PHILADELPHIA – It wasn't the Senior Day showing the University of Pennsylvania football team hoped for Saturday afternoon in a 37-14 defeat to Harvard at Franklin Field in the 2022 home finale.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn drops its first home game of the year, finishing the season 4-1 at Franklin Field. Meanwhile, Harvard improved to 5-0 on the road with the victory.
*The Quakers' nine rushing yards are their fewest accumulated this season. Senior running back
Trey Flowers carried the ball six times for 16 yards after two consecutive games of 100 yards or more on the ground. Harvard gained 142 yards running the ball, marking the fourth time this season Penn's defense gave up more than 100 yards on the ground.
*Sophomore QB
Aidan Sayin completed 21 of his 31 pass attempts for 212 yards and a touchdown.
Liam O'Brien took over late in the fourth quarter, completing four passes for 65 yards.
*Senior
Rory Starkey, Jr. led Penn's receiving core with eight catches for 117 yards and a touchdown, including 38 yards after catch. Nine different receivers caught passes with four receptions for Flowers, three for
Joshua Casilli and a pair each for
Jonathan Mulatu,
Malone Howley,
Sterling Stokes and
Bryce Myers.
*Senior linebacker
Garrett Morris found himself all over the field once again with 11 total tackles (with five solos) and 1.5 TFLs. It's his third consecutive game with double-digit tackles and now has 64 total tackles on the year, good for sixth among Ivy League defenders.
*Senior defensive lineman
Jake Heimlicher recorded his eighth sack of the season, getting one for a loss of six yards Saturday. He also added four total tackles.
Jack Iuliano and
Travis McFarling combined for one early in the contest.
Gallery: (11-12-2022) Football vs. Harvard - 11/12/22
How It Happened
Penn's offense had its work cut out for them from the jump as the Quakers got the ball first but left the field following a three-and-out on the very first possession.
With a drive starting from its own 25-yard line, Harvard drove the ball down the field deep into Penn territory, but the Quakers did a fabulous job stopping the Crimson on fourth down as
Jaden Key gobbled up Scott Woods II from their 20.
Following eight plays and a 58-yard drive, Harvard struck first on an 18-yard completion from Charlie Dean to Kaedyn Odermann to put the Crimson up 7-0 with 4:53 to play in the first.
It didn't take long for the Quakers to find their quick answer, as
Aidan Sayin orchestrated an eight play, 75-yard drive to tie the game up at 7-7 after
Julien Stokes took the ball out of the motion and found the end zone for a couple yards.
Bridging between the end of the first quarter and the start of the second, the Crimson had a long drive of their own for 12 plays and 75 yards resulting in a 29-yard touchdown pass thrown by Dean to Joe Young, going ahead 14-7.
Another three-and-out by the Penn offense resulted in more quality field position for Harvard which set up a 42-yard field goal and a 17-7 lead.
Harvard capitalized on Penn's second straight drive without a first down with another long jaunt down the field as Dean found Tyler Neville deep down the right side for the score, taking a commanding 24-7 lead into the locker room.
The Crimson didn't hesitate at all after the short break, with a five play, 75-yard scoring drive to take a 31-7 lead early in the third quarter.
Penn quickly rebounded with its first points of the second half on three chunk plays from Sayin to
Rory Starkey, Jr. The receiver caught an 18-yard pass from the sophomore signal-caller to kick off the drive, followed by a 32-yard completion to the Harvard 10-yard line and then a five-yard strike for six points to cut the Crimson lead to 31-14.
After the Penn defense forced Harvard to punt the ball away with 8:54 left in the third quarter, it was another deep ball from Sayin to Starkey, Jr. that put the Quakers into the red zone following the 29-yard pitch-and-catch.
Isaac Shabay carried the ball twice for a net gain of seven yards which set up another Penn first down, a three-yard pass to Starkey, setting up the potential score just seven yards out. On first and goal,
Trey Flowers ran the ball up the middle for five yards and on the next play, ran the ball to the right side for two yards, seemingly crossing the plane but losing the ball out of the back of the endzone for the touchback.
Harvard got more points out of the deal on an 11 play, 72-yard drive concluding with a 25-yard field goal from Jonah Lipel to get out to a 34-14 cushion.
The Crimson held the Quakers to just 87 yards of total offense in the fourth quarter, while tacking on three more points via Jonah Lipel's third field goal of the day, making it 37-14.
Up Next
Penn will conclude the 2022 season next Saturday at Princeton in a game with major Ivy League title implications.
A Quaker victory over the Tigers, paired with a Harvard win over Yale in The Game would secure a four-way tie and each program claiming a piece of the championship.
Kickoff from Princeton Stadium is set for 1 p.m.
#BEGREAT
#FightOnPenn
