Quakers survive scare from Brown

This looked about as easy as the first three Ivy League wins had been for Penn. The Quakers leading by three touchdowns early in the second half Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field, Brown scoreless, its offense pretty much nonexistent.

Then Penn committed just its eighth turnover of the year, Brown got life with a short-field touchdown, and the Quakers offense, after racking up 276 first-half yards, shut down.

What looked like a rout to set up the decisive Ivy League games the next two weeks took an even harder turn after Brown's bomb near the end of the third quarter set up a second touchdown, making Penn's lead quite precarious.

Penn had to get a fourth-down hold at its 32-yard line with 101/2 minutes left and an interception in the end zone by Sam Phillippi with 1:28 left to hold on for a 21-14 win.

Penn had outscored its first three Ivy opponents, 114-41. This was not like that, and the water is about to get deeper with games at Princeton and home with Harvard. Those are the only other teams with a realistic chance to win the league.

None of the Ivy teams had been able to handle the Quakers' offensive trifiecta of quarterback Alex Torgersen, running back Tre Solomon and wideout Justin Watson - until the second half Saturday.

The Quakers (5-2, 4-0 Ivy) took a series to get started against a defense that was giving up just 308.7 yards, best in the Ivies.

The first Penn touchdown was a pass play that should be frozen for posterity. Torgersen threw the perfect ball to Watson streaking behind the defense down the sideline in front of the Brown bench. Watson took it in stride and cruised into the end zone for a 67-yard score.

"We just put [the play] in this week," said Watson, who finished with 210 receiving yards, the most at Penn since 1981. "They said 'pretend to be lazy and don't block.' I did my best lazy block impression and it worked.''

Penn's next two touchdown drives took a combined 31 plays, covered 169 yards, and took 141/2 minutes to complete. Penn's second half, with just 105 yards of offense, was completely different. Brown (2-4, 1-3) was game, but Penn's early lead gave it just enough cushion.

"The first thing you do on the other side of momentum is to start panicking," Penn coach Ray Priore said. "That's why I grabbed the team at the end of the [third] quarter and just told to them relax and we'll start making plays."

The plays were on defense, but they count the same.

"Good teams find ways to win," the coach said.

This was Penn's 11th straight Ivy win dating back to last year. If Penn is going to win its 17th Ivy title, it will have to earn it, as the next two games will be harder than most of those 11. Harvard, which beat Princeton, 23-20 in overtime on Oct. 22, is 4-0 in the league, Princeton 3-1.