In its final tune-up before the meat of the Ivy League schedule, the Penn football team turned in a 53-7 drubbing of the Bucknell Bison Saturday afternoon.
The game was never going to be pretty, with cloudy skies and drizzle developing by the second half into a full-fledged downpour, which kept many of the Penn faithful at home. The adverse conditions presented by the weather notwithstanding, the Bison (1-4, 0-1 Patriot) were simply outclassed by the more disciplined, more experienced and more skilled Quakers (3-1, 1-0 Ivy) at Franklin Field.
Never was that fact more evident than on Bucknell's opening drive. After receiving the opening kickoff, the offense sputtered and went three-and-out, garnering just eight yards on the series.
On Penn's ensuing possession, quarterback Pat McDermott led a seven-play, 65-yard drive capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass to tight end Chris Mizell. It looked like special teams would bring a sour conclusion to the drive when holder Scotty Williams bobbled the snap on the extra point attempt, but he saved the play, rolling out to his right and showing some athleticism to cut back and reach the end zone for the two point conversion.
"It was actually more my fault," Williams said. "The snap wasn't terrible, I just kind of bobbled it a little bit and didn't want to put a lot of pressure on the kicker, so I just rolled out and they over-pursued, so I took advantage of that as well."
Williams wasn't finished there, as he managed to produce more fireworks by the close of the first half. Playing defensive back, the junior intercepted Bison quarterback Mahdi Woodard's pass and returned it 48 yards to the house, providing the Quakers with their second defensive touchdown of the half, inflating their lead to 28-0. After the game, the California native humbly deflected praise for his first-career touchdown.
"On the interception return, it was mostly the blocking that did it," he said. "It wasn't so much anything that I was doing."
When it looked like Penn might close out the half without conceding a point, McDermott tossed an interception near his own end zone, giving Bucknell the ball on the 8-yard line. After a running play that went nowhere, quarterback Dante Ross fumbled the ball, picked it up and ran it in, ending the scoring drought with a five-yard run.
The Red and Blue took a 31-7 lead into halftime, having completely outplayed the Bisons in the first stanza. The Bucknell offense was an exercise in futility, managing just two first downs, with minus-15 yards rushing and only nine yards overall. If not for the turnover so close to the end zone, there is little chance they would have scored at all.
The inclement weather only got worse in the second half. As the rain poured down and the margin of victory widened, the meager crowd of 5,245 thinned out even more. The play started to get sloppy, with the Bison fumbling six times and losing three of them, not to mention throwing two picks. Penn kept the turnovers to a minimum, with McDermott's first-half interception standing as the only one of the day. The team did fumble five times, however, but recovered all of them.
"It was as bad a second half, weather-wise, as I've experienced in a long, long time," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. He then acknowledged the importance of getting out to the lead when the weather would allow it. "We caught a little bit of a break in the first half, because it actually was fairly good."
The Bison have had to contend with a great deal of injury trouble all season long. The team has tried four players under center, with the top two starters going down to injury. This weekend, they threw two different quarterbacks and the Red and Blue defense, with Woodard and Ross alternating snaps throughout the game. Ross, while he wasn't playing field general, logged time as a wide receiver, in addition to his usual duties of defensive back and kick returner.
In the end, the offensive explosion for the Quakers came from every phase of the game. Special teams managed two two-point conversions, while the defense scored two touchdowns of its own. McDermott went 11-21 for 180 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. Wide receiver Matt Carre caught three balls for 62 yards and a touchdown, his team-leading fourth of the season. On the ground, Penn got two touchdowns from Kyle Ambrogi, while freshman Kelms Amoo-Achampong lead the team in rushing yards with 45 and scored a touchdown of his own, the first of his career. Sam Matthews did start at running back, but got only 14 carries in the blowout.
