Harvard goalie Joe Pike entered Saturday's game leading the Ivy League with a 4.29 goals against average. By the time he left Franklin Field, that number had ballooned to nearly six.
Penn put five in the back of the net by halftime and added seven more by the final buzzer for a thrilling 12-10 upset over No. 19 Harvard.
The Quakers' offensive outburst against the Crimson (4-2, 0-1) began with defense and quick transition. Penn forced nine Harvard turnovers and drew five penalties, leading to two scores with a one-man advantage.
Alex Weber and Craig Andrzejewski led the Red and Blue's charge with nine goals between them. Freshman Corey Winkoff had six of the team's seven assists.
"You look like a much better defensive team, a better coach and a better goalie when you have the ball," said coach Brian Voelker, whose voice was so hoarse that it was barely audible.
"We had the ball a ton and we kind of wore on them," he added.
The Quakers' upper hand in time of possession was most evident in their six-goal third quarter. Weber scored the first three of those six.
"[Pike] is a great goalie. He stoned me early on," Weber said. "We really tried to change levels and go high on him because he's really good low."
In addition to battling the Crimson stalwart, the Quakers had to fight some demons on their own sideline: They had blown fourth-quarter leads in their two previous games against ranked opponents, losing to Drexel and Denver.
"Sometimes we fall into the trap of playing not-to-lose. That's a terrible thing to do," Weber said. "This game we really just wanted to keep it going once we got a lead."
The Quakers still struggled in the final quarter, in which they were outscored 4-1. But with an 11-6 lead through three, they had built themselves enough of a cushion to hang on by slowing down the game.
"You don't want to sit [on the ball] and kill your momentum," Voelker said. "The bottom line is our defense did a real good job stepping up at the end and got the ball back a couple times and killed some clock."
Once all that clock was killed, the Quakers rushed the field, and were still visibly excited as they shook the hands of the dejected Crimson.
Penn is now 2-0 in conference play with league favorite No. 6 Cornell looming on next week's calendar.
The Big Red come to Franklin Field Saturday trying to repeat last year's trouncing of the Quakers. But, as Harvard coach John Tillman said today after his first conference game as an Ancient Eight coach, "Playing at Franklin Field - it's a special place."
If so, maybe the Quakers can use a little more home field magic to produce two consecutive upsets.
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