Dominant Dartmouth defense derails Penn football in 20-17 Ivy-opening defeat

HANOVER, N.H. — Across the country, the color green is falling from the trees. But in Hanover, the Big Green are rising in the standings.

That’s because in the first week of Ivy League play, Penn football suffered another tight defeat against rival Dartmouth, setting the Quakers behind the eight ball in their quest for a conference title. Apart from a pair of touchdown drives in the second quarter, the Quakers’ offense was unproductive, managing just 104 total yards of offense in the first, third, and fourth periods. The loss marked Penn’s second straight loss to the Big Green, and its seventh in the last nine matchups.

“Obviously disappointed,” coach Ray Priore said. “Our kids prepared well and hard for a typical Penn-Dartmouth battle … Coming into the game our offense passing the ball was pretty efficient, and running the ball, we were pretty efficient there. They changed up some of their schemes.”

Dartmouth’s dominant defense was in full effect early on, limiting Penn to 12 total yards on its first three drives. Senior quarterback Aidan Sayin was sacked twice, killing the Quakers’ momentum and contributing to three straight punts to begin the game. 

Then, after two fruitless drives of their own, the Big Green capitalized on the third, with quarterback Jackson Proctor tossing a 10-yard score to put Dartmouth up 7-0.

“They got us early,” Priore said of the Dartmouth defense. “Aidan didn’t get the ball out of his hands quick enough, which is where those couple sacks came from early on. But we settled that down.”

After a comatose first quarter, the Red and Blue offense awoke in the second on the back of sophomore running back Malachi Hosley. Honoring his “Touchdown Machine” nickname, Hosley revived the Quaker offense by punching in a pair of scores to put Penn ahead 14-10 going into the half.

“Second quarter we was able to get our momentum going,” Hosley said. “Without the mistakes [in the rest of the game] we’ll push the sticks, we’ll be better, and get more opportunities.”

After the break, Dartmouth’s offense played keep away from the hot-handed Hosley. Spearheaded by Proctor’s methodical distribution, the Big Green rattled off 10 unanswered points to begin the second half, with nine different players recording receptions on the day. That balanced attack, in tandem with two 100-yard rushers in Q Jones and Desmin Jackson, allowed the Big Green to dominate third down, converting nine of their 12 attempts in the second half.

That success was contrasted by a Penn offense that struggled to move the ball, particularly through the air. After a 320-yard outing last week against Colgate, Sayin managed just 123 yards passing, while star junior wide receiver Jared Richardson recorded two catches for 18 yards, a mirror of his statline against the Big Green a year ago.

“You wanna make someone else beat you,” Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle said of the Big Green’s efforts to limit Penn’s stars. “At the end of the game, you don’t want their best player to be the one to beat you. You gotta do whatever you can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

McCorkle and Dartmouth defensive back Jordan Washington both emphasized the comments that Richardson had made as an additional motivating factor.

“I was definitely aware of the outside noise,” Washington said. “I feel like coach McCorkle did a great job relaying that to the team.”

In the end, Penn saw just two meaningful possessions in the entire second half, a product of Dartmouth’s dominance in time of possession. The Big Green’s final drive — which saw them convert five of six third down attempts — lasted 10 and a half minutes, deflating any chance at a potential Quaker comeback. In the end, the Big Green controlled the ball for 72% of the second half.

“We just gotta get off the field. Simple as that,” junior linebacker Kadari Machen, who finished the game with 15 total tackles, said. “There’s too many situations where it’s third down, fourth down, and it just comes down to making plays.”

Next week, the Quakers host Bucknell in their final non-conference game of the 2024 campaign. Following Penn’s sixth one-score loss in the last two seasons, the Red and Blue will enter the matchup with no shortage of motivation. The game will kick off at 1 p.m.