NEW YORK CITY – The University of Pennsylvania football team needed a half to find its first lead, but once the Quakers got in front they never looked back Saturday afternoon at Columbia's Wien Stadium. The Red and Blue scored three touchdowns in the final 30 minutes on the way to defeating the Lions, 35-21.
Penn won its third in a row and improved to 4-1 overall, 2-0 in Ivy League play. Columbia fell to 1-4 overall, 0-2 in Ivy play.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn improved to 2-0 to begin Ivy League play for the first time since winning three straight in the 2022 season.
*It was Penn's second victory against a defending Ivy League champion already this season, getting wins over both Dartmouth and Columbia to begin the campaign.
*Senior wide receiver
Jared Richardson checked one major milestone off his list, becoming the sixth player in program history to reach 2,000 career receiving yards. He did so on his second touchdown of the day—a 31-yard catch from
Liam O'Brien—while totaling 157 yards on six receptions. He now sits at 2,100 yards even for his career, 266 away from passing Miles Macik '95 (2,365) for fourth all-time.
*Richardson tallied his fourth 100+ yard game in five contests this year, going over the 150-yard threshold for a second straight week. The nation's leader in receptions per game and yards per game now has 41 catches for 628 yards and eight TDs with five games remaining. The eight touchdowns tie a career best for the senior, who also recorded eight TD grabs in 2023.
*The 76-yard reception in the fourth quarter is a career-long for Richardson and longest since an 87-yard completion from Ryan Glover to Steve Farrell on Oct. 19, 2018 vs. Yale.
*Richardson becomes the first player in program history to record three touchdowns in a single game three times. He was the first player to do it twice against Cornell in 2024. He now has 23 career touchdown receptions, moving into fourth in program history and passing Rob Milanese '02 (21). He's now four from passing Macik (26) for third.
*
Liam O'Brien rebounded from two early interceptions to toss four touchdowns, adding another on the ground to total five scores.
*O'Brien is the first player in program history to account for five-or-more touchdowns in two games during a career and the second quarterback (Alek Torgersen) to pass for four-or-more TDs in a career twice. O'Brien accounted for seven scores (while passing for a program-record six) in last year's shootout victory at Cornell.
*O'Brien totaled 353 yards (272 pass, 81 rush) to lead the offense in the win.
*Outside of the extravagant numbers from Richardson, O'Brien targeted
Bisi Owens the most with the senior totaling a team-high seven catches for 79 yards and a TD.
*Penn totaled 186 yards on the ground, led by O'Brien's 81-yard effort.
Julien Stokes added 63 yards and
Donte West had 48 yards.
*
Carter Janki had a massive effort on defense, tallying 2.5 TFLs for a loss of seven yards to go along with a team-leading seven total tackles.
Cole Olsztyn added another 2.5 TFLs with six stops, recording a pair of forced fumbles and a pass breakup.
*
Ty Cortes (2.0 TFLs),
Ryan O'Connell (1.0),
Brock Cornell (1.0),
Raashed Hall (0.5), and
Hunter Lay (0.5) also registered tackles for losses.
*
Alec Wills finished with a team-high two pass breakups. Olsztyn,
John Lista, Cortes, Hall, Cornell, and
Ezra Fearon each added an additional PBU.
*Penn finished with 458 total yards of offense, while holding Columbia to 366. The Quakers out-paced the Lions in first downs, 25-20, while also winning the possession battle at 31:20.
How It Happened
Columbia received the opening kickoff, but Penn's defense set the tone early, forcing a quick three-and-out. Quarterback
Liam O'Brien jumpstarted the Quakers' offense with a run up the middle for a first down, but the play was negated by a holding penalty. Penn still managed to move into Columbia territory before O'Brien's second-down pass was tipped and intercepted by Caleb Solomon. The Lions took over at their own 22.
Turnovers also proved costly for Columbia after regaining possession. The Lions moved into Penn territory but coughed up the football along the sideline when
Cole Olsztyn forced a fumble that
Josh Narcisse recovered. Just three plays later, O'Brien threw his second interception of the quarter, giving Columbia another prime scoring opportunity.
