EASTON, Pa. – The University of Pennsylvania football team earned its first win of the 2019 season on Saturday afternoon, defeating Lafayette 28-24 at Fisher Stadium.
 
Lafayette (0-5) drew first blood on Saturday, taking the opening kickoff and driving 46 yards to Penn's 25-yard line. From there, Jeffrey Kordenbrock kicked a 43-yard field goal and the Leopards led, 3-0. Those were the only points in a quick first quarter.
 
Penn (1-1) had a chance to draw level early in the second quarter, but David Perkins' 39-yard field goal was blocked and Lafayette took over. It only delayed the inevitable. On the Quakers' next drive, they drove 76 yards over nine plays and took a 7-3 lead when Nick Robinson rolled out to the right and found Ryan Cragun for a four-yard touchdown pass.
 
Lafayette came right back and re-took the lead with a seven-play, 74-yard drive that ended with Keegan Shoemaker hitting Zadok Scott down the left sideline for a 29-yard score.
 
Penn immediately responded. With the clock winding down on the first half, the Quakers took 13 plays to drive 71 yards and took a 14-10 lead into the half when Robinson found Cragun in the left corner of the end zone for their second touchdown connection of the day.
 
The third quarter was scoreless, with Penn avoiding trouble late in the period when Robinson hit Rory Starkey, Jr. for a 53-yard gain that took the Quakers from their own 1-yard line into Lafayette territory. The drive stalled after that, but that play nevertheless paid dividends as the Quakers punted and downed the ball on Lafayette's 3-yard line.

With the field effectively flipped, the Leopards went three-and-out and then punted to Sam Philippi who made a fair catch at the Lafayette 42. The Quakers quickly took advantage of the short field, Robinson hitting Tyler Herrick for 25 yards on the first play to get them into the red zone. Six plays later, Karekin Brooks fielded a snap in the Wildcat formation and ran it in behind the right side of the line for a 21-10 Penn lead.
 
After another defensive stop, It looked like Penn would put this game to bed on its next possession as the Red and Blue used pure power—10 rushing plays—to drive 72 yards and knock more than seven minutes off the clock. However, on second-and-goal Brooks was stripped of the ball and Lafayette recovered and advanced it to its 20-yard line.
 
Before you knew it, Lafayette had gone 80 yards and was in the end zone. The Leopards then converted a two-point conversion—hello, Philly Special—and this was a three-point game (21-18) with 2:04 left. The drive took less than two minutes and was helped by a late-hit penalty on the defense and a 44-yard Shoemaker pass play to Quinn Revere.
 
With the game suddenly in the balance, Brooks atoned and single-handedly salted this game away. On Penn's first play from scrimmage, the senior went for 40 yards which put the ball in Lafayette territory. Two plays later, he hammered the final nail in the coffin by going up the gut and through the Leopard defense for 31 yards to paydirt.
 
Lafayette scored on the final play of the game to set the final score, Shoemaker hitting Scott for 11 yards.
 
For the day, Brooks had 202 yards on 29 carries, in the process becoming the first player in program history with three career 200-yard rushing games. Cragun broke out with eight catches for 128 yards, while Herrick had six receptions for 68 yards. Robinson ended the day 18-for-25 passing for 270 yards. As a team, Penn ended the game with 530 yards of offense.
 
Penn returns to action next Friday night, opening Ivy League play against Dartmouth at 7 p.m. The game—Penn's first at home this season—will air to a national television audience on ESPNU, and Penn will celebrate 125 years of Franklin Field throughout the contest.