PHILADELPHIA – The RV/RV University of Pennsylvania football team started fast with a 24-0 halftime lead and finished strong, rolling over Columbia, 34-14, Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field on Family Day.
 
The Quakers improve to 5-0 on the season with a 2-0 mark in Ivy League play, handing the Lions (3-2, 0-2 Ivy) their second Ivy loss of the year. In addition, Penn is 3-0 at home for the first time since 2018, in which the victory also came against Columbia, a 13-10 final.

Quaker Notemeal
*Penn continues to follow the path of the 2003 team, starting the season 5-0 for the first time since then. The 2003 Quakers went 10-0 en route to their 13th Ivy League title.
 
*Senior defensive back Kendren Smith had himself a whale of a game on defense, totaling three takeaways (two forced fumbles and an interception). The interception belonged to Micah Morris, who scampered home 30 yards for the touchdown, the Quakers' first interception return for a TD since Garrett Morris on Oct. 30, 2021 vs. Brown.
 
*Joshua Casilli registered 159 receiving yards, the most since Ryan Cragun had 208 against Yale on Oct. 26, 2019. He also had 11 catches, his second game of 10 or more of the season. Casilli caught 10 passes in the season-opener against Colgate.
 
*Aidan Sayin was excellent once again for the second straight week, showing poise as the sophomore gunslinger passed for 299 yards on 29 completions with three touchdown passes without turning the ball over. Sayin has a season QBR of 129.43 in five games, completing 129 of his 200 pass attempts for 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. He's passed for 1,209 yards so far this year.
 
*Sayin found nine different receivers on the day, led by Casilli's 11 catches. Rory Starkey, Jr. was second on the team with five catches while Julien Stokes had four catches. Stokes was the recipient of two of Sayin's touchdown throws on the afternoon.
 
*There wasn't really one player that stood out Saturday as a leading tackler, but many, many different players got involved with five tackles for Smith and four each out of Garrett Morris, Jack Fairman and Julian Talley. Morris and Paul Jennings each recorded a TFL, while Jennings had one of the Quakers' two sacks, as Will Seiler and Jack Iuliano combined for the other.
 
*Graham Gotlieb has been excellent kicking the ball this season and showed why once again against Columbia on Saturday afternoon, going 2-for-2 on field goal tries with a long of 34 yards. He also was 4-for-4 on extra points. This year, Gotlieb is a perfect 6-for-6 on field goals while going 15-for-16 on point afters.
 
*Penn tallied 399 yards of total offense against the Lions including 299 through the air and 100 on the ground (with 60 yards rushing from Jonathan Mulatu on 19 carries. The Quakers held Columbia to just 73 yards rushing on 3.8 yards per carry, despite giving up 355 passing yards to the quarterbacking tandem of Joe Green and Caden Bell.
 
*Head Coach Ray Priore is now 4-3 against former Penn head coach Al Bagnoli since the latter took over the Columbia program. Priore reached a milestone with the victory over the Lions Saturday, earning his 25th career Ivy win as the man in charge. Priore-led Quaker teams are now 16-0 when leading at halftime at home and 18-0 when in the lead at the end of three quarters.
 
How It Happened
Columbia received the ball first after Penn won the coin toss and deferred to the second half. After getting a first down on the second play from scrimmage, the Quaker defense forced Columbia to punt the ball away on its first drive.
 
Penn moved the chains on Sayin's first chunk play of the game with a 33-yard pass to Casilli, which put the ball up on the Columbia 23-yard line. Mulatu rushed two plays for a net gain of three yards before Gotlieb booted a 34 yarder to give Penn the early 3-0 lead. With 9:54 to play in the first quarter, the Penn defense pressured the Joe Green on back-to-back plays, forcing the Lions to a three-and-out.
 
A drive starting from its own 11-yard line with 6:24 to play in the first stanza, the Lions started things off strong with a 41-yard pass from Green to JJ Jenkins for the first down. Columbia moved the chains all the way down to the Penn 28 and on 4th and 3, Green's pass to the left side intended for Bryson Canty was incomplete, broken up by Smith to turn the ball over on downs.
 
After getting the ball back with just 19 seconds on the clock before the second quarter, Penn needed just one defensive play to get more points, as Micah Morris was in the right place at the right time, putting his hands up and intercepting Green at the 29-yard line, running 30 yards to the end zone to put the Quakers up 10-0. The second quarter started the same way the first ended, as Kendren Smith tallied his first of three takeaways on the day, forcing the fumble on Ryan Young's rush and recovering it following a gain of 11 yards to the Columbia 13. That set up glorious field position and an opportunity for Sayin to step up and throw a six-yard pass to Julien Stokes for the TD, getting out to a 17-0 lead. Green aired it out downfield for Canty on the 58-yard completion, but it was all for naught as his next pass found the hands of Smith again for his second caused turnover of the game, downing the ball for a touchback. Sayin orchestrated a brilliant drive down the field with 7:19 remaining in the half, completing three passes with some strong work from Mulatu to move the ball from the Penn 21 all the way to the Columbia 42 in the final four minutes of the first half. Sayin then found Casilli for the 42-yard pitch and catch and with Gotlieb's converted extra point try, put the Quakers ahead at the half, 24-0. Penn took a giant chunk out of the third quarter clock (over eight minutes to be exact) with a 15 play, 59 yard drive to open the second half, resulting in three points on the 33-yarder by Gotlieb, his second of the day to make it 27 unanswered points for the Quakers.
 
With 6:44 to go in the third, Columbia tried its best to get points on the board for the first time, but a 45-yard completion from Green to Canty was nullified by Kendren Smith's second forced fumble of the game (his third takeaway), giving the ball right back to the offense. The Quakers rattled off nine more plays before Sayin set up Julien Stokes with his second TD of the day, a six-yarder to the left of the end zone as Penn pushed forward with a 34-0 lead.
 
Columbia finally got on the scoreboard right before the third quarter whistle with a four-yard pass from Green to Libman, cutting the Penn lead back down to 34-7.
 
For the second consecutive week, Penn was able to see a lot of its second and third units on the field in the fourth quarter as Columbia used that to its advantage, scoring its final seven points of the contest on a nine-yard pass from Caden Bell to Canty to make it 34-14.
 
After Casilli recovered the onside kick with 1:11 to go, a two-yard rush up the middle by Chandler McGruder and a kneel down from Ryan Zanelli sealed it as the Quakers used a dominant first half effort to come away with a 34-14 victory.
 
Up Next
The Quakers will attempt to go 6-0 on the year, staying put next Saturday at Franklin Field, hosting Yale at 1 p.m. for Homecoming presented by David Auto.