Penn Travels To Fordham For Saturday Kickoff
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It will be the first road game of the season on Saturday for the University of Pennsylvania football team as the Quakers travel up to the Bronx to battle Fordham.
Penn opened up its season last weekend, losing at home to Lehigh, 49-28. The Quakers actually led 28-21 late in the second quarter, but the Mountain Hawks scored the game's final 28 points to pull away with the victory.
"Came out of the box playing hard, playing fast," Penn head coach Ray Priore tells KYW Newsradio. "Knew it was going to be a four quarter game. We didn't play four quarters, unfortunately. We played through the first half fairly well on offense, give and take on defense and second half they got ahead and we didn't match that the way we would like too."
Listen to the entire interview with Penn's Ray Priore:
Senior quarterback Alek Torgersen led the way for the Quakers in defeat against Lehigh, throwing for 222 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for a team-high 86 yards and two more scores.
Fordham is 1-1 and coming off a bye week. In their last game, back on September 10th, the Rams dismantled Division II Elizabeth City State, 83-21.
"They have a very, very explosive offense," Priore says. "Probably one of the best running backs in FCS (junior Chase Edmonds), transfer quarterback from Marshall (senior Kevin Anderson). So they have talented kids all over the place. Schematically they are always looking to get the advantage."
Last year the Quakers hosted Fordham at Franklin Field in what turned into a real classic. The Quakers were down 28-3 in the first half and 35-17 at the break. They came roaring back and tied the game at 45 late in the fourth quarter before Fordham kicked a field goal in the final seconds to win 48-45.
"Our kids are up for the challenge," Priore says. "I think we know, and I think it was a defining moment in our season last year, knowing the fact that if we would've protected the ball a little bit earlier, better and took advantage of some of the opportunities we had, we very well could have won the game last year. So I think they look at it as one they could've had. Good football team, got to play well."
Saturday's game kicks off at 1:00 p.m.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.