ON THE SIDELINES: Tight ends pave the offensive way

The plays bore unrefined names like smashmouth and gang, while the stars bore unfamiliar ones like Tonelli and Arbogast. The Penn offense, shot down repeatedly by interceptions in recent weeks, folded its wings Saturday and bludgeoned Brown for 58 points behind its unheralded group of tight ends and U-backs. Missing from the offense's outskirts were the lithe featherweights who tickle the scales at a buck and change. In their place, Penn inserted a set of boxcars and a Mack truck, and turned its tailback trio loose behind them. The results were nothing short of earth-shattering. On the game's fifth play, the Quakers' offensive line deluxe softened the right corner enough for Aman Abye to scamper 48 yards untouched down the sideline and into the end zone. And that was only a taste of the medicine the Bears would have shoved down their throats all afternoon. "It's not often when you run with three and four tight ends that you put that many points on the board," said tight end Matt Tonelli, who also led the Quakers with four receptions for 81 yards. "But in the game plan we had to do the job, and I thought we stepped it up as a group. Travis Arbogast and Greg Karcich, all of them had a great day as far as blocking and making routes." By halftime, Abye and Jasen Scott had abused Brown's defense for 161 yards with Tonelli, Arbogast and the bruising Kevin Tucker leading the way. Not to be outdone, Dion Camp broke free for a 48-yard touchdown run of his own in the final minutes of the third quarter to give Penn its largest lead at 58-14. "[Offensive coordinator] Chuck Priore and his staff really did a nice job on offense," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "The Brown defense presents some unique problems in terms of the way they line up with all the movements and the slants and the twists. "It becomes real difficult to run a conventional offense against them. So we went to a zone blocking scheme and I felt we took them out of that movement stuff. Consequently, we were able to move the ball." But the ground game, which pounded out 313 total yards, was only half of Priore's scheme. Phase two called for a little misdirection, a little slight of hand, and some not-so-little ends to tiptoe their way into the Bears' secondary. Little more than an afterthought in the Quakers' passing game to date, the tight end corp caught as many passes Saturday (six) as it had in Penn's first five games combined. "The whole offensive line waved toward the play so when I play-faked, the tight ends just sort of snuck out," quarterback Mark DeRosa said. "They were falling for the fake and the tight ends ended up being wide open all day." So wide open, in fact, that Arbogast, a sophomore who usually backs up Tonelli, turned his first career reception into a 28-yard touchdown when the Brown secondary just seemed to ignore him. The day, however, belonged to Tonelli, the 230-pound product of the Marmion Military Academy who rarely shows up on the stat sheet. And in the second quarter Saturday, he found himself in even rarer territory -- five yards behind the Bears' safeties. DeRosa, who was almost perfect on the day, hit Tonelli in stride for the senior's second career touchdown. "It was incredible," Tonelli said of the 28-yard touchdown strike. "I'm not used to getting that many yards. I'm used to turning around and getting hit right away, but it was kind of nice to turn it upfield and get a few yards. I love the feeling."

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