Columbia used that turnover to its advantage, converting a six-play, 58-yard drive into six points on Michael Walters' one-yard touchdown run.
Julien Stokes gave the Quakers a burst of energy to close the first quarter, when he broke free for a 21-yard gain. A few plays later, Penn went for it on fourth-and-eight, but O'Brien turned the ball over on downs on an incomplete pass. Fortunately, the offense was bailed out on a pass interference call against Columbia's Carter McCray and got the ball down at the six-yard line.
O'Brien nearly punched the ball in, but a face mask penalty was called against the Lions' defense. On the ensuing play, O'Brien found
Michael Hegarty but was unable to cross the plane. On second-and-one at the one, O'Brien flipped a screen pass over to
Jared Richardson, who dropped the ball just as he crossed the goal line for the touchdown. Upon further review, the score was upheld as Penn tied the game up at 7-7.
The Lions only managed 19 yards on their six-play drive, highlighted by
Alec Wills' second pass breakup of the afternoon. Penn received the ball deep in its own territory, courtesy of a booming Tommy Sleeman punt to the nine-yard line.
Unfortunately for the Quakers,
Julien Stokes' 19 yard rush up the middle to begin the next drive was halted when the ball slipped out of his hands and into the grasp of Columbia's Levi Robins.
Columbia's offense was treated to a tackle-for-loss by
Carter Janki when he stopped Xander Eschelman for a loss of four yards. The very next play, Sanchez found Beckett Robinson for 32 yards down the right side for the touchdown, upping the lead to 14-7.
Penn methodically marched down the field, aiming to tie the game before halftime after starting the drive at its own 25-yard line.
Liam O'Brien connected with
Bisi Owens on a leaping grab, then
Donte West kept the drive alive with a 17-yard run on third-and-five as the game reached the two-minute timeout. O'Brien followed with an eight-yard completion to
Davis Ellis in the slot before finding Owens again—this time in the back of the end zone for a seven-yard touchdown—evening the score at 14–14, which held at halftime.
After winning the coin toss and deferring to begin the day, the Quakers took over on offense to begin the second half. Penn faced a third down early, but a designed run for O'Brien took them 24 yards to the Columbia 44. Little by little, Penn got themselves into the red zone with positive yardage thanks to 21 yards on three rushes from Stokes. On the next play, O'Brien found a seam down the right sideline, racking up 18 yards on the go-ahead score, now 21-14.
Despite Columbia finding a way to get great field position on its next drive, Penn's defense was incredibly active, tallying a sack—for both
Cole Olsztyn and
Raashed Hall—and a TFL for
Carter Janki and
Hunter Lay. Unfortunately, injuries to two key defensive backs for the Quakers marred the drive as the Lions squared the game back up at 21-21 with four minutes to go in the stanza.
The tie didn't last long, as O'Brien marched the Quakers 75 yards down the field resulting in a 31-yard pass to Richardson, who went in for his second touchdown of the day and gave Penn a 28-21 edge. The score was notable, as Richardson became the sixth player in program history to reach the 2,000-receving yard milestone.
Penn doubled its lead early in the fourth quarter on a crazy sequence. The Quakers set up to punt on its side of midfield, but
Santiago Sturla fielded a low snap and was judged to have had his knee down before he stood up and kicked it. That gave Columbia the ball at the Quakers' 29-yard line. The Red and Blue defense held, however, with
Raashed Hall breaking up a pass on fourth-and-4. That gave the Quakers the ball at their own Penn 24, and on the first play of the drive O'Brien fed Richardson for a screen pass to the left side. The senior caught the pass, found a seam and was gone down the right sideline for a 76-yard score, making it 35-21.
That proved to be enough, as the Quakers held the Lions off the board the rest of the way.
Quotable
"Stay in the moment... [the] kids are working hard … different kids came up today. We had some injuries. Guys stepped up for us. We're real proud of them. It's a long season, we need everybody to pitch in to help us win." - George A. Munger Head Coach
Ray Priore, via the Daily Pennsylvanian.
Up Next
Penn is on the road again next Saturday, this time traveling to New Haven, Conn., for a meeting with Yale. The Quakers and Bulldogs are scheduled to kick off at noon from the Yale Bowl.
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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