Bulldogs prevail in preseason scrimmage

On Sat., Sept. 5, the Bulldogs defeated the Union College Dutchmen by a score of 26-14 in a preseason scrimmage. The first half was played as a regular game, while the second half continued with altered rules that prevented punting and kickoffs. As standout kicker last year, Mike Murawczyk, MC '01, said, the result of this preseason rule was that "more time could be spent working on offense or defense."

Yale won the battle of statistics, most notably gaining more than double the Dutchmen's rushing and passing yards with 213 and 298, respectively.

Team members had generally positive reactions to the scrimmage. "I felt that we definitely played at another level from last year," 1997 Ivy League Rookie of the Year cornerback Todd Tomich, TC '01, said. Tomich returned three punts in Saturday's scrimmage for a total of 45 yards. "As far as being able to compete, I still have questions in the back of my mind, but we're headed in the right direction," he said.

"Things went a lot better.... Last year we pretty much got killed [in the Union Scrimmage]--anyone who played last year will tell you that this time we went out and treated it like a real game," Murawczyk said. He also suggested that this year's team is committed to winning, especially with a year of experience under coach Jack Siedlecki.

"As far as [next Saturday's game against] Brown goes, I think we have a great shot at it," he said. "We really didn't have any offense last year. But we had about 500 offensive yards to Union's 100 or so. Things look a lot better." --Sharon Lin

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