PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania football team did enough to earn its first win at home on ESPNU Friday night, knocking off Brown 28-21 at Franklin Field. The Quakers never trailed in the game but had to hold off a Bears rally in the second half to gain the victory.
Penn improved to 3-1 in Ivy League play and 5-2 overall, while Brown fell to 3-4 overall and remains winless in Ivy play at 0-4.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn is 3-0 at Franklin Field for the first time since 2022. That year, the Quakers started their home slate off 4-0.
*The Quakers totaled 453 yards on offense and 231 rushing yards, Penn's most since a 286-yard outburst vs. Cornell last season.
*Three Penn running backs tallied 10-or-more carries, led by
Sean Williams, Jr.'s 13,
Donte West's 12, and
Liam O'Brien's 10.
*Williams, Jr. rushed for a team-high 89 yards and a touchdown, while West added two scores.
*
Jared Richardson led Penn's receiving corps with six catches for 104 yards, his fifth 100+ yard game of the season. He now has 2,289 career receiving yards as he chases down Miles Macik '95 for fifth place. Macik has 2,365 career yards.
*
Liam O'Brien completed 18 of his 27 pass attempts for 222 yards and a TD. He also had an interception, but finished with a completion percentage of 67.0.
*Penn totaled 5.0 TFLs as a team, led by
Carter Janki's 1.5 sacks.
Ty Cortes finished with a team-high nine tackles, followed by
Cole Olsztyn (8) and
John Lista (8). Lista finished with a team-high six solo stops.
*
Josh Narcisse recorded his third-career interception and first of the 2025 season. He had a pick in last year's Friday night ESPNU game vs. Yale.
How It Happened
Penn won the toss, but deferred to the second half, as the Bears got to work on offense and quickly found themselves deep in Quaker territory following a 35-yard completion from James Murphy to Trevor Foley. A false start call made it fourth and 7 from the 28, as Murphy's pass was tipped and intercepted by
Josh Narcisse.
On their first offensive drive, the Quakers picked up plenty of yardage right away, getting 58 total yards on 11 plays to score the contest's first points on a one-yard touchdown run for West. That put Penn in front, 7-0.
Brown answered immediately, constantly chipping away at the Penn defense with a 75-yard scoring drive. Murphy's 12-yard pass to Dillon Golden got the Bears into opposing territory. He then found Ty Pezza on a slant, avoiding the coverage altogether for 44 yards and the tying score, now 7-7.
Starting off the second quarter, Penn got back to work and re-took the lead after O'Brien's 21-yard scramble to the left, setting up a nine-yard pitch-and-catch to Owens.
Carter Janki and
Jake Davis wreaked havoc to begin Brown's next drive, sacking Murphy for a nine-yard loss. The Bears rebounded and ended up converting a fourth down and short. However, they only managed to get down to their own 36, punting the football away.
Penn opened its next drive with a spark as freshman
Tommy Lafayette, making his collegiate debut, broke free for a nine-yard rush up the middle.
Liam O'Brien then connected with Lafayette for 19 yards before finding
Bisi Owens on a 24-yard strike to move the Quakers into Brown territory. Owens followed with a nine-yard catch that was initially ruled a touchdown but marked down at the 1-yard line, setting up Williams Jr., who powered in from a yard out to push Penn's lead to 21–7.
Brown thought they made it a one-score game on Murphy's 24-yard pass to Miller, but it was brought back on an offensive pass interference call near the end zone. The Bears ended up punting away, downing the ball at the 1-yard line.
Needing to go 99 yards to score, Penn's drive started slow but picked up after O'Brien's 32-yard pass to Richardson and then a combined 21 yards over two plays on the ground for the signal caller put the Quakers at Bruno's 34. Facing fourth and 10 with just a few seconds left in the half,
Mason Walters saw his career-long 51-yard field goal attempt come up short, Brown's Najih Rahman returning it 12 yards before getting tackled to end the half.
Penn started with the ball in the second half and looked like it was driving for another score, but on a third-down play in Brown territory O'Brien was hurried and overthrew his receiver up the middle. The pass was picked off by the Bears' John Perdue, and the visitors took advantage of the turnover with a sustained drive that ended up in the end zone. Bruno employed some trickeration on the final play of the 12-play, 66-yard drive—on fourth and goal at the 4-yard line, Murphy pitched the ball to Rahman, who rolled to his right and completed a TD pass to Pearson Hill.
Just when it looked like Brown had momentum, along came
Jayden Drayton. The junior took the Bruno kickoff all the way back into Bears territory, and just three plays later the Quakers appeared to be back up by two scores when it looked like Williams Jr. snuck into the end zone at the right pylon to end a 40-yard run. He was ruled to be out of bounds just shy of the goal line, but one play later West picked up that final yard and the Red and Blue lead was 28-14.
Brown's next drive was again a long one—15 plays in total and covering nearly six minutes of game time, bridging into the fourth quarter. However, the Bears stalled out at Penn's 15-yard line and then were unable to cut into Penn's lead when Drew Crabtree's 32-yard field goal went wide left.
Penn's offense stagnated on its first two possessions in the fourth quarter, the Quakers quickly punting both times. Brown couldn't take advantage of the first one, and it looked like the Bears were going to be sent to the sidelines again when Janki sacked Murphy for a nine-yard loss to set up third and 19 at Brown's 20. Instead, Murphy hit Trevor Foley for exactly the yardage needed and that jump-started the Bruno attack—Murphy would connect on his next six passes to cover the 61 yards, his only incompletion during that time wiped out by a pass interference call near midfield. Foley was the target again on the touchdown, this time covering 14 yards into the right corner of the end zone.
Penn wouldn't give Brown another chance to touch the ball. Instead, the Quakers ran the game's final 4:19 off the clock, bringing the ball all the way down to the Bears' 1-yard line before finally being able to take a knee and run out the clock.
Up Next
Penn is back at home again next Saturday, hosting Cornell as part of Homecoming Weekend at the University. Kickoff with the Big Red is scheduled for 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.
#BEGREAT
#FightOnPenn
