Quakers slog past Central Connecticut

Central Connecticut State had given up 136 points in its last three games. And the Blue Devils, making their first visit to Franklin Field, did not have North Dakota State on the schedule.

Penn, which rarely has trouble scoring, appeared ready to score 50 after getting two touchdowns in the first nine minutes on Saturday. Then, before the calculators could come out, two promising Quaker drives ended in lost fumbles and what looked easy became a slog in the afternoon drizzle. Each team scored four times, but the Quakers' were all touchdowns while three of CCSU's were field goals as Penn won, 28-16.

After the Blue Devils (1-4) closed to 14-10 in the second quarter, Penn turned a third and 23 into a fourth and 9 into a 29-yard touchdown pass from Alek Torgersen to Christian Pearson. The Quakers stretched it to 28-10 before the offense bogged down while the defense was giving up passing yards but few points.

Torgersen finished with two touchdown passes and a scoring run to make his career totals 40 and 16, respectively. The Quakers (2-2) were just 3 of 14 on third down but kept going for it on fourth down, converting all four tries.

"If we had just kept the ball early on and kept the drives going on, but we didn't," Penn coach Ray Priore said. "We kept them in the game, kept it close."

The Quakers gained 389 yards to 363 for CCSU, which ended with just 22 net rushing yards. Torgersen was 22 of 30 for 216 yards. Tailback Tre Solomon ran for 114 yards on 17 carries. Wideouts Justin Watson and Pearson combined for 17 catches.

"Those first two [scores] came pretty easy, but it's not easy to score," Torgersen said.

Whatever has gone down, the preliminaries are over as the defending Ivy League champions are all Ivy from here to the finish line, with Columbia and Penn coaching icon Al Bagnoli up next Saturday at Franklin Field.

"Last year, we got better and better and better as the year went on," said Priore, who was on Bagnoli's staff for 10 Ivy titles and got one in his first year as head coach last year. "Last week [at Dartmouth], that took a lot out of us. Take a long drive up there, emotional game, beat them Friday night, gets us off schedule."

The schedule is now six games - four Saturdays, two Fridays - that will tell the tale of the season, the Ivy title a very realistic goal again.