PROVIDENCE, R.I.— NFL scouts, take note: Quakers wide receiver Justin Watson’s senior season is far from over.
At the half of the battle between the two teams winless in Ivy League play, Penn football leads Brown, 17-7. Watson caught every ball thrown his way in the first quarter, en route to a 129-yard, two-touchdown first half.
Dishing Watson his seven receptions is sophomore second-stringer Nick Robinson, who is playing today in place of starting quarterback Will Fischer-Colbrie, who is reportedly out injured. Robinson — who did not complete a reception to a player not named Watson until the second quarter — finished 11-18 with 154 yards after the first half.
Robinson took just one play to make an impact in the game, hitting Watson up the middle for an 80-yard touchdown on the first play of the game. After Brown’s Wildcat QB Livingstone Harriott fumbled a few drives later, Robinson again hit Watson in the end zone for a 20-yard score. Neither team got much going in the second quarter, with the Quakers punting twice and fumbling once.
Elsewhere on offense, junior kicker Jack Soslow booted in a 51-yard field goal with three seconds left in the half. The kick was his longest completed field goal of the season and put the Quakers up by two scores heading into halftime.
The Quakers’ defense held the Bears to 128 yards in the first half, holding Brown junior QB Nick Duncan to a 50% completion percentage. Penn recovered two fumbles — Harriott’s first quarter drop and a Nick Miller-forced one toward the end of the half — but notched no sacks.
Brown’s sole touchdown came in the first quarter from a 5-yard scramble by Duncan, set up by a 33-yard shovel pass the previous play to junior tight-end Anton Casey.
The home team looked frightening toward the end of the second quarter, after a Robinson fumble gave the Bears the ball in enemy territory; however, the drive ended in a failed 39-yard field goal attempt after Louis Vecchio and and Nick Miller recorded key tackles for negative- and no-gain, respectively.
The Red and Blue have out-gained Brown offensively by 60 yards, yet it's only a two score game at halftime. The Quakers need to make more of their drives in the second half to hold off a scrappy Bears offense.
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