On Saturday afternoon, the football team (3–4, 2–2 Ivy) faced off against the Penn Quakers (3–4, 1–3 Ivy) with the hope of emulating last week’s success against Cornell. But despite a 21-point effort in the second half, mistakes on special teams destroyed the Bears’ momentum, and Brown fell 38–28.
“Penn is a really good football team,” Head Coach James Perry ’00 said in an interview with The Herald. “If you play a good team, you have to play well right out of the gates … We dug a hole for ourselves with some uncharacteristic mistakes in the first half. We have to make those corrections and just keep playing hard.”
Though Brown’s defense forced Penn three-and-out on their first possession, the earliest of what would be a flurry of mistakes soon befell the Bears. Backpedaling to corral a sailing punt, Samuel Baddoo ’25 muffed the catch, sending the ball sprawling across the turf and turning the ball over to the Quakers at Brown’s 39-yard line.
Fortunately for the Bears, the defense fired on all cylinders. Mirroring their earlier efforts, Bruno kept the Quakers out of the end zone, resulting in a 42-yard missed field goal attempt.
The early offensive struggles that have riddled the Bears in past weeks continued, resulting in two consecutive punts. Then, the Quakers struck, as quarterback Liam O’Brien connected with Jared Richardson on a 10-yard go-route. With two minutes left in the first quarter, the Quakers claimed a 7–0 lead.
“The final score may tell a little bit of a different story,” quarterback Jake Willcox ’24.5, who leads the Ivy League in passing yards, said after the game. “But I want to acknowledge our defense. They played a really good game and we just have to score more on offense.”
When the second quarter began, the Bears’ offense found its stride. Starting on their own 31-yard line, Brown relied heavily on the run game led by Stockton Owen ’25. Once at midfield, the Bears took to the air. Turning to his favorite target, Willcox connected twice with Mark Mahoney ’24.5 for 19 yards before uncorking deep for a 31-yard touchdown strike.
Streaking down the right sideline, Mahoney found himself one-on-one against Penn’s Devin Malloy. Standing at 5 feet 11 inches, Malloy was no match for Mahoney’s 6-foot-5-inch frame, and Mahoney head-tapped Malloy to equalize the game with 9:22 left in the half.
Yet even as the game heated up, the special teams unit remained an issue. With five minutes left in the half, the Quakers blocked an Austin Alley ’25 punt attempt and recovered the ball at the 25-yard line. From there, Penn’s running back Malachi Hosely made quick work of the short field, covering the entire distance to the end zone in one run to reclaim a seven-point lead.
“It is tremendously uncharacteristic for that to occur,” Perry commented, alluding not only to the muffed and blocked punts, but also to the two field goals the team missed over the course of the game.
“We have to correct that,” he continued. “But we’re a deep football team. The competition on special teams is always a source of strength for us, and we’ll tap into that this week.”
As the first half came to a close, Penn continued to play their best half of the season. Jared Richardson, who scored the early touchdown, remained a threat to the Bears’ defense, propelling the Quakers into the red zone on a 25-yard catch-and-run. O’Brien sealed the drive with his legs, rushing 10 yards through the middle to advance Penn’s lead to 21-7.
With 26 seconds left in the first half, the Quakers had already scored more touchdowns than they had in any other Ivy League game this season.
Coming out of the locker room, the Quakers picked up where they left off. Dominating on the ground, aided by penalties and getting a pair of clutch catches from wide receivers Hosley and Bisi Owens, Penn extended their lead to 28-7 with 13 minutes left in the third.
Now down by three possessions, the Bears got crafty. With a hurry-up offense pressuring Penn’s defense, the substitution of backup-quarterback Will Jarvis ’25 to wide receiver went unnoticed by the Quakers. Just past midfield, Perry dialed up a Philly Special, and after getting a pitch by Childs, Jarvis connected with Willcox for a 33-yard gain. Once near the end zone, Brown brought out its goal line package, and Qwentin Brown ’26 punched it in from one yard away to collect his seventh touchdown of the season and bring the score to 28-14.
Penn punched back by scoring on two straight possessions, pulling away 38-14 with 10 minutes left.
But then, in classic Brunonian fashion, the team launched a late comeback attempt. On a 75-yard drive, the Bears scored on a one-yard rush by Matt Childs ’28. Desperate to claw their way back, the team went for two — but after an incomplete pass, it remained an 18-point game.
In the battle for points, even the defense played their part. With 7:37 left in the game, linebacker John Perdue ’26 dragged O’Brien out of the end zone for a safety, bringing the score to 38-22.
Invigorated, the offense lashed out, covering 75 yards in four minutes before Willcox, running backwards to escape pressure in the pocket, miraculously connected with Solomon Miller ’26 for the score.
“Like every week, I think we did a really good job of fighting to the end,” Willcox finished. “That’s really the most important thing you can ask for in a football team. But we have to execute better at the beginning of the game. At the quarterback position, we have to do better.”
In crucial need of a two-point conversion to transform the game from a two-score to a one-score affair, Willcox underthrew Mahoney’s route under pressure, allowing Penn to retain their ten-point lead. By now, the clock had almost run out, and the Bears were unable to stage a comeback, ultimately falling 38–28.
Now, the Bears look ahead to a match-up against Yale next Saturday in New Haven. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and begin at noon.
Lydell Dyer is a Senior Staff Writer for the sports section. A sophomore hailing from Bonn, Germany, Lydell is studying nonfiction English and political science, and if he's not off "making words sound pretty," you can find him lifting heavy circles at the Nelson.
