Ivy champs to see more of same

For the 2010 Penn football team, the schedule will be same old, same old.

In addition to their seven Ivy contests, the Quakers will be playing the same three non-conference games next fall that they played last season.

It will be an all-Pennsylvania nonconference slate with cross-town rival Villanova, as well as opponents Lafayette and Bucknell.

Following their 11th outright Ivy title, the Quakers, who boast the nation’s second-longest winning streak at eight games, will be tested early.

The Red and Blue will open the season hosting Lafayette, a team to whom they lost on the road, 20-17 in overtime, early last season. After that, they face off against perennial Football Championship Subdivision power Villanova. The Quakers had their most paltry offensive performance of the year against the Wildcats, as Penn scored just three points.

Then begins the Ivy season when Dartmouth comes calling to Franklin Field. The Big Green were the first team the Quakers defeated on the way to an undefeated Ivy season and the conference crown in 2009.

Ivy play will be interrupted by a trip to Lewisburg, Pa., where the Red and Blue will try to shut down Bucknell’s Bison offense as it did in 2009. From there, the Quakers have six more Ivy games.

After traveling to Boston for the effective Ivy-championship game against Harvard last year, the Quakers will get the home-field advantage against the Crimson in the upcoming season.

While their opponents remains the same, only time will tell if next season’s Quakers can succeed in duplicating the terrific results of the 2009 season.

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