Quakers seal outright Ivy title

It was a scene similar to the one that took place just a week earlier, only this time the Quakers were standing in the middle of historic Franklin Field.

And this time, they were joined by an old friend: the Ivy League championship trophy.

In dominating fashion, the football team claimed that trophy for itself for the first time since 2003, trouncing Cornell, 34-0. Though coach Al Bagnoli now boasts half of the Penn program’s 14 football titles with seven in his 18 years at the helm, this one felt like a long time coming.

“It’s obviously felt like a while [since the last title],” Bagnoli said. “But we have very broad expectations here. I think if we go longer than two or three years it’s considered a disaster.”

With Harvard racking up a dramatic victory over Yale in New Haven, Conn., this game could have been a disaster. But as they have done all year, the Quakers (8-2, 7-0 Ivy) remained focused, following the lead of an outstanding senior class to avoid sharing the title with the 6-1 Crimson.

“It starts with the captains and the seniors and everybody kind of follows them,” Bagnoli said. “If you get them — your best players — to put their best foot forward, generally everything else falls in line.”

Penn took an early lead over the Big Red when Erik Rask’s blocked punt set up a three-yard first-quarter touchdown run by freshman Lyle Marsh. That would be enough for the Quakers’ defense, which gave up just four first downs the entire game.

The shutout of Cornell (2-8, 1-6) was a fitting conclusion to a season highlighted by a stalwart defense that became stronger as the year progressed. Penn’s defensive unit, the best in the Football Championship Subdivision, gave up just 14 points in its final five games (the offense also gave up a pick six during that stretch).

“That was our mindset going into this game; anything less than a shutout would have been a disappointment to us,” senior captain Chris Wynn said.

That shutdown mentality, according to Wynn’s fellow captain and classmate Jake Lewko, comes with the territory of playing defense for Penn football.

“We always want to strive to be a little bit better than the previous defense and over time it just builds,” Lewko said.

It took until the stretch run of the season for the offense to develop the same cohesion that the defense built. But Penn certainly peaked at the right time on that side of the ball.

Against the Big Red, who gained a total of 110 yards, Keiffer Garton saw extensive playing time at quarterback over starter Kyle Olson and passed for two scores to go along with 76 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

It was an ironic twist for things to finally work as planned behind center in a season that has seen seven Penn players throw a pass — one of many obstacles this team faced on its path to the title.

“We’ve probably had as much adversity this year as I can remember,” Bagnoli said. “You’ve got to have kids that are resilient [to] just keep plodding along and believe in what you’re doing and I thought these guys did it.”

For seniors like Wynn, it was the moment they had waited and worked for: holding the trophy that cemented their place in the program’s storied history.

“You always see the videos and the pictures of the guys from years past holding the trophy,” Wynn said. “It certainly was in the back of all our minds the entire year — to finally get it done and see the trophy in front of us.”

Standing beside his players throughout the coronation, the man behind it all acted like he knew all along that this day would come.

“I’ve been saying right from the get-go that we’re dangerously close to being good,” Bagnoli said. “We just had to take that next step.”

Turns out that next step would take them to the top of the Ivy League.

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