David Coulson

Villanova made a goal-line stand against Richmond with 9:26 left in the second quarter after the Spiders had earned a first down at the one. Richmond's best chance to score came when freshman quarterback Montel White attempted a bootleg pass to tight end Kevin Finney, but missed the open receiver at the side of the end zone.

Down 14-0, Richmond coach Latrell Scott went for it on fourth down, rather than try a field goal.

Villanova is now on the move again.

After a Richmond stop, Villanova cornerback James Pitts intercepted a Montel White pass to set up Aaron Ball's 28-yard touchdown run. It is 21-0 with 2:51 left in the half. This game is pretty much done and so are Richmond's hopes of a fourth straight playoff berth.

One play after an Eric Loper interception was negated by officials, Marquis Kirkland recovered a Kendall Gaskins fumble at the Richmond 40.

21-0 Villanova at the half and on to Franklin Field for the Penn-Brown game.

After an excruciatingly boring third quarter, Richmond's offense finally got in gear behind backup QB Nick Hicks. Hicks engineered a six-play, 58-yard drive and Kendall Gaskins capped it off with a one-yard plunge to cut Villanova's lead to 21-7 heading to the fourth quarter.

After wading my way through Philly traffic, listening to the Villanova-Richmond radio broadcast en route, I arrived at Franklin Field just in time for some offensive fireworks between Penn and Brown. Penn took a 7-0 lead early in the second period on a 54-yard scoring dash from Quaker quarterback Billy Ragone.

On the ensuing kickoff, Mark Kachmer of Brown faked a reverse and charged 85 yards for a Bruin TD to tie the game. A Brown blocker lightly blocked one of the Penn tacklers in the back at the point of attack, but pulled back his hands after the contact and the officials let the touchdown stand to make it 7-7.

But some pin-point passing from Ragone and a key pass interference flag set up fullback Luke DeLuca for a one-yard smash to put Penn back in front 14-7 midway through the second quarter.

Checking in back at Villanova, Richmond's third turnover of the game, a fumble by Nick Hicks gave the ball back to the Wildcats deep in Spider territory. Defensive end Rakim Cox caused the miscue and ever-alert safety John Dempsey recovered and returned it 32 yards to the 12.

Chris Whitney hit Chris Farmer on a three-yard pass for the score to make it 28-7 midway through the fourth quarter.

Eric Loper finally got that interception he was denied earlier, picking off a Nick Hicks pass just three plays later to give the Wildcats the ball back at the Richmond 40 with 6:20 remaining. That's four turnovers now for the fading Spiders.

Billy Ragone is at it again, rushing in nifty fashion to the Brown 15, picking up a key block from one of the officials along the way. The Quakers just picked up a first down at the one before Brandon Colavita banged over for the TD to make it 21-7 with 37 seconds left in the half.

It will be difficult for even as high powered of an offense as Brown's to recover from a 14-point deficit against one of the toughest defenses in FCS, particularly at Franklin Field.

At the half, it remains 21-7 Penn in this first-place battle in the Ivy League.

There was an extremely touching halftime tribute to Dan "Lake" Staffieri on the Franklin Field video board. Coach Lake was an inspiration to about everyone who met him, until his death in April from a long battle with cancer. He was a regular at our weekly Philadelphia sportswriters and sportscasters luncheons, ending our events with his trademark slogan "Do Better Than Your Best." I got a little misty eyed watching him on the screen. Coach Lake, you are missed.

The Quakers gave out bobble head dolls of Coach Lake before the game and had a characteristic picture of him sending the Penn players out of the locker room for a game on the cover of the game program. It was a well-done tribute.

Look for more about Coach Lake this week in the College Sporting News.

Final from the other side of town, Villanova 28, Richmond 7.

So what do you do when a false start wipes out your 42-yard field goal? You simply step back and drill another one from 47 yards like Andrew Sampson just did to give Penn a 24-7 lead with 8:53 remaining in the third period.

The Penn drive was kept alive with one of the hardest hits I've ever seen on a punter for a roughing the kicker penalty against Brown.

After keeping a drive alive with a couple of fourth-down conversions, Brown missed a TD pass by inches on a pump-fake, double-route in the corner of the end zone. Then the Bruins had a field goal attempt blocked by Penn's Brian Wing to leave the score at 24-7 with less than five minutes left in the third period.

An interesting note on Penn captain Bradford Blackmon. Blackmon has to be one of the few — if not only — players going both ways this season in Division I football. Blackmon was moved to cornerback as a senior and earned a starting spot to shore up a weak area for the Quakers and has now been seeing time back at his old position, running back. He is also a key special teams performer.

On the field, Blackmon and Ragone had some nice runs to get Penn back into scoring position, but a big hit led to a fumble and a Brown recovery at the Bruin one to avoid another Quaker bullet as the third period reached its end.

Penn 24, Brown 7 heading to the fourth. And time for the famous Penn Toast toss. One of my favorite moments in FCS.

Penn had held Brown to just 29 yards rushing through three quarters. But a big scramble by QB Patrick Donnelly moved the Bruins deep into Quaker territory early in the fourth period. Penn's stingy defense, however, rose up again to stop a fourth-down pass and leave the game at 24-7 with under 11 minutes to play.

And the Penn defense closes out another win, shutting down the potent Brown attack on the way to a 24-7 victory. Brown moved to the Quaker four in the closing seconds, but Penn stopped the final passing play short of the goal line to finish off the win.