Football | Spotty first half costs Quakers

EASTON, Pa. - Robert Irvin dropped back and let it fly over the middle.

Looking to extend the Quakers' furious second-half rally with a fourth-down conversion, Irvin fired a wayward pass to David Wurst on a slant, missing high and setting up Wurst for a crushing meeting with the Lafayette secondary.

Wurst, leaping with outstretched arms as two defenders barreled in, looked to have done the remarkable, getting his hands to the ball and trying the secure it with his body before the blows came.

In a flash, though, the throw glanced off his fingertips, the Leopards' defense brought the pain and the pigskin hit the turf.

Turnover on downs. Drive home safely.

The play was emblematic of Penn's 24-17 loss to Lafayette on Saturday night under the lights of Fisher Stadium: a lackluster start nearly erased by a spectacular finish.

Coming off last weekend's overtime thriller in the season opener against Villanova, the Quakers (0-2) seemed to have taken the drama out of this one early.

Allowing 24 first-half points can have that effect - especially when your offense lays a goose-egg.

"I can't put my finger on why we came out so lethargic," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said. "We made some uncharacteristic mistakes."

Many of those early miscues came from the vaunted secondary, which was beaten deep twice in the second quarter by the Leopards' connection of quarterback Rob Curley and Shaun Adair.

"In the first half, they were doing a lot of one-on-one coverage on me, so we were able to take advantage of that," said Adair, who hauled in touchdowns of 23 and 37 yards.

"In the second half, they started to force me inside where the cornerback had help from the safety."

Penn's offense was similarly schizophrenic. In the first 30 minutes, Irvin completed just seven of 18 passes for 56 yards and an interception.

"It seemed like they brought pressure every time we had a passing situation," said Irvin, who suffered three sacks on Saturday after staying upright for all of the Villanova game.

"It's tough to do what you want to do when you have two seconds, three seconds to get the ball out."

On top of that, junior transfer Kyle Olson, on his only pass of the day, threw a horrendous pick inside the Quakers' 10-yard line, missing his target by a good six feet as Leopards' linebacker Neil Goldsmith secured possession.

But in the second half, the Red and Blue's attack was immediately effective. On the first drive of the third quarter, Irvin led the squad 87 yards on just four plays, culminating in a 42-yard screen pass to sophomore running back Bradford Blackmon.

After eluding a swarm of Leopards near the line of scrimmage, Blackmon found room up the right sideline, then used a downfield block to cut back across the field and outrun the Lafayette secondary to paydirt.

Following last weekend's costly fumbles in the overtime loss, Blackmon looked much more comfortable in his second career start.

"Last week, I was just thinking too much," said Blackmon, who carried the ball 11 times for 60 yards and, most importantly, had no fumbles. "This week, I was just trying to let the game come to me."

An Andrew Samson field goal late in the third cut the lead to two scores, and some stingy Quakers' defense, combined with a more conservative second-half gameplan from Lafayette (3-0), kept the Leopards off the board the rest of the way.

After trading punts for most of the fourth, the Red and Blue finally reached the endzone again with 3:27 to play, when sophomore Mike DiMaggio scampered untouched for a six-yard score.

Penn's defense got the ball back to Irvin's unit with 1:35 to play, and the quarterback - backed up inside his own 10 - led the Quakers into Leopards' territory with some quick strikes to wideouts Kyle Derham and Tyler Fisher.

But after three straight incompletions stalled the drive at the Lafayette 46, the rally ended with the final pass to Wurst.

"We're still just a play or two, an assignment or two, from being a pretty good football team," Bagnoli said.

"We've played two really good football teams in two weeks, and unfortunately we came up short in both of them."

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