HANOVER, N.H. – The University of Pennsylvania football team engaged in another close contest with Ivy rival Dartmouth on Saturday, the Big Green escaping with a 20-17 victory on the day that they dedicated the new Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field.
The teams were never separated by more than one score the entire day, but Dartmouth was able to hold on to the victory with a 21-play drive that ate up nearly the entire fourth quarter which did not allow Penn to formulate a final comeback.
Penn falls to 1-2 overall while the Big Green remain undefeated at 3-0. Saturday's game was the Ivy opener for both teams.
Quaker Notemeal
*Dartmouth earned its second consecutive win over Penn, cutting the visitor's lead to 49-40-2 in the all-time series.
*After gaining just 23 yards in the first quarter, the Quakers' offense ended up totaling 107 in the first half before registering 211 yards of total offense in the contest.
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Kadari Machen led the Penn defense with 15 total tackles—along with eight solos—to go along with a TFL and a pass breakup. The linebacker group led by Machen,
Jack Fairman (9), and
John Lista (8) tallied 32 of the Quakers' 79 tackles on the afternoon.
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Malachi Hosley saw his streak of five straight games with 100 yards come to an end after Dartmouth's D held the sophomore tailback to just 82 yards on 15 carries. However, Hosley scored his first two touchdowns of the year against the Big Green.
*Dartmouth's defense did a great job zeroing in on Penn's passing game, as
Aidan Sayin passed for just 123 yards, while completing 11 of his 27 pass attempts.
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Julien Stokes had a team-high four catches for 36 yards.
How It Happened
It took nearly the entire first quarter for anyone to score, but the Big Green drew first blood when Jackson Proctor found Chris Corbo in the left corner of the end zone and the Dartmouth receiver caught the jump ball in front of a Penn defender. The six-play drive covered just 48 yards, with the big play a 28-yard reception when Proctor found Jackson Namian up the middle behind the Quakers secondary that got the ball to the Red and Blue's 6-yard line.
Penn's first points came in the Quakers' first drive of the second quarter. The drive covered 72 yards in eight plays and ended with a bit of trickery, Penn lining up Hosley next to backup QB
Liam O'Brien in the shotgun formation. Both players took a step to the right before the snap, so the ball went directly to Hosley who took it up the middle to paydirt
Dartmouth's first play after that touchdown was a long pass downfield that was tipped away from the initial receiver by a pair of Penn defenders. However, the Big Green's Grayson O'Bara was johnny-on-the-spot and made a diving catch, the unorthodox play covering 43 yards and getting the ball to the Quakers' 26. Penn's defense recovered, though, and the Big Green had to settle for a 42-yard Owen Zalc field goal that put the hosts back in front, 10-7.
Penn's offense kept the momentum going, however, again finding the end zone to take its first lead of the day. Hosley got major chunks of the yardage, 22 of them on a reception and another 16 on a rush. So it only seemed fair that he'd take it in for the final yard, again up the middle.
It looked like Dartmouth might get some more points just before halftime after Desmin Jackson reeled off a 42-yard gain on third-and-2 from the Big Green's 41. However, just two plays later
David McMorris sacked Proctor and forced him to fumble the ball,
Brady Ioannidis falling on it to preserve the lead to the break.
Dartmouth received the ball to start the second half and used that opening drive to go back in front. The nine-play, 75-yard drive ended with Proctor finding Paxton Scott open in the flat, and the Big Green receiver shaking off a Penn tackler to easily scamper into the end zone for a 12-yard TD.
Dartmouth doubled its lead on the very first play of the fourth quarter, as Zalc's 39-yard field goal attempt slid off the right post and through the uprights to make the score 20-14. That culminated a 15-play drive that took place entirely in the third.
Penn got those points back on its next drive, taking the ball down to Dartmouth's 26 before stalling.
Sam Smith split the middle on his 43-yard attempt to make the score 20-17 with 10:41 left.
Penn would only see the ball one more time after that. Dartmouth put together a classic old-school drive, using 21 plays to cover 74 yards and more importantly burning all but 11 seconds off the clock. Of particular note, the Big Green went 5-for-5 on third-down plays to keep the drive moving.
By the time the Quakers defense stiffened—they stuffed the Big Green on two plays at the 1-yard line to keep their hosts out of the end zone—there were just 11 seconds left. Penn's offense ran two plays but could only get out to its 20 before time ran out.
Up Next
The Quakers close out the non-conference portion of their schedule next Saturday at Franklin Field, hosting Bucknell for the annual Community Day game presented by PNC Bank 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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