldn't make the track team at Bryn Mawr led Bucknell to a 24-21 upset victory over Harvard Saturday in the Stadium.
Most of the credit had to go to quarterback Bill Lerro, demoted from the first string early this year despite his passing ability--he was just too slow.
Lerro didn't play in Bucknell's opener against Gettysburg. But he got in right away against Harvard after starting quarterback Bob Marks threw one pass. It was off course and Dave Poe intercepted.
When Lerro entered the game five minutes later, Harvard was ahead 7-0, the result of a 46-yard drive directed by quarterback John McCluskey and starring halfback Wally Grant, who set an all-time Harvard record with 11 pass receptions.
Grant ran for 25 yards in two plays, both on key third-down situations, and fired an eight-yard halfback pass to Poe for the score.
Lerro took over and for four plays he couldn't move Bucknell. But, suddenly the game changed direction as Pat Conway fumbled Tom Havern's punt at midfield. Now Lerro started throwing accurately. He hit Ron Kinsey at the Harvard 28. He hit Tom Mitchell, his other end, on the 17. He hit Kinsey on the eight. This time Bucknell settled for a 21-yard field goal, but Lerro never stopped after that.
He threw all afternoon, 32 times in all, and 23 of them were completions, all to Mitchell and Kinsey. The two big ends were running short patterns--the longest Bucknell pass of the day was 31 yards--but their shifty fakes drove Harvard's pass defenders beserk.
You couldn't blame it all on the pass defense: after end Ken Boyda (shoulder separation) and halfback Dave Poe (concussion) were hurt on consecutive plays early in the second quarter, Harvard was hurting.
Without Poe there was no experienced left safety - linebacker Jerry Mechling and John Dockery had to split the position. Without Boyda, the only man to get to a Bucknell quarterback all day, there was no pass rush. Both, by the way, will miss next week's game.
Boyda and Poe were hurt while Lerro was directing Bucknell 76 yards in 11 plays-six of them complete passes--for its first touchdown on Bob Coons' two-yard dive. The score, coming in the first minutes of the second quarter, gave Bucknell a 10-7 lead.
Once Bucknell got the ball again, Lerro went back to the airways. He went six for six passing to Kinsey and Mitchell, with Mitchell catching a seven-yarder down the middle for the second Bison score, just over Dockery's desperate leap.
It was Bucknell 17, Harvard 7, and time for a change for Harvard. Bilodeau took over at quarertback for McCluskey, who had been hasmpered by a leg injury and unable to show his usual speed.
With Bilodeau at the helm, Harvard Marched 72 yards to the Bucknell 2 before an illegal-receiver penalty stopped the drive. But Harvard scored quickly when the second half started.
Two runs by Bobby Leo, a 20-yard Bilodeau-to-Frank Ulcickas pass, and a penalty moved the ball to the Bucknell 17. On fourth down Yovicsin sent placekicker Maury Dulles into the game to try a field goal.
Bilodeau decided in the huddle to call a fake field goal and passed to Leo in the flat. Getting a key block from, of all people, placekicker Dullea, Leo spunaway from two tacklers and into the end sone.
