CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The University of Pennsylvania football team hung around but could not find the offense to catch Harvard on Saturday afternoon at the Stadium, falling 23-7. With the loss, the Quakers fell to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in Ivy League play. Harvard—which entered the day with slim hopes of winning a share of the league title—improved to 7-3 overall, 4-2 in Ivy play.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*It was the first loss for the Quakers at Harvard since November of 2013.
 
*On Penn's second quarter touchdown drive, the Red and Blue gained all 75 yards on the ground.
 
*Rory Starkey, Jr. had seven catches for 62 yards. Four of his grabs were good for first downs. He enters the final week of the season 35 yards away from becoming the 22nd player in program history with 1,000 career receiving yards.
 
*The Quakers had 11 TFLs on Saturday. It marked the fourth time this season that the team recorded 10 or more TFLs.
 
*Prince Emili had five tackles, 2.5 TFLs, 1.0 sacks and a blocked FG. Jonathan Melvin also had 2.5 TFLs for the Red and Blue to go along with a team-high nine tackles.
 
*Jaden Key had four pass breakups and five tackles for Penn.
 
*Isaiah Malcome scored his team-leading sixth rushing TD of the season.
 
How It Happened
Penn went right to the trickery on Saturday. On the Quakers' first offensive play Aidan Sayin handed off to Owen Goldsberry on what appeared to be a jet sweep. However, Goldsberry stopped and lateraled the ball back to Sayin, who then fired a pass to Joshua Casilli down the left sideline. The play was scuttled, however, when Casilli was unable to handle the pass and it ended up in the arms of James Herring for a Harvard interception.
 
The Crimson opened the scoring late in the first quarter. On a third-and-14 play from its 28, Harvard called a conservative run play. However, Aaron Shampklin found a crease through the right side and was gone, winning a 72-yard footrace to the end zone.
 
The Crimson moved their lead to double digits early in the second quarter on a 26-yard Jonah Lipel field goal, but at that point the Quakers began making their move. Taking the ball at its 25 after the kickoff, Penn needed just six plays and less than two minutes to drive down the field. Isaiah Malcome got the final 20 yards on a rush through the left side, and the Red and Blue were within three at 10-7.
 
Momentum suddenly on Penn's side, the Quakers defense forced a three-and-out and then the offense sustained a nine-play drive to the Crimson's 26-yard line. However, Daniel Karrash—who entered Saturday's game as the most accurate kicker in the Ivy League—was wide left on a 43-yard field goal that would have tied things. Instead, Harvard sent the teams to the locker rooms with the score 13-7 when Lipel—after a pair of Penn timeouts meant to ice him—kicked a 30-yard field goal to close out the first half. That came off a short drive that began with a shanked Penn punt following an errant snap, which gave the Crimson a short field to work with offensively.
 
Harvard made it a two-score game early in the third quarter, taking advantage of a Sayin fumble that gave the Crimson the ball on Penn's 20-yard line. The Penn defense held, driving their hosts back four yards and forcing Lipel to kick a 41-yard field goal that he hit true.
 
Penn drove the ball just over midfield on its next drive, at which point Sayin was picked off by Daniel Abraham. The Crimson then drove all the way down to the Quakers' 9-yard line before the defense held, and that proved important when Prince Emili blocked Lipel's 31-yard effort that would have made it a 12-point game.
 
Harvard put this game to bed late, bleeding nearly seven minutes off the clock to go 84 yards for a final touchdown and a 23-7 lead. Shampklin drove the final nail, running it straight up the middle for a 16-yard score.
 
Up Next
Penn will close out the 2021 season next Saturday with Princeton. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Franklin Field.