PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania sprint football team won its first game of 2025 on Friday night, overcoming St. Thomas Aquinas 15-14 at Franklin Field.
 
Freshman Xavier May IV brought home his first collegiate touchdown in the third quarter to lift Penn to its first win of the year and a 1-2, 0-1 CSFL South record.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*May and Jake Wang scored their first touchdowns of the season in the victory.
 
*Senior Wang caught a team-high six receptions for 70 yards while first-year May rushed for a Quaker leading 79 yards.
 
*Freshman Ryan Goodrich tallied a team-high seven tackles. On the special team side, Josh Johnson recorded the sole interception, and Marcus Butler forced a fumble.
 
How It Happened
The Spartans opened the game with a fury, as Trevon Washington returned a kickoff for a touchdown to give St. Thomas Aquinas a 7-0 lead not even a minute into the game. Penn did not take the opening tally lightly, as quarterback Nield and running back Goodman steadily brought the rock down the field to the STAC's 30. The senior tossed a 19-yard pass to fellow senior Wang, who caught it in the endzone to cut the deficit to 7-6 with 9:05 left of the first.
 
St. Thomas Aquinas held steady after the score, having control of the ball for the rest of the first, scoring off a 12-play 70-yard possession to lead 14-6 after the first 15 minutes. STAC's defense continued the momentum to open the second, with three quick stops and a blocked punt to start the first possession of the second at Penn's 48. The Spartans made it as far as the Red and Blue's 20 before junior Johnson picked off quarterback Tynez Harp with 12:02 left of the first half.
 
Junior Goodman tried to capitalize on the interception, leading the offense down the gridiron off three-straight rushes 18 yards towards the Quakers' 45. The running back continued his trek down the field, adding another 19 yards on the ground to bring Penn to STAC's 20-yard line. Quarterback Nield brought the offense even closer at the six-yard line with less than a minute to go in the second. Freshman Ezra Granet came out on third down to nail his first field goal of the game to put the score at 14-9 heading into the break.
 
Penn came out of the halftime break trying to gain some fire, but St. Thomas Aquinas' defense continued to stay hot, forcing freshman Granet to quickly come out to punt. Paul Tjoumakaris led the defense on the Spartans' first possession of the half, tallying back-to-back stops to force Carl Auguste to punt.
 
Freshman Goodrich returned the punt for 16 yards to set the offense up on their next drive. Freshman May rushed for 12 yards on three plays to reach the endzone and score his first collegiate touchdown for the lead. Penn went for two but was denied, holding the score at 15-14 with 5:42 left of the third.
 
STAC wasted no time on its next drive, carried by a 13-yard rush and 29-yard pass that brought the Spartans down to the Red and Blue's 19. Back-to-back penalties pushed STAC back to Penn's 30, and a sack for a loss of 15 yards by Luke Pajovich ended the drive and the third quarter.
 
The final 15 minutes of regulation were highlighted by the defenses as both offenses were forced to punt on their first possessions of the fourth quarter. With 9:23 on the clock, the Red and Blue started their possession from their own 36, steadily moving down to St. Thomas Aquinas' 46 off dashes from Johnson and May. Unfortunately, two straight incomplete passes gave STAC the ball at their 35 with 4:42 left.
 
Right off the Spartans' first pass, Nickolas Simonetta caught the rock, but junior Butler forced a fumble, allowing junior Pajovich to recover at the 47 with less than four minutes left. Ultimately, the Quaker offense couldn't answer off the forced fumble from Butler but were able to run the clock down and squeeze out the first win of the year off a 15-14 final score.
 
Up Next
The Quakers (0-3, 0-1 CSFL South) hit the road next weekend, heading to the defending CSFL Champion Army Black Knights on Friday, Oct. 10, for a 7 p.m. contest.