Posted on Sun, Oct. 5, 2008
After finally showing some semblance of a running game in the second half yesterday, Penn not only made a successful Ivy League debut, but also helped its coach lower his blood pressure a few points.
Sophomore Michael DiMaggio rushed for all but 6 of his career-high 129 yards in the second half, and Andrew Samson kicked three field goals in the fourth quarter to lift the Quakers to a 23-10 victory over Dartmouth at Franklin Field.
Robert Irvin threw a pair of touchdown passes and became the 10th quarterback in Penn history to surpass 3,000 career yards. Defensively, the Quakers (1-2, 1-0 Ivy League) held the Big Green (0-3, 0-1) to just 5 yards rushing and 191 total.
But Penn could not find a consistent offense for the first two quarters. The Quakers ran 18 of their 38 first-half plays inside Dartmouth territory but managed just seven points: Irvin's 18-yard touchdown pass to DiMaggio. They had 17 rushing yards during that time and went to the locker room stuck in a 7-7 tie.
Penn coach Al Bagnoli left no question about how he felt about his offense, demonstrating his anger frequently on the sideline.
"I was very frustrated," he said. "We played great on defense and had spurts on offense, but we just never were able to establish a run game to balance out our passing attack. We had the ball countless plays inside their territory, so we certainly were a frustrated group."
That changed. After Dartmouth took its only lead on a 22-yard field goal by Foley Schmidt, the Quakers went 73 yards in eight plays to gain control. DiMaggio dashed 33 yards to set up Irvin's 9-yard scoring strike to Tyler Fisher.
Samson kicked his first field goal, a 27-yarder, 17 seconds into the fourth quarter. Then, DiMaggio took over, rushing 10 times for 64 yards in the final 15 minutes, as Samson added field goals of 33 and 27 yards.
"I see the seams, see the holes, and I just run to them," said DiMaggio, a Bishop Eustace graduate. "When I see that, I'm going for it."
Irvin completed 22 of 39 passes for 270 yards and ended the game with 3,062 career yards. He gave a big thumbs-up to the running game.
"It's great to see that," he said. "We struggled in the first half, but then when you get that running game going, it gets the receivers wide open and it's just a lot easier to do everything."
Contact staff writer Joe Juliano at 215-854-4494 or jjuliano@phillynews.com.