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While Mike Beamish may have graced the gridiron at Franklin Field last Saturday, Penn sprint football will have to adjust to life without its former star and captain this season.
Beamish participated for the fifth time in the program's annual Alumni Game last weekend, but not as a member of the Quakers' current team.
Up in Rindge, N.H., lies Franklin Pierce. Perhaps it’s not an institution that Penn students hear about frequently in the world of Penn athletics, but for the 49 players on the Quakers’ sprint football roster, it’s a household name nonetheless.
This weekend, Penn sprint football will officially begin its season against its New England counterpart, under the sun at Franklin Field on Saturday.
It’s the end of an era for Penn sprint football. Friday’s season-ending game will mark the end of the Penn careers of running back Mike Beamish, defensive back Keith Braccia, offensive lineman Alex Smith and four other seniors.
While it may not have been the on-field performance the team was looking for, Penn sprint football had a night to remember as it honored its senior players in their final home game.
The Red and Blue (3-2) are coming off of a rough 28-21 loss to Post last weekend that saw senior captain and running back Mike Beamish go down with an injury.
Beamish is currently the program’s third all-time leading rusher, but it took an alignment of the stars for “Beam” — as Wagner affectionally calls him — to line up in Penn’s backfield.
For 13 minutes, Penn and Post were merely playing an uneventful field position battle, but that all changed with after a key injury to Penn's star player.
The Quakers may not have been able to put Saturday night’s sprint football game at Franklin Field in the win column, but playing heavily favored Navy to a 21-19 nail-biter, they did come away with quite a few victories.
The game looked to be going all in Mansfield’s favor. But after a missed extra point by the Mountaineers in the third quarter, everything turned for the Red and Blue.
By the end of the 2013 season, Penn sprint football thought it had found a gunslinger in quarterback Mike McCurdy. And as the 2014 campaign dawns, the time is now to develop the strong-armed sophomore into a pure passer.
Penn took on Navy after their originally scheduled matchup was cancelled due to the government shutdown earlier in the season. The Midshipmen punished Penn on the ground, racking up four rushing touchdowns en route to a 35-14 victory over the Quakers.