On a Halloween Saturday afternoon, the Brown football team (4-3, 2-2 Ivy) dominated Penn (3-4, 1-3) from start to finish in a 36-17 thrashing. The convincing victory marks the Bears’ third straight win at Brown Stadium — a feat that Brown has not accomplished since the 2012 season.
Despite dropping their first two Ivy League matchups against Harvard and Princeton, Brