Who’ll stop the overtime?

EASTON, Pa. — Considering the way Penn played in its 20-17 overtime loss to Lafayette Saturday evening, one might wonder if coach Al Bagnoli and the Quakers are avid Charles Dickens readers.

The Red and Blue wrote a tale of two halves in the Easton, Pa., rain: the first half saw disappointing mistakes; the second, glimpses of brilliance.

“We feel like we had them pretty much in the second half,” said junior linebacker Zach Heller, who finished the game with a career-high 13 tackles.

But after going down 17-0 in the first half, there was only so much that the Quakers defense could do. And they did it, holding the Leopards scoreless in the second half.

The stellar play was mirrored by ineffectiveness by both the defense and offense throughout the first 30 minutes — those two quarters were a show of mistake-prone football by the Quakers.

The defensive line, which defensive coordinator Ray Priore claimed would focus on the Leopards’ strong running game, giving up big runs to Leopards backs Maurice White and DeAndre’ Morrow.

Indeed, the two backs ate up yardage just like Priore hoped they wouldn’t and Lafayette coach Frank Tavani knew they would.

“It’s really — knock on wood — been a luxury,” Tavani said. “You got fresh backs in there all the time, churning up yardage.”

That churning took the pressure off of Leopards quarterback Rob Curley, who threw for 208 yards and two touchdowns in the game.

Curley looked like anything but a stooge throughout the game’s first half, tossing two touchdown passes and dropping hundreds of jaws.

As effective as Curley was, that’s how ineffective the Quakers’ offense proved to be.

“We had to win more first downs,” Bagnoli said. “In the second half we did a little bit better job.”

Going into the half down 17-3 after a late Andrew Samson field goal, senior quarterback Kyle Olson knew that the Quakers needed to step up their play.

“The offense … got closer and closer,” Olson said. “And then finally we started getting a couple touchdowns.”

For all of the opportunities wasted in the first half (like a missed 42-yard field goal from Samson), Olson and the Quakers set about making the most of their second half chances.

The Quakers’ running game exploded after halftime, largely in part to true freshman running back Lyle Marsh.

Marsh, a native of Bethel Park, Pa., got his number called often throughout the second half, including one drive in which he carried it four times in a row. He also broke a 30-yard run complete with punishing stiff arms to set up Penn’s second second-half touchdown.

All this helped Olson, who was making his first appearance since going down with a knee injury last November against Brown. Though junior Keiffer Garton started the game at QB, Olson led a 14-0 comeback, including his first two touchdown passes of his career at Penn.

His second touchdown pass — a beautiful 21-yard lob to running back Bradford Blackmon in the corner of the end zone — tied it up at 17 with 5:22 left in the third quarter. Good defensive stances from both teams led to overtime.

Penn started first on offense but was unable to make any progress from the Leopards’ 25-yard line.

From there, Samson had a chance to give the Quakers the lead, but 42 yards and pouring rain proved to be too much as the kick sailed wide left.

The Leopards got the ball, moved it 14 yards, and kicked an easy field goal to win. It was all too familiar for Penn, which has lost six OT games since 2006.

But Bagnoli and his team don’t hold any hard feelings against Samson, who was 1-for-3 on field goals.

“They weren’t short,” Bagnoli said. “He hit the ball great on both [of the misses]. We had to do a better job in overtime of getting the ball down there and making it a little bit more of a point-blank attempt.”

Maybe Samson should have asked “Please sir, can I have some more yards?”

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