Head coach Al Bagnoli must have given a particularly motivational halftime speech to the Penn football team on Saturday.
The Quakers (4-1, 2-0 Ivy League) filed into the locker room at the break with only a 13-10 advantage over Ivy League foe Columbia (1-4, 0-2 Ivy).
When they emerged, so did a completely different football game. Penn's slim margin didn't stay that way for long.
"As long as the underdog continues to play with you," Bagnoli said after the game, "that gives them more and more confidence."
The rejuvenated Quakers cut off the confident Columbia edge, destroyed them in the second half and ran away with a 44-10 victory.
Just four minutes into the third quarter, Penn running back Stephen Faulk charged into the end zone and sparked the Quakers second-half run.
The Red and Blue never looked back, running away from the Lions in the third quarter. Penn scored 24 unanswered points over an eight- minute span.
"I think we were very disappointed [with the first half]," Penn senior Chris Pennington said. "We came out in the first half a little complacent. We were lagging a little bit. I think at halftime we made up for it, made some adjustments and made some plays."
However, the Lions seemed to be an equal contributor to Penn's scoring barrage. It was not only exceptional play on the Quakers' side, but also a series of game-killing turnovers from Columbia's special teams.
After Faulk's touchdown, with 11 minutes to go in the third quarter, Penn's Roman Galas kicked off.
Columbia's Kenny Wood caught the ball for the return on the Lions' goal line and, in a moment of indecisiveness, looked back to the endzone and attempted to down the ball.
Although Wood and the Columbia sidelines believed that he was in the endzone, the referees saw it differently, claiming that Wood was actually on the one yard line. The Lions were forced to begin their drive inches from their own end zone.
"Kenny obviously made a mistake, you either stay in or come out," Columbia coach Ray Tellier said. "I thought he put his hand down, but not his knee. I don't know why the whistle blew."
The Columbia mishaps continued. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Lions' quarterback Steve Hunsberger threw a ball up the middle and straight into the hands of Penn defensive back Vince Alexander, who recorded his team-high fourth interception of the season.
"That interception killed our momentum," Hunsberger said. "It was a bad throw and a bad decision."
Just three plays later, Penn's Kevin DeSmedt ran one yard into the endzone and, with Peter Veldman's extra point, Penn jumped ahead, 27-10.
After a 36-yard field goal by Veldman, Wood got another chance to return the ball.
Wood again received and after making a strong run to the Lions' 17-yard line, fumbled the ball. Penn's Luke Hadden recovered, and the Quakers scored again, putting them up 37-10.
"We got a bunch of bad breaks," Columbia senior defensive back Philip Murray said. "Any time you get those kind of breaks, it's frustrating. It seems like we got nothing but bad breaks at the start of the third quarter. It just wore us out."
The fourth quarter saw one final touchdown from Penn backup quarterback Jack Phillips in garbage time, clinching the 44-10 victory.
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