PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania sprint football team's defense came away with five takeaways, but zero points in the second half allowed Caldwell to pick up a 29-17 victory Friday evening at Franklin Field in the season opener for both teams.
The Quakers fall to 0-1 both overall and in CSFL South play to begin the year, while the Cougars start 1-0.
Quaker Notemeal
*
Jaxson Nield completed 13 of 31 passing attempts, throwing 144 yards and two touchdowns.
*
JT Goodman led the running backs, rushing for 41 yards off 20 attempts.
*The receiving room had a strong showing for the offense as
Andrew Piscatelli caught two receptions for 59 yards highlighted by a touchdown.
Jake Wang caught a team-high five receptions for 40 yards. Sophomore
Jason Sheairs grabbed Penn's other touchdown in the battle off a 24-yard pass from Nield.
*Freshmen
Ryan Goodrich and
Hugh Maley had standout collegiate debuts, as Maley totaled a Quaker-high ten solo tackles to pair with two interceptions while Goodrich tallied nine tackles.
*
Colin Cross also recorded ten stops in the outing, carried by nine solos.
*Special teams first-year
Ezra Granet had a strong collegiate debut, putting five times for 151 yards and kicking off three times for 167 yards.
How It Happened
Bobby Ray Harris' Penn defense swarmed Caldwell's offensive attack from the get go, forcing an early 3 and out with just 47 seconds coming off the clock. The Quakers' offense did the same on their first drive, unable to get much of anything going.
The Cougars' second drive was much more efficient with quarterback Josh Smith taking a bulk of the workload, carrying the ball past the 50-yard line and into Quaker territory. On 3rd and 3 from the Penn 30-yard line, Joey Ciccotelli scampered 10 yards for the first down to get into the red zone. A one-yard run for Curt McDougald gave Caldwell an early 7-0 lead with 6:42 to go.
Still looking for that first big chunk play, seniorNield fired a pass over the top to tight end Piscatelli for 49 yards and the touchdown to tie the game up at 7-7 with 4:37 remaining on the clock.
Caldwell took over and on 3rd and 10 with under two minutes to go in the first quarter, Smith connected with Darius Harrison for 10 yards and the TD to take a 14-7 lead into the start of the second.
The Cougar defense limited Penn to just 20 yards on nine plays to begin the second stanza, taking over four minutes off the clock in the process.
Freshman Maley made sure nothing came of Caldwell's sudden good fortune when he intercepted Smith's pass off a tip and returned it 14 yards to the 24-yard line. Nield capitalized on the turnover by completing a 24-yard pass to Sheairs to knot the game up at 14-14 following Granet's extra point.
Penn received its second takeaway of the evening when Smith lost the football at his own 33, the fumble recovered at the 36 by Xavier May to give the Quakers excellent field position with an opportunity to go in front.
With 4:14 remaining in the second quarter, Nield found Piscatelli for 10 yards and into the red zone. With the Caldwell defense keeping Penn at bay from six yards out, freshman Granet missed a 23-yard field goal wide left to keep the score tied at 14 apiece with under two minutes to go. Penn forced a turnover on downs deep in Caldwell's territory to give the Quakers another gift on field position with another chance to take the lead late in the half. Unfortunately, Penn turned the ball over on downs when Nield's toss to
Andy Falletta fell incomplete on fourth down.
Just as the Cougars took over on offense, Jamiel Lawrence muffed the first down snap and
Paul Tjoumakaris fell on top of the ball to take over from the 15-yard line with eight seconds left. Unlike his first kick, Granet's 31-yard try went through the uprights, making it 10 unanswered points and a three-point, 17-14 lead heading into the locker room.
Penn started the second half with the ball but punted away on 4th and 8. Two Lawrence passes to Arjun Petgrave, the last of which went for 14 yards and a TD, followed by the successful two-point conversion gave the Cougars a 22-17 edge with 11:29 remaining in the third quarter.
After getting the ball back, a 12-play, 48-yard drive went for no points and a turnover on downs with the Cougars taking over with 5:24 remaining in the stanza.
Josh Johnson got the Quakers back in the game when Lawrence bobbled the football and forcing the interception, Penn's fourth takeaway of the night and the fourth pick of his career.
The fourth quarter started with Penn threatening in Caldwell territory, but the Cougars' defense was as stingy as they've been all night to hold the Quakers to a six-play, 12-yard drive.
Looking for insurance, Caldwell used what was thought to be a costly pass interference call against Penn, but Maley picked off his second pass of the night with just over 11 minutes remaining in the final period.
Anthony Cummings, who committed two pass interference penalties on the same drive, came up with an interception of his own to send the ball the other way as Caldwell took over from the Penn 34-yard line with 9:44 remaining, ahead by five points.
Lawrence made something out of completely nothing, rushing 17 yards to the one and in for the Cougar TD, extending the lead to 29-17 with 8:26 to go. From there, Penn had three consecutive drives end on either a punt or turnover as Caldwell came away with the road victory.
Up Next
The Red and Blue head to western PA for a matchup at Mansfield next Saturday evening at 5 p.m.
For the latest on Penn sprint football, follow @PennSprintFB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
#FightOnPenn
