University of Pennsylvania Athletics

SPARKILL, N.Y. – The University of Pennsylvania sprint football team took home its first win of the season with a 34-26 win over St. Thomas Aquinas Friday night.
 
With the victory, coach DuPont earned his first win as head coach at Penn.

Freshman running back Dante Coury had a huge game, going for a career-high 182 yards on the ground with four touchdown runs. John Franchini tossed a touchdown to Jason Sheairs from 32 yards out for his second TD pass of the year. Franchini finished with 99 yards passing.

The story of the game was Penn's rushing attack, as they rushed 57 times for 300 yards and four touchdowns. 

STAC's Trevon Washington rushed four times for 169 yards and two touchdowns.

The Quakers moved to 1-1 (1-0 CSFL South) while the Spartans fell to 1-1 (0-1 CSFL South).

How It Happened
STAC started the game with a bang. scoring a 70-yard touchdown on the first play of the game off an end around to go up 7-0.

Penn responded with a longer drive, getting to fourth and seven on the STAC 32 yard line before opting to go for it. John Franchini rolled out to his right and found Jason Sheairs for his first touchdown of the year.

After a stop from Penn, the Quakers turned it over on a fumble from Coury. The Spartans made the visitors pay, marching down the field before scoring on a 20-yard touchdown pass to go up 13-7. The extra point was no good.

Franchini led another strong drive the other way for Penn, converting on multiple third downs to keep the drive alive. They eventually punched it in with the first of Coury's touchdowns from one yard out. Penn missed the extra point as well to keep it at 13-13.

The Spartans scored their second one-play touchdown drive of the game with 4:30 left in the half, executing on a double pass from one wide receiver to the other. The score put them up 20-13. 

Penn went right back down the field, scoring again to tie the game at 20-20 following a Franchini to Sheairs connection that put Penn down at the one yard line. Coury again scampered in from a yard out to tie it up.

For the third play of 70+ yards in the half, STAC scored on another jet sweep right before the half, this time from 89 yards out. After a missed two point conversion, Penn went into the half trailing 26-20.

The Quakers came out ready to run in the second half and they completely controlled the line of scrimmage. Their first drive of the half was done almost exclusively on the ground and ended with a Coury 31-yard touchdown run, his third of the game.

After a defensive stop, Penn kept working it on the ground, riding Coury to another long drive, capped with a one-yard touchdown score by Coury.

The defense did its job the rest of the night, holding STAC scoreless after their 26 first half points.

Quaker Notemeal
*Dante Coury, who had 35 yards rushing last week, led the Quakers with four rushing touchdowns and 182 yards.
*Xavier May went for a season-best 56 rushing yards.
*Jason Sheairs scored his first touchdown of the season and sixth of his career with a 32-yard TD in the first quarter. He led the receiving core with two catches for 51 yards.
*Freshman quarterback John Franchini tossed his second touchdown pass of the year and threw for a career-best 99 yards.
*Penn tallied 300 rushing yards. It's the first time the program has rushed for 300-or-more yards since running for 335 on Oct. 8, 2021 vs. Cornell.
*Three of STAC's four touchdowns were on plays longer than 60 yards (70, 65, 85).
*Jack Kim paced the defense with a career-best 2.0 sacks.
 
Up Next
The Quakers host Army next Friday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
 
For the latest on Penn sprint football, follow @PennSprintFB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.