Tomorrow night will take the Penn-Villanova football game to a place it hasn't been for years: Villanova Stadium.
The teams will meet for the fourth year in a row, but no current Penn player has set foot in the Wildcats' home venue. Villanova's last home game in the series was played at Franklin Field as part of an agreement between the two schools. The two teams last met on the Main Line in 2002. In fact, that was the only time that city bragging rights were at stake anywhere other than at Franklin Field.
The site is different, and Penn (0-1) will work to make sure the story is, too.
The Quakers trail in the all-time series, 6-5, and their last win over the Wildcats came in 1911. Villanova (2-1) has beaten Penn six times since 1980, the past three decided by one score or less.
If Penn is going to reverse that trend, it will likely have to do so without a key cog on offense.
Fifth-year senior tailback Joe Sandberg is doubtfu with the hamstring injury that yanked him out of last weekend's game. In last season's loss to the Wildcats, Sandberg accounted for two Quakers touchdowns in the second quarter alone, tossing one 26 yards on a trick play, then busting a career-long 74-yard run to find paydirt.
Although Sandberg has improved over the week, coach Al Bagnoli says that he is still not 100 percent, and will likely remain on the sidelines.
Amoo-Achampong should get a majority of the carries in his stead. Although the junior struggled mightily in last week's loss to Lafayette, Bagnoli believes that had more to do with the Leopards' defensive scheme than any inability on the Penn back's part.
"Some of it was his fault, some of it wasn't," Bagnoli said. "I think when you have blitzing, penetrating types of defensive schemes, that's not necessarily Kelms' forte. . He's much better when we can cover people up and he can generate some downhill force."
Amoo-Achampong's success tomorrow night will be closely tied to the performance of junior quarterback Robert Irvin. If he can pick out his receivers early and often, the Wildcats will be forced to move men out of the box and into pass coverage, ideally opening up some space for the power back to get going.
Neither of those things happened against Lafayette, and Irvin knows that must change to have any chance against Villanova.
"Our execution wasn't there in the first game," Irvin said. "It was understandable that we had a couple miscues, but we have to really try to get rid of those."
On the other side of the ball, the Quakers may have an easier go of things than last season against Villanova. In the 27-20 loss, Wildcats running back DeQuese May carried for 112 yards, while quarterback Marvin Burroughs tucked it down and ran for 93. Both are gone now.
And two of Villanova's starting linemen, Brant Clouser and Thomas Weaver, will concede their starting spots to freshmen because of injury.
Senior Matt Dicken has done his best to pick up the rushing slack, having gone for over 100 yards in Villanova's last two games. But the real excitement on the Main Line is at quarterback, where sophomore Antwon Young has thrown for 611 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions through three games.
"He's doing a nice job," Villanova coach Andy Talley said of Young. "We're really pleased with him."
