ITHACA, N.Y. – The University of Pennsylvania football team is bringing the Trustees' Cup back to Philly after a 28-21 victory at Cornell Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field.
 
A 21-7 cushion at halftime propelled the Quakers to victory, who improve to 7-1 overall with a 4-1 record in Ivy League play.

Quaker Notemeal
*After falling 15-12 to the Big Red last season at Franklin Field, the Quakers took home the Trustees' Cup for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. Penn has not lost in Ithaca since Nov. 18, 2006, eight straight victories away from home against Cornell.
 
*Senior running back Trey Flowers returned to the field for the first time in nearly a month in grand fashion, running the ball 26 times for 124 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Penn offense. He increases his rushing TD total to seven on the year. Flowers has recorded two 100+ rushing yard games in a row, netting 149 against Georgetown on October 8.
 
*Sophomore QB Aidan Sayin completed just eight passes for 137 yards, but recorded a pair of TD throws, one to Joshua Casilli and the other to Sterling Stokes. Casilli led the team with three catches for 49 yards, while Julien Stokes had two catches for 32 yards.
 
*For the second consecutive week, Garrett Morris paced the Penn defense with his 10 total tackles (five solos) along with a pass breakup and a 22-yard interception return. Joey Slackman finished with eight tackles and a sack, while Jonathan Melvin tallied seven tackles with 3.5 TFLs.
 
*Penn's 272 total yards against Cornell is the second-lowest total of the season behind a 270-yard performance against Lafayette earlier in the year. Both proved to be victories for the Quakers.
 
*The Quakers now control their own destiny with two games remaining on the schedule, taking on Harvard at Franklin Field next weekend and in two weeks at Princeton. The Tigers head into the ninth week with an 8-0 record following a victory over Dartmouth Saturday, while Harvard fell to Columbia, 21-20 to drop to 3-2 in Ivy play.
 
How It Happened
Penn scored the first points of the game late in the first quarter, but it was an odd situation that got them into the end zone. Starting on its own 6-yard line, the Quakers used two big plays to get down the field and into the end zone. Following three Trey Flowers running plays that gained 18 yards, Aidan Sayin hit Julien Stokes down the left sideline for 28 yards to get Penn across midfield. Two plays later, Sayin was looking over to the sideline when center Trevor Radosevich snapped the ball to him. Sayin appeared startled when the ball hit him, but he recovered and then immediately fired the ball down the right sideline. With Cornell's defense caught watching, Sterling Stokes (no relation to Julien) ran under the ball, caught it, and easily scampered into the end zone. The play covered 47 yards.
 
Cornell needed exactly two plays to tie things up. Well, three if you want to count one of them as Javonni Cunningham's 60-yard kickoff return. That set the Big Red up at Penn's 30-yard line, and after a rushing play lost a yard Cornell QB Jameson Wang rolled to his left, stopped on a dime, and found All-Ivy receiver Thomas Glover in the end zone for a 31-yard score.
 
Early in the second quarter, Penn's defense and special teams gifted the offense great field position. First, a Paul Jennings sack forced Cornell to punt from out of its own end zone. The kick was then partially blocked by Luke Hoggard and went out of bounds at the Big Red's 20. From there, Trey Flowers did the heavy lifting including the final four yards off a direct snap and it was 14-7 Quakers.
 
Penn was again gifted great field position late in the quarter, thanks to the defense. Facing a third-and-long on Cornell's 30, Wang threw a pass up the middle that was picked off by Garrett Morris who returned it to the Big Red's 13. Just two plays later, Flowers was spinning his way into the end zone for a 21-7 Penn lead.
 
Cornell drove down the field and got into the red zone in the final minute of the half. However, the Penn defense stiffened, forcing the Big Red to line up for a 37-yard field goal against a stiff wind as the half's final play. The hosts tried a little trickery at that point, holder Ayden McCarter catching the snap and tossing a lateral to kicker Jackson Kennedy who ran around the left end. However, the play was scuttled by Jack Fairman and Jack Iuliano and the teams went to their locker rooms with the Quakers up by 14.
 
Penn made it 28-7 quickly in the third. Cornell started with the ball but went three-and-out, and then Jake Gonzalez got a hand on the Big Red punt to set Penn up with the ball at the Cornell 47. Flowers gained nine yards on first down, and on the next play Sayin used play-action and found Joshua Casilli behind the Cornell defense for a 38-yard touchdown pass.
 
To its credit, Cornell responded. The Big Red drove 75 yards over nine plays, covering nearly five minutes of game time, and got to the end zone when Wang carried it himself around the left side for the final four yards. The score was still 28-14 after three quarters.
 
Cornell's first drive of the fourth quarter was stalled after getting first down yardage. An incomplete pass from Wang and a pass for a loss forced McCarter to punt from the 47-yard line.
 
After Penn punted away with under 10 minutes to go, the Big Red had a prime opportunity to go down by a TD, but couldn't convert as two consecutive incompletions from Wang turned the ball over on downs from the Penn 13.
 
With 6:17 remaining on the clock and the Quakers driving into the red zone, Sayin found his pass intercepted by Anthony Chiderne-Alfaro at the Penn 36 with the Big Red taking over in Quaker territory once again. Two straight drops by Will Kenner on third and fourth downs gave Penn the ball back in the late stages of the fourth quarter.
 
Penn's defense came up big once again on fourth down with 3:33 to go in the contest as Wang rushed right for a four-yard gain, well short of the first down marker, with Garrett Morris on the stop.
 
Following a Jeremiah Lewis sack of a loss of 15 yards with 1:03 to go, the Big Red took the ball over and attempted to cut into the Penn lead. Driving down the field, Wang found Thomas Glover for nine yards and the touchdown with just four seconds remaining to trim the Quaker lead to 28-21.
 
McCarter attempted the onside kick, but was gathered up by the Penn special teams unit, as the Quakers held on four the one-score victory.
 
Up Next
Penn is back at Franklin Field next Saturday, hosting Harvard in its final home game of the season. The Quakers and Crimson will kick off at 1 p.m.