PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Not surprisingly, Saturday's Yale-Penn game came down to the final minutes. That's what you would expect from two teams that came into the day unbeaten in Ivy League play. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, it was the Quakers who had the ball last and capitalized on their final opportunity.
Jonathan Mulatu's 1-yard touchdown run with 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter lifted Penn to a 20-13 victory over Yale on a gorgeous late October afternoon at Franklin Field.
Both defenses were strong throughout. Yale limited the Quakers to 67 yards rushing and had two sacks. Penn held the Bulldogs to 292 yards of total offense, well below their season average.
"We just never really got on track offensively," said
Tony Reno, the Joel E. Smilow '54 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "Penn's got a great defense. They made it hard on us. We tried a few things to get it going, but unfortunately it didn't quite happen."
Graham Gotlieb's 38-yard field goal late in the first quarter gave Penn the lead. Yale answered on its next drive when
Jack Bosman booted a 37-yard field goal.
The Bulldogs grabbed the lead late in the second quarter when
Joshua Pitsenberger broke free and ran 47 yards for a touchdown.
The Quakers, though, capitalized on a Yale turnover and tied the score right before the half on a 3-yard Rory Starkey touchdown reception with 16 seconds left before the break.
The only scoring of the third quarter was a Gotlieb 20-yard field goal.
Bosman's second field goal of the afternoon, this one from 46 yards, tied the score at 13 with 9:21 remaining. It came after Yale's special teams came up big.
Adam Raine broke through the line to block a Gotlieb short field goal attempt.
The Quakers' game-winning drive covered 59 yards and used 4:54. The big play was a 17-yard reception by Mulatu that moved the ball to the Yale 13.
Pitsenberger finished with 89 yards rushing to lead the Bulldogs. Quarterback
Nolan Grooms completed 11-of-19 passes for 125 yards. His longest completion of the day went for 41 yards to
Mason Tipton, which led to Bosman's tying field goal in the fourth quarter.
Defensively,
Kyle Ellis had 10 solo tackles to lead the Bulldogs.
Tamatoa McDonough added 1.5 sacks.
The loss snapped Yale's four-game winning streak.
The Bulldogs (4-2, 2-1 Ivy) are back in action on Friday night when they play at Columbia. Kickoff is slated for 6:30 p.m., and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
"There's a lot of season left," Reno said. "We have to go out and focus on next week's game and continue to move forward."
