Penn Beats Yale 24-21 as Four Interceptions Fuel First Ivy League Win Since 2023

For three weeks, Penn kept finding new and creative ways to lose Ivy League football games. On Friday night at Franklin Field, it finally found a way to win one, and it did it by taking the ball away from the defending co-champions four times.

Penn beat Yale 24-21 on Family Weekend, with senior running back Sean Williams running 13 yards up the middle for the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter and the Quakers' defense pitching a second-half shutout. It was Penn's first Ivy League win since 2023, per The Daily Pennsylvanian. A week earlier, the Quakers had blown a 17-point lead in a 28-27 loss to Columbia that went viral for all the wrong reasons. This one went the other way.

Both teams left Philadelphia at 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the Ivy League. For Yale, which won a share of the 2025 Ivy title and took the league's first-ever FCS playoff bid, that is a second straight loss and a long way from where it expected to be in late October.

Yale lands the early punches

The first half belonged to the visitors, at least on the scoreboard. Lucius Anderson took a jet sweep 44 yards to the house for a 7-0 Yale lead, and Penn's opening drive was a three-and-out.

Then freshman quarterback Miles Teodecki settled in. Playing for the first time since a knee injury against Howard two weeks earlier, Teodecki hit Jack Donnelly for a 2-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal to tie it, and then found Dante Barone from 3 yards out. Mason Walters added the extra point and Penn led 14-7.

Yale answered fast. Hugo Djeumeni Kemeni, who came in leading the Ivy League in rushing by a wide margin after a 243-yard day against Rhode Island, broke a 34-yard touchdown run to tie it at 14. Penn's offense stalled after that. One drive died on downs in Yale territory, and even when sophomore defensive back Ezra Fearon picked off a tipped pass deep in Penn territory, the Quakers ended up punting from their own 2. After a run of three punts, Yale scored again before the break and took a 21-14 lead into halftime.

"Those were three huge plays and critical mistakes on our end," Penn coach Rick Santos said of the first half.

Four interceptions and a shutout half

Here is the part of the game Yale will not want to rewatch. Quarterback Dante Reno, who came into the night leading the Ivy League in touchdown passes, threw four interceptions, and each one landed at a moment that mattered.

Fearon's tipped-ball pick was the first. The second was a back-breaker: early in the third quarter, with Yale at the Penn 6 and threatening to stretch the lead to two scores, a broken play turned into a tipped pass, and junior linebacker Derek McCrum caught it in the back of the end zone. Sophomore Brock Cornell picked off Reno's third later in the quarter with Yale backed up in its own territory, handing Penn the ball near midfield.

Santos credited a halftime fix up front. "We adjusted to how we knocked the front over and got some different looks," Santos said. Whatever the adjustment was, it worked. A Yale offense that piled up 21 points in two quarters did not score in the final two.

The turning point

Penn opened the fourth quarter with a Walters field goal to make it 21-17. The drive had a chance to be more after a big Donnelly catch moved the ball into Yale territory, but a sack and a penalty pushed the Quakers back and they settled for three.

The decisive drive got its biggest boost from Yale. After Isaac Lee hauled in a first-down catch, a targeting penalty on the Bulldogs moved the ball to the Yale 13. Teodecki threw the first-down pass away. Then Penn handed it to Williams, who was only carrying the load because starter Tommy Lafayette had been hurt earlier in the night, and Williams went straight up the middle and into the end zone. Penn 24, Yale 21.

"[I saw] green grass, touchdown," Williams said. Williams also handed out credit. "Offensive line did a great job getting everyone out of the way."

One last chance for Yale

Yale still had one more shot. Senior defensive back Devin Malloy got Penn the ball back with Reno's fourth interception, made in man coverage late in the game, but the Quakers could not pick up a first down to ice it. Yale got the ball back near midfield with 44 seconds left.

The Bulldogs moved into field goal range, and then made a small mistake that turned out to be a big one. A delay of game penalty backed Noah Piper up five yards, and the 44-yard attempt missed.

"You should have seen the locker room," Santos said, describing it as "just pure joy and elation."

The players who decided it

Williams finished with 82 yards on 14 carries and the game-winning score, which is not bad for a guy who started the night as the backup. Santos made a point of it afterward. "Really, really proud of [Sean] and how we stayed on the course," Santos said, adding that Williams "was ready for that moment."

Teodecki completed 16 of 33 passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns. Not gaudy, but Teodecki did not turn it over, and in this game that was the whole point. "Legs felt ready to go," Teodecki said of the return from the knee injury. The freshman was quick to share the night, too: "The guys around me were doing a great job."

The real stars wore defense. Fearon, McCrum, Cornell and Malloy each had an interception, and Penn, which came into the week ranked first in the Ivy League in defense, played like it after halftime.

For Yale, the losses will sting more because of who played well. Anderson caught 10 passes for 133 yards and two touchdowns. Djeumeni Kemeni ran 20 times for 107 yards and a score.

The stats that matter

Yale outgained Penn 359 yards to 289 and averaged 5.5 yards per play to Penn's 4.3. Usually that wins. But Yale turned it over four times and Penn turned it over zero times, and that is the stat that ends the conversation. Penn also held the ball for 32:36 to Yale's 27:24, which helped keep a dangerous Yale offense on the sideline in the second half. The full numbers are in the official box score (opens in a new tab). A crowd of 5,531 watched it happen.

What it means

For Penn, this was about more than one win. The Quakers had lost close games to Dartmouth (14-10) and Columbia (28-27) to open Ivy play, and a third would have put their season on life support. Instead, they are 1-2 and very much breathing, with a defense that now has evidence it can close. Next on the schedule was a Halloween trip to Brown, followed by a visit to Cornell, a home game against Harvard and a finale at Princeton.

For Yale, the problem is obvious. The Bulldogs have dropped two straight, including a 41-23 home loss to Rhode Island, and their path back to a repeat Ivy title now requires help. Next on the schedule was a trip to New York to face Columbia. Yale's recap of the night is here (opens in a new tab), and Penn's is here (opens in a new tab).

The last word

"You reap the benefits when you trust the process," Santos said.

That line sounds like a coaching cliche until you remember what Penn had just been through: a blown 17-point lead, a viral late-game decision, and a two-game Ivy hole. Santos was also honest about what comes next. "We have to repeat that effort and clean up some mistakes if we want to win next week," Santos said. Fair enough. But on Friday night, for the first time in a long time, Penn got to clean up after a win.

Sources: Penn Athletics and Yale Athletics recaps and box score, The Daily Pennsylvanian and FOX Sports. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Penn Athletics.