PHILADELPHIA – Sophomore midfielder
Becket Empson-Speiden guided Penn to a 1-0 victory Saturday night at Rhodes Field with a tidy finish in the 73rd minute. The Quakers advanced to 4-1-2 on the season after collecting their first conference victory of the season while Dartmouth fell to 3-4-2.
Dartmouth started the contest strong, maintaining a majority of the matches' possession in the first half, but the home side's energetic second half proved to be too much to overcome.
Quaker Notemeal
*The Red and Blue outshot Dartmouth 10-7 on the evening, but the visitors registered just as many shots on goal (2) as the hosts.
*Five Quakers—
Kalani Kunimura,
Owen Sullivan,
Malachi Neal,
Connor Dawson, and
Phillip Falcon III—played the full 90 minutes and were instrumental in Penn keeping its first clean sheet of the season.
*Empson-Speiden was first to react to a loose ball in the Big Green's penalty area and only needed two touches to fire the hosts into the lead with a right-footed rocket in the 73rd minute. His tally against Dartmouth was his second of the season, after opening his collegiate account at FDU (9/19).
*Senior midfielder
George Herbert logged a season-high 55 minutes Saturday evening and was a pivotal piece of Penn's midfield that overran the visitors in the second half.
*Saturday's victory extended the Quakers' win streak over Dartmouth to three straight matches, and they haven't lost at home against the Big Green since 2019.
*Penn remains unbeaten at home so far in 2026, boasting a 3-0-1 mark at Rhodes Field.
How It Happened
The hosts came out of the gate with a pep in their step, generating three shots and two corners in the opening 15 minutes of the match.
Now that both sides were settled in at Rhodes Field, Dartmouth came out of its shell and began to collect stints of possession that asked questions of Penn's back line. The Big Green operated in a three-back formation when they had the ball, which granted them extra numbers in wide areas. However, the Red and Blue stood strong at the back and weren't flustered by a flurry of half chances for the visitors.
Out of possession, Penn was a real threat on the counter in the first half and it can credit substitutes
Adam Ambrus-Aikelin and Empson-Speiden for bringing a spark of energy off the bench.
Despite a 40-minute battle in midfield to begin proceedings in University City, the hosts' best chance of the half came in the 40th minute. Empson-Speiden threw the ball in for the Quakers before it took a kind bounce towards freshman
Isaac Tortola. The midfielder swung his hips around the ball and released a strike, but he rattled the woodwork which left a stranded TJ Jeffreys relieved in goal.
Neither side could find a breakthrough after 45 minutes in Philly.
In similar fashion to the first half, the second frame was back-and-forth in the early going.
Senior captain
Jack-Ryan Jeremiah had a half chance fall his way in the 57th minute, but his right-footed half volley trickled wide of Jeffreys' goal.
Head coach
Brian Gill made a trio of changes in the 62nd minute and it paid off 11 minutes later as the Quakers took a 1-0 lead with 17 minutes to play.
Penn was awarded a throw in inside of its own attacking third which senior
Owen Sullivan launched into the box. A Big Green defender managed to get a head on the ball, but his attempted clearance flew backwards and into the path of one of Gill's substitutes, Empson-Speiden. The Brooklyn, N.Y. native only needed two touches to hand Penn the lead, one to shift away from his defender and the next to blast a low-driven right-footed strike to the bottom corner that left Jeffreys no chance. The Red and Blue faithful erupted into jubilation as Empson-Speiden logged his second goal in his last three outings.
The momentum of Saturday's matchup certainly swung in favor of the hosts, but Dartmouth refused to lie down. With three minutes remaining in the match the Big Green won a free kick just outside of the penalty area. Olly Spicer stood over the ball and fired a blistering shot towards goal, but Falcon III made a huge save to clear the hosts' lines.
Dartmouth threw everything it had at Penn with 90 seconds to go and the Quakers defended well down the stretch to keep the Big Green off the board.
When the referee blew his whistle for fulltime, the Red and Blue emerged with their first Ivy League victory of the season.
Up Next
Penn (4-1-2, 1-0-1 Ivy League) is back on the road at 6 p.m. on Tuesday as it travels to Baltimore, Md. for non-conference action against Loyola.
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