PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania football team got its first Ivy League win of 2019 in dramatic fashion on Saturday at Franklin Field.
Daniel Karrash kicked a 22-yard field goal—his first attempt as a collegian—with just two seconds left to give the Quakers a 38-36 win over Brown.
Penn improved to 3-4 overall, 1-3 in Ivy play with the victory. Brown fell to 1-6 overall, 0-4 in the Ivies.
Karrash's kick, which he acknowledged was the first walk-off winner of his career, was an exclamation point on a defining drive when Penn needed it most. The Quakers' offense was essentially shut down the entire second half, its only touchdown coming on a one-play drive after the defense gifted them with an interception. Brown, meanwhile, had made up a 16-point deficit to take a 36-35 lead with 4:10 left.
Penn embarked on a drive that wound up being 16 plays—six more than the Quakers had run in its previous five drives during the half—and covering 74 yards. It brought the Red and Blue all the way down to Brown's 1-yard line, before
Nick Robinson took a snap on the right hash and took a knee in the middle of the field at the 6. With five seconds left, the game was on Karrash's foot and he went right down the middle with his kick.
Penn was forced to kick off after the points, and after Brown took a knee they attempted a final pass play that was intercepted by today's defensive hero,
Brian O'Neill.
It gave Penn the win in a game during which Brown ran 94 plays (Penn ran 62) and outgained the Quakers in yardage, 477-304.
The teams combined for just one first down across the game's first three possessions, and it looked like that might be the case for a fourth as Brown's EJ Perry was stopped right at the line to gain on fourth down at midfield. The refs called a first down, which was confirmed by a review, and then on the very next play Perry tucked the ball into his running back's gut…held it there…and then saw an opening. He pulled it back, burst into open field, and was gone. Brown's lead was 7-0 after one.
A switching of the fields saw a switching of momentum. After the defenses dominated the first quarter, allowed just seven points and 136 yards (3.8 yards per play), the offenses put up 33 points and 358 yards (6.9 per play) in the second.
Penn got on the board in dominant fashion early in the period. The Bears punted from inside the Penn 40-yard line for the second time in the game and interfered with
Sam Philippi as he attempted to receive it. That put the ball on the Quakers' 31, and the Red and Blue needed just seven plays to go 69 yards and tie it up.
Nick Robinson completed five passes on the drive for 65 yards to lead the charge.
The defense played a role in Penn taking its first lead of the day. Brown tried some post-Halloween trickery, as Perry flipped a pass to Mike McGovern on the right side and he looked to pass the ball upfield. Instead,
Benji Mowatt knocked the ball out of his hands to force a fumble, then picked it up and returned it 11 yards to Brown's 25. From there, it took four plays to score,
Abe Willows taking it around the left side and beating the Bears defense to the pylon for the TD.
Brown needed just five plays after that score to go 79 yards and make it 14-13, but the Bears were denied the tie with the extra-point attempt bounced off the right upright.
Penn came right back. The Quakers went 75 yards in four plays, three of them 24-yard pass plays from Robinson to Rory Starkey Jr.,
Ryan Cragun, and then Cragun again on the scoring play.
Brown fired the final salvo of the half, Perry hitting Jakob Prall in stride down the left sideline for a 37-yard touchdown with just 19 seconds left. It was the final play of an 88-yard scoring drive that took less than two minutes. The Bears kicked an extra point, but when Penn was called for roughing the kicker they decided to wipe the point off the board and go for two instead. Jason McLeod broke up Perry's pass and so it was 21-19 at the half.
Brown started the second half with the ball, but on the Bears' third play O'Neill picked off Perry at Brown's 29 and a returned it to the 11. Robinson hit Starkey on the very next play for the score, and just one minute into the period it was 28-19. Exactly one minute after that, O'Neill was recovering a fumble and returning it to the house for a 35-19 Quakers lead.
Brown was able to hold on to the ball on its next drive, for 16 plays and nearly seven minutes of game action. However, the Bears had to settle for three points when they had fourth-and-goal on Penn's 1-yard line but were called for a false start. Dawson Goepferich kicked the 24-yard field goal to make it 35-22.
Brown made it a one-possession game with 13:09 left when Allen Smith ran it in from a yard out. That capped an 11-play, 47-yard drive that bridged the third and fourth quarters and started when a shanked Penn punt allowed the Bears to start in Quakers territory.
Penn returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, but a hold was called and instead the Quakers started deep in their own territory and went three-and-out. Brown got the ball on the Penn side of midfield and rolled downhill to the end zone against a gassed Penn defense. The Bears needed eight plays to reach paydirt, Perry scoring on a 16-yard scoot around the right side on fourth-and-3.
Penn could have used a sustained drive after that; instead, Robinson tried to hit Cragun for a long strike and it was easily intercepted by Joseph Shell near midfield. However, the Penn defense held on fourth-and-10 as the Bears got about 9.5 yards. That set the stage for the Red and Blue's winning drive.
Penn is back at home next Saturday, hosting Cornell in the annual Homecoming game. The Trustees' Cup also will be on the line. Kickoff between the Quakers and the Big Red is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
#UPRising
#FightOnPenn
