PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania football team won its 2024 home opener on Saturday, defeating Colgate 27-17 at Franklin Field.
 
The Quakers improved to 1-1 on the young season ahead of its Ivy League opener at Dartmouth next Saturday. The visiting Raiders fell to 1-4.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn earned its sixth consecutive win over Colgate in the all-time series, improving to 8-2-1 against the Raiders.
 
*George A. Munger Head Coach Ray Priore won his 49th career game at the helm of the program, pushing him into a tie for fifth in career wins at Penn with Louis Young (1923-29). He's one shy of becoming just the fifth coach in program history with 50 wins.
 
*Malachi Hosley rushed for 131 yards on 17 carries in the contest. He has five straight games of 100-or-more yards rushing dating back to the end of last season. Hosley is the first Quaker to accomplish the feat since Sam Mathews in 2003.
 
*Aidan Sayin was masterful in his quarterbacking performance, completing 29 of his 41 pass attempts for 320 yards, three touchdowns and zero picks. He became the program's all-time leader in completions with 665 over 27 career games, passing Gavin Hoffman (1999-2001) at 651.
 
*Sayin targeted eight different receivers with all eight making at least one catch. Jared Richardson had a team-high 96 yards receiving on six catches with a score in the victory. The junior wideout has scored two TDs on 194 yards over the first two games of the season.
 
*Julien Stokes added a team-high seven catches for 50 yards, while Alex Haight had three grabs for 71 yards, including a 55-yard reception.
 
*Junior kicker Sam Smith was 2-for-3 on field goal tries during the game, making a 36-yarder to put the Quakers ahead by 10 with 5:21 remaining in the fourth quarter.
 
*The defense was led by a great performance from Shiloh Means, who totaled 10 tackles. Jack Fairman added eight, Kadari Machen with seven.
 
*Alec Wills recorded his first-career interception, returning it for five yards. That was Penn's first pick of the 2024 campaign.
 
*Penn out-gained Colgate, 456-343, including 320-229 through the air. The Raiders won the time of possession battle, however, holding the ball for 33:53 as opposed to the Quakers' 26:07.
 
*Saturday's matchup featured first-career starts for offensive lineman Luke Sacchetti, as well as for defensive lineman Brady Ioannidis, linebacker Max Matolcsy, and cornerback Josh Narcisse.

*Colgate receiver Treyvhon Saunders caught 16 passes, setting the Penn record for receptions by an opponent. The previous record of 13 was shared by Columbia's Matt Less (1989) and Princeton's Rob Peters (1940).  
 
*Penn's all-time winningest head coach Al Bagnoli participated in the opening coin toss after being inducted as a member of the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame Class XIII on Friday evening. Bagnoli coached the Quakers from 1992-2014 and led the Red and Blue to nine Ivy League titles, all of them outright, giving him more outright championships than any other coach in league history.
 
How It Happened
Penn wasted little time scoring on Saturday, taking the opening kickoff and marching straight to paydirt. The Quakers used nine plays to cover the 75 yards, with Sayin going 6-of-8 passing on the drive. His final completion went to Bryce Myers up the middle, the tight end barreling through a few Colgate defenders to get into the end zone.
 
Colgate won the field battle over the next few drives after that, and it looked like the Raiders might get their first points of the day when they started on their own 43 and drove to Penn's 16. However, the drive stalled there and then Luke Vogeler was wide left on a 33-yard field goal.
 
Given the ball and some momentum, Penn drove for its second score of the day. The big play in the six-play, 80-yard drive was a Sayin pass over the middle to Alex Haight behind the 'Gate secondary; Haight was caught from behind but not after a 55-yard gain. Two plays later, Sayin hit Casilli in the back of the end zone on the final play of the first quarter and the Quakers' lead was 14-0 after one. The change of field served as a change of fortune for Colgate's offense. The Raiders marched 83 yards to their first points of the day, the touchdown coming when quarterback Zach Osborne kept it and ran straight up the middle for 31 yards. The 13-play drive took nearly the entire first half of the second quarter (7:26).
 
Penn got a great return from Julien Stokes on the ensuing kickoff, out to the Quakers' 40-yard line. The Red and Blue marched all the way to Colgate's 2-yard line before deciding to try a field goal on fourth down. The kick was wide left, though, and the margin remained seven points.
 
The Red and Blue's next drive yielded a more favorable result. Starting the drive with exactly three minutes left in the half, the Quakers needed just over a minute to drive 75 yards in only four plays, the final one coming when Sayin lofted a pass down the left sideline that Richardson caught over a 'Gate defender as he fell into the end zone. The play went for 36 yards and put Penn's lead back at two scores at the break, 21-7. Colgate received the kickoff to start the second half and turned it into three points when Vogeler nailed a 35-yard field goal that made the score 21-10.
 
Penn's first drive of the half was defined by chunk yardage, the Quakers gaining first downs on each of their first three plays and four of the first five. The drive ultimately stalled at Colgate's 4-yard line but Sam Smith was true from 21 yards to make the score 24-10.
 
Colgate got it back to a one-score game with 9:58 left in the fourth when Jake Stearney rolled out to the right and found Brady Hutchinson just inside the right pylon. That capped a 14-play drive that ate up more than eight minutes of game time and bridged the third and fourth periods.
 
Penn was able to get the margin back to ten, Smith kicking a 36-yard field goal that made the score 27-17 with 5:21 left for what would turn out to be the final points of the game..
 

Up Next
The Quakers open Ivy League play next Saturday at Dartmouth; kickoff with the Big Green is slated for 1 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
 
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