PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania football team closed out the non-conference portion of its 2024 season with a 31-21 win over Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field.
Penn evened its overall record at 2-2, while Bucknell is also at .500 at 3-3.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn earned its 10th consecutive victory over Bucknell dating back to 2003, extending its all-time series dominance to a 33-5 record. The Quakers are now 26-3 against the Bison at Franklin Field.
*The Quakers also prolonged their winning streak against Patriot League opponents to eight straight since Oct. 9, 2021.
*The Red and Blue upped their home record at Franklin Field to 2-0.
*George A. Munger Head Coach
Ray Priore earned his 50th career victory, both overall and at Penn. He becomes just the fifth head coach in program history to reach the milestone, officially surpassing Louis Young (1923-29) for fifth place.
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Malachi Hosley has scored four touchdowns in his last two games, picking up a pair of TDs on 146 yards rushing on Saturday. In just four games this season, Hosley has carried the ball 80 times for 535 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Ivy League.
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Jamal Bing, Jr. added 68 yards on the ground and scored his first-career touchdown in the first quarter.
*Quarterback
Aidan Sayin had an efficient afternoon slinging the pigskin, completing 75 percent (15-for-20) of his pass attempts—his best mark since 2022—for 190 yards and a TD.
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Jared Richardson was the beneficiary of Sayin's touchdown pass—a 49-yard reception—and has a TD in three of his four games this year.
*Going up against the nation's leading return specialist in Bucknell's TJ Cadden, Penn's
Julien Stokes had himself quite the afternoon returning three kicks for a total of 104 yards.
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John Lista led the Quakers defensively with 11 total tackles and 3.5 tackles-for-loss along with a sack. He also had two QB hurries. All three of
Kadari Machen,
Jack Fairman, and
Shiloh Means added eight total stops.
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Carter Janki forced Penn's third fumble of the season, with
Sam Carlson landing on top of it for the recovery. Carlson also had two TFLs to his name.
How It Happened
Bucknell received to start the game and immediately flipped the field, TJ Cadden taking the opening kickoff nearly to midfield. The Bison then drove all the way to Penn's 20-yard line, but on fourth down they tried to outmuscle the Quakers on the line and were unsuccessful, the Red and Blue stacking up Paul Neel short of the line to gain.
Penn's offense took flight immediately, with an eight-play drive to paydirt. The key plays were a screen to Owens that went for 44 yards to the Bison's 22, and then after a holding penalty brought the ball back to the 32 Bing ran around right end for 27 yards. Bing then finished the drive on the next play, going up the gut for the final five yards to make it 7-0.
Bucknell came right back to level the game with 10-play drive for its first points of the game. The Bison used a nice mix of rushes and short passes to cover the 78 yards, Tariq Thomas running it through the left side of the line for the final nine. It was 7-7 after one.
Julien Stokes took the ensuing kickoff into Bucknell territory, but the Quakers were stymied at the Bison's 6-yard line when Sayin was sacked by John Schlendorf on third down. That left
Sam Smith with a 30-yard field goal, which he put through the uprights to make the score 10-7.
Bucknell had a chance to tie it up for a second time, driving all the way to Penn's 11, but Matt Schearer's 26-yard field goal was wide right. However,
Aidan Sayin's pass was picked off near midfield when his intended receiver slipped running his route, and given a second life Schearer kicked a 44-yard field goal that again was wide right. Penn's lead was still 10-7 at the half.
Stokes returned the second-half kickoff to Penn's 42-yard line, and then Sayin went to work as he completed four of five passes to move the ball to Bucknell's 36. Hosley took it from there, bouncing through the right side and running to daylight. His footrace with a pair of Bucknell defenders ended with him diving and knocking the ball off the right pylon for a touchdown that extended Penn's lead to double digits at 17-7.
Bucknell was moving the ball down the field on its first drive of the second half, as well, but on a third-down play at Penn's 40 Bison QB Ralph Rucker IV was sacked and stripped of the ball by
Carter Janki, with
Sam Carlson falling on it for the Quakers at the 38.
Penn took advantage. Once again mixing the pass and the run, the Quakers needed just seven plays to cover the 62 yards and again find paydirt. Hosley again scored it, this time on a nice misdirection play that saw him roll through a massive hole on the left side of the line for a 13-yard TD.
Bucknell got seven of them back on its next possession. The Bison drove 75 yards on nine plays—converting a fourth and 6 along the way—and Rucker found Nate Anderson in the back left corner of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown to make the score 24-14 late in the third.
Penn needed just three plays to re-establish its 17-point lead. Bing ran twice, for three and 10 yards, and then Sayin found Richardson behind the Bison defense and hit him in stride for a 49-yard score to make it 31-14 after three.
Bucknell again answered with another 75-yard drive, this one taking 11 plays and a little more than four minutes of game clock. Thomas was the scorer for the second time on the day, making the score 31-21 with a little less than 12 minutes left in the game. However, that ended up being all the scoring in the game.
Up Next
Penn is all Ivy the rest of the way, starting next Saturday when they host Columbia at Franklin Field. The Quakers and Lions are scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m.
For the latest on Penn football, follow @PennFB on X (formerly Twitter), @PennFootball on Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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