PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania football team closed out the 2025 season with a 17-6 win over Princeton on Saturday at Franklin Field.
With the win, Penn finishes the season 6-4 overall and ties Dartmouth for third place in the Ivy League standings at 4-3. Princeton ended the season 3-7 overall, 2-5 in Ivy play.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn's third place finish in the Ancient Eight standings is its best finish since a second-place showing in 2022.
*The Quakers topped the Tigers at Franklin Field for the first time since 2017 (38-35) and snapped a two-game losing streak overall.
*Penn's defense allowed just six points on the afternoon, the team's fewest given up since giving up six to Colgate on Sept. 16, 2023. It's the fewest in Ivy play since a 23-6 victory at Harvard in 2017.
*With 95 yards on 12 catches,
Jared Richardson became the sixth Penn Quaker in program history to reach 1,000 receiving yards in a single season. He finishes a historic 2025 campaign with 80 catches for 1,033 yards and 12 TDs.
*Richardson also finishes his Penn career with 2,505 career yards, the third-most in program history behind just Justin Watson '17 (3,777) and Rob Milanese '02 (3,405).
*In addition, Richardson's 12 catches gets him to 193 for his Penn career, the fourth most in program history as well.
*His final game under center for the Red and Blue, quarterback
Liam O'Brien was effective once again, going an efficient 22-for-31 through the air for 243 yards and two touchdowns. He also netted 31 yards on his 15 attempts on the ground.
*Richardson's 12-for-95 led the Penn receiver corps but was followed closely by
Bisi Owens' five catches for 82 yards and a TD.
*Senior
Davis Ellis caught his first career touchdown pass early in the second quarter. He's the second Penn senior in as many years to catch his first career TD on Senior Day.
Mike Fraraccio did the same in 2024 against Harvard.
*
Carter Janki had a whale of a day, both defensively and offensively (?!). First off, the defensive lineman finished with a team-high nine total tackles, adding a TFL for a loss of two yards. For the first time in his collegiate career, Janki lined up in the backfield next to O'Brien in a blocking situation. He nearly recorded his first offensive play with a rush but the play was called back due to a false start, forcing Penn to punt on fourth and long.
*
Jake Davis finished with 2.5 TFLs—while losing nine yards—and a sack, adding six total stops and four solos.
John Lista had 1.5 TFLs and a sack, adding two pass breakups.
Jayden Drayton also added two PBUs, finishing with 11 after his first season as a DB.
*Rookie kicker
Mason Walters knocked back a 22-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach. He finishes his freshman season 9-of-12, 75 percent. He was also 27-for-28 on extra-point attempts.
*Penn out-gained Princeton, 323-227 on the afternoon. The Quakers were 2-of-2 on red-zone chances and had possession for a game-high 31:32.
How It Happened
Princeton received the opening kickoff and immediately drove to the first points of the game. The Tigers methodically moved down the field before being stymied at Penn's 15-yard line, at which point Esteban Nunez Perez split the uprights with a 32-yard field goal for an early 3-0 lead.
Princeton's opening drive took 5:32 of game time. Penn's opening drive took the rest of the first quarter and extended into the second, ending with
Liam O'Brien finding
Davis Ellis on a screen to the left side for the final two yards and a touchdown. Overall, the drive took 19 plays and covered nearly 10 minutes of game time.
Both teams punted on their next drives, before Princeton again drove into Penn's red zone before stalling out with less than two minutes left in the half. Nunez Perez was again called upon and this time he was good from 30 yards out, cutting Penn's lead to one at 7-6.
That was still the score at the half.
Penn received the ball to start the second half and, just like in the first half, found the end zone on its first drive. On third down and 1 at Princeton's 39, O'Brien found
Bisi Owens down the right side and floated a ball over the defense that Owens caught. The senior fought off a pair of Tigers tacklers on the way into the end zone, putting the Quakers in front, 14-6.
While the defense continued to keep the Tigers in check, Penn's offense dialed up the big play early in the fourth quarter on the way to making this a two-score game. O'Brien hit
Jack Donnelly for 35 yards to get the Quakers into Tigers territory, then found Owens for another 19 yards that left the Red and Blue on Princeton's 21-yard line. The drive ultimately stalled at the 5-yard line, but
Mason Walters hit his 22-yard field goal and that made the score 17-6.
Princeton needed to move quickly to get back into it; instead, the Tigers could only plod their way down the field. The visitors converted a pair of fourth-down plays but were unsuccessful the third time that situation came up, Blaine Hipa's fourth-and-13 pass down the left sideline to Roman Laurio going out of bounds. Nearly six minutes went off the clock, and Penn took over with less than five minutes left.
The Quakers went three and out and punted it back to the Tigers, but once again the defense stood tall and forced Princeton to turn it over on downs near midfield with 2:29 left. Penn showed a little trickeration on fourth and 2 out of the two-minute timeout, running the Philly Special in trying to close out the game, but
Jared Richardson's pass to O'Brien was well short which gave Princeton the ball back. However, on first down Hipa's long pass down the right sideline was deflected high into the air and caught by Penn's
Ty Cortes. That effectively ended the contest, as the Quakers took a knee three times to run out the clock.
For the latest on Penn football, follow @PennFB on X (formerly Twitter), @PennFootball on Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
#BEGREAT
#FightOnPenn
