PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania football team scored 16 unanswered points bridging the halftime break to get a lead it wouldn't relinquish, ultimately pushing past Dartmouth 36-24 Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field.
The game was the Ivy League opener for both squads, and both the Quakers and the Big Green are 2-1 overall, while Penn improves to 1-0 in conference play to begin the year.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn snaps a two-game losing streak to Dartmouth and a five-game losing streak at home dating back to the 2015 season. The George A. Munger Head Coach
Ray Priore earns his first-ever victory over the Big Green at Franklin Field and third overall.
*The 36 points are the most the Quakers have scored against Dartmouth since a 37-24 victory in Hanover back in 2016.
*Penn wins in its home opener for the second straight year and for the fifth time in Priore's tenure.
*Senior QB
Liam O'Brien was formidable in both the passing and rushing games, totaling 147 yards through the air—while completing 16 of his 21 pass attempts—with two touchdowns and adding 99 yards (losing one by kneeling at the end of the game) on the ground with two scores.
*O'Brien targeted nine different receivers—a change from the first two games—while all nine caught a pass led by
Bisi Owens (4),
Jared Richardson (3) and
Alex Haight (3). Owens led the receiving corps with 46 yards and a TD, while
Cadin Olsen caught his first touchdown as a tight end.
*
Sean Williams, Jr. played a big role in the run game, carrying the ball 10 times for 50 yards.
*Special teams was key once again, as
Julien Stokes continues to show why he's the best return specialist in all of college football. He had a 65-yard punt return that led to points and three kick returns for 76 yards—which included a 34-yarder—to total 141 yards. He has 269 total kick return yards on nine attempts through three games and five punt returns for 147 yards.
*The go-ahead score was a safety early in the third quarter, the first safety Penn's recovered since Oct. 27, 2023.
*The Quakers recorded their first two interceptions of the 2025 season, one for senior
Alec Wills—the second of his career—and the other for freshman
Ezra Fearon, his first.
*Returning from injury after missing last week's game at Lehigh, senior captain
John Lista was a force, totaling 15 tackles (with 10 solos) and adding a TFL.
Ty Cortes added nine stops with six for
Josh Narcisse and five each for
Kadari Machen and
Cole Olsztyn.
*Machen finished with a team-high two tackles for loss, losing seven yards, with one each for Lista, Olsztyn, and
Jake Davis, who had the team's lone sack, walloping the Dartmouth QB for a 21-yard loss.
*Narcisse, Machen, Olsztyn,
Jayden Drayton, and
Ryan O'Connell each finished with a pass breakup.
*Penn held Dartmouth to just 326 total yards of offense after the Big Green came into the day ranked eighth in the nation at 478.0 ypg.
*The Quakers were a perfect 6-for-6 on red-zone conversions, and converted their only fourth-down attempt.
*Saturday marked Penn's first home game since the death of longtime captain
Vhito DeCapria, who passed away on Sept. 25 following two courageous battles with cancer. The team wore special "VD" stickers on their helmets and will continue to wear them for the remainder of the season. At four years old, DeCapria was Priore's first captain as the Quakers claimed Ivy League championships in both 2015 and 2016.
How It Happened
Penn elected to receive the opening kickoff, but the Quakers immediately were on their heels when
Liam O'Brien's first-down pass to the left sideline was intercepted by Dartmouth's Harrison Keith near midfield. The Big Green turned that into the first points of the game, using six plays to cover the ground. Dartmouth QB Grayson Saunier scored on a keeper for the final 17 yards.
The Red and Blue got on the board with its second possession, the hosts covering 59 yards in 12 plays before being stopped at the Dartmouth 4-yard line. From there, freshman
Mason Walters was true on his 22-yard field goal and the Big Green lead was 7-3.
Dartmouth opened up a double-digit lead on its next possession, scoring four plays into the second quarter. Saunier again put the points on the board, this time from three yards out.
Penn went three-and-out after that, but the Quakers caught a break when Sean Williams muffed
Santiago Sturla's punt and Penn's
Connor Johns recovered on the Big Green's 19-yard line. The Red and Blue took advantage, as four plays later O'Brien scampered in from a yard out to make the score 14-10.
Dartmouth continued to move the ball methodically on its third drive, covering 67 yards on 14 plays, but the Penn defense stiffened and
Kadari Machen gave the Big Green something to think about when he stuffed Saunier for a three-yard loss on third-and-3 at the Penn 5. Dartmouth chose to kick the field goal, and Owen Zalc was good on the chip shot to put the Big Green up 17-10 with 2:09 left in the half.
It looked like that lead would hold to the break when Penn was forced to punt after just three plays, but Dartmouth got greedy and went long down the right sideline on its first play.
Alec Wills made the Big Green pay, coming up with the interception at Penn's 35-yard line, and the Quakers used the second chance to tie things up just before the half. The 65-yard drive took just 1:32 of game time and ended when O'Brien found
Bisi Owens in the right corner of the end zone from nine yards out with 16 seconds left. The teams went to the locker rooms tied up at 17-17.
Penn forced Dartmouth's first punt of the day to start the second half, and when the Big Green lined up in an illegal formation head coach
Ray Priore made them punt it again. Good call: this time the snap went well over punter Luke Armistead's head and all the way back into the Dartmouth end zone, where he kicked it out of bounds for a Penn safety. That gave the Quakers their first lead of the day at 19-17.
Dartmouth then kicked off to Penn, and
Julien Stokes immediately set the Quakers up at midfield with a 34-yard return. O'Brien took over from there, hitting three different receivers on his three pass attempts for a total of 37 yards. The last of those came when he faked a handoff, rolled out left and hit
Cadin Olsen who beat a Dartmouth defender to the left pylon for a 12-yard scoring play. After the kick, the Red and Blue's lead was 26-17.
Dartmouth's offense regained its momentum on the next drive, the Big Green charging 75 yards down the field in eight plays for another touchdown which cut Penn's lead to two. D.J. Crowther had this one, running around the right side and finding an opening around a pair of Penn defenders.
Penn tried to add to its lead early in the fourth, but Walters' 43-yard attempt was no good and Dartmouth got the ball on its own 26. Just three plays later, Saunier went over the middle with a pass and
Ezra Fearon tipped it to himself and intercepted it, then returned it 11 yards to the Big Green's 28. Six plays later, O'Brien was finding paydirt up the middle and the Quakers were back in front by nine, 33-24.
Two big plays in a row set Penn up for the next score. The first one came with Dartmouth facing a third-and-4 on Penn's 37-yard line. The Quakers sent an all-out blitz at Saunier and he backpedaled before tripping over himself at his own 42. That forced the Big Green to punt, and after Stokes received the kick at his own 7-yard line he scurried down the left sideline all the way to Dartmouth's 29 before getting pushed out of bounds. The Quakers then tacked three more points on the board with a 30-yard field goal by Walters to make the score 36-24 with 4:44 to play.
That proved to be all the scoring on the day, as Penn's defense held Dartmouth to a turnover on downs and then got two first downs which allowed the Quakers to clock this one out with three kneeldowns.
Up Next
Penn is back at home next Friday night, hosting Marist in its final non-conference tune-up this season. Kickoff with the Red Foxes is slated for 7 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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