Last Saturday, all sprint football kicker Pete Stine could do was watch from the stands as his former varsity teammates squandered opportunities, leading to an overtime loss to Brown that was ultimately decided in a kicking contest.
But head football coach Al Bagnoli still has some tricks up his sleeve.
Bagnoli exercised one of his options today, bringing Stine up to the varsity program in an effort to ameliorate the Quakers' kicking woes.
Stine was initially recruited for the varsity team but was beat out by Derek Zoch for the position of starting kicker.
Stine made one of three attempts his freshman year but opted to join the sprint football team so he could get some extra kicks instead of taking the role of backup to Zoch.
Zoch has been struggling all season, however, and now stands at 4-for-10.
After several weeks of sorely missing a dependable kicking game, Bagnoli made the decision to call Stine back up to the squad.
The senior's contribution comes just in time for Penn, but his lack of success on the sprint team does not bode well for the Quakers' current kicking conundrum.
Stine has missed all three of his field goals this season, with two of the misses coming from the 20-29 yard range.
Nevertheless, Bagnoli is optimistic about Stine after the senior practiced with the team yesterday for the first time.
"We're exploring all the possibilities," Bagnoli said. "It seems like Pete's really worked at it, and he looked good today. His operational time was good, and he was striking the ball with a lot of confidence."
Stine is just the latest attempt to shore up Penn's kicking game; wideout Braden Lepisto took some field goals and extra points in the loss to Brown last weekend.
But Lepisto - the Quakers' leading receiver with 459 yards - struggled, making only one extra point; another was blocked to go along with a missed 25-yard field-goal attempt.
Zoch came in to attempt a 26-yard kick in overtime, but his wide-right field-goal miss essentially handed Brown the game - an almost identical result to the previous week's heartbreaking loss at Yale.
Bagnoli is pleased with Stine's overall progress but will continue to use Lepisto and Zoch as necessary depending on Stine's in-game success.
"If he continues to look really good in practice, he'd be the guy that probably rolls out with the first [kick], and then we'll take it from there," Bagnoli said. "We're still searching for some answers, and it's a situation that hopefully is going to be solidified."
