A trio of improbable fourth-down conversions on the Penn football team's final drive set the Quakers up with an opportunity to win the game from the Villanova 3-yard line with five seconds remaining.
Senior quarterback Pat McDermott rolled to his right, but was sacked from the blind side by Wildcats linebacker Bryan Adams moments before he could release the ball.
The result was a crushing 28-24 loss for the Quakers in a wild game played in front of 23,257 fans at Franklin Field.
After the final buzzer, McDermott was slow to get up but said that he was not injured.
"He hit me pretty good," McDermott said. "I was just frustrated."
The drive began on Penn's 13 with 2:51 left. After advancing the ball to the 33, the Quakers faced a fourth-and-two. But McDermott hit wide receiver Matt Carre for five yards to prolong the drive.
Three plays later, the Red and Blue again had their backs to the wall with a fourth-and-five from the 43.
With the Villanova pressure on, it looked as though McDermott would be sacked, but he eluded a Wildcats defender, who grabbed at his helmet. The Penn quarterback seemed to toss his helmet off of his head as he set up for a pass.
However, the officials whistled the play dead and penalized Villanova 15 yards for a face mask penalty.
The bizarre play allowed the drive to continue and set up another unlikely fourth-down conversion three plays later.
Facing a fourth-and-13 from the Villanova 45, McDermott heaved a desperation pass into a crowd. Somehow, junior receiver Dan McDonald leapt up and came down with the ball on the 3-yard line with five seconds left.
"Once we got the hail mary, I'm thinking we're going to win this thing," McDermott said.
The Quakers could not convert, however, and emotions between the teams boiled over into a fight after the horn.
For all the excitement, the game should never have been so close.
The Quakers raced to a 17-7 halftime lead, highlighted by a 53-yard touchdown strike from McDermott to Carre with 9:09 remaining in the half.
The quarterback from Yonkers, N.Y., had arguably his best game for the Quakers, throwing for 334 yards on an efficient 25-for-37.
McDermott's prime target was running back Joe Sandberg, who caught seven passes for 99 yards.
Sandberg was starting his first game for the Quakers in place of Sam Mathews, who was out with a bruised shoulder he sustained against Duquesne.
Penn coach Al Bagnoli was surprised that Mathews was unavailable.
"We were anticipating [the injury] to get better and it just didn't," he said.
The offense didn't skip a beat without Mathews, as Sandberg contributed a career-high 104 yards on the ground to his prolific output.
However, Sandberg took no solace in his performance.
"All the yards and everything, that doesn't mean anything because we came out with a loss," he said.
Though Penn led by 10 at halftime, the lead could have been larger.
Kicker Derek Zoch missed a 32-yard field-goal attempt with 1:31 remaining in the second quarter.
Bagnoli was quick to divert blame from his kicker.
"In a game like this the smallest things get magnified," he said.
Despite the halftime lead, the Quakers faltered in the second half. The offense became stagnant and the defense was on the field for 3:28 longer than it was in the first half.
"We had numerous opportunities to keep the chain moving and we couldn't do it," Bagnoli said. "We had some untimely drops, we had penalties, we just had some bad decisions."
The Penn secondary was torched by Wildcats receivers J.J. Outlaw and John Dieser for 103 and 102 yards, respectively.
The secondary's fatigue was exacerbated by an injury to Adam Francks, the third cornerback, who could not rotate in to provide respite to starters Michael Johns and Kelechi Okere.
In the end, Bagnoli found no comfort in a close loss to a talented and athletic Villanova squad.
"Since I don't believe in moral victories, it wasn't too good if you're a Quaker fan," he said.
Note: Junior running back Von Bryant left the team for personal reasons before the weekend.
