It had all the makings of a Homecoming disaster.
There was John Galan, lying face-down on the Franklin Field turf, banging his fist into the ground in total frustration.
There was Princeton quarterback David Splithoff, eluding the Galan sack and scurrying into the end zone for a Tigers touchdown.
And there was the scoreboard, reading 10-7 in favor of Princeton, a team Penn was expected to roll over
"I tried to just kill him -- and I didn't even think he saw me coming," said Galan, who leads the team with 14 sacks. "And he just slipped away."
And now the game was slipping away.
In front of a shocked crowd of 18,000-plus, the Quakers went into the locker room in a very unfamiliar position. For the first time all season, Penn was trailing at the break.
This wasn't supposed to happen. Not at home against the fiercest of rivals. Not a week before the Harvard showdown. Not with a perfect season and an Ivy championship on the line.
And then, in the second half, everything changed.
"You can't print a lot of what was said [at halftime]," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "We tried to challenge our kids. They've responded to everything we've put forth to them."
The Quakers certainly did respond to the challenges of the coaching staff on Saturday, as they stormed out of the locker room, ready to defend their home field and continue their perfect season.
"Coming out of halftime, we met as a defense and said, 'They're not going to get another point this half,'" Galan said.
The defense stayed true to its word.
Showing why it is one of the premier units in Division I-AA, the Quakers defense made the necessary changes to Princeton's no-huddle, option-heavy schemes and kept the Tigers off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game.
"In the second half, we started containing [Splithoff] and trying just to make a tackle instead of the big hit," Galan said.
"Penn made some adjustments in the second half," Princeton coach Roger Hughes agreed. "They came after us with some zone blitzes in the second half they they hadn't been doing in the first."
A big goal-line stance and a key turnover by the defense gave the Quakers offense more opportunities to figure out the Tigers' defense. Gavin Hoffman, Kris Ryan and company marched down the field for two fourth-quarter touchdown drives to seal the Red and Blue victory.
"As a team, we just all came together in the second half and did what we had to do," Ryan said. "We're a pretty tight-knit group, we feed off each other."
The Quakers passed probably their biggest test of the season with Saturday's comeback victory, and now just two games remain on the quest for a second-straight Ivy League championship.
The Quakers know they didn't play their best game of the season Saturday. For the first time in three weeks, they gave up positive rushing yards. Princeton moved the ball for 358 total yards, an astounding number for a defense that is normaly stifling.
The Quakers know they are lucky to still be unbeaten after their too-close-for-comfort win. They also know next week's road game versus also unbeaten Harvard will be a lot tougher.
"I feel very, very relieved. I think that's the word right now," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "We escaped."
But no matter how scary the game was, Penn's perfect season is still intact.
And next Saturday's battle of the Ivy unbeatens is on.
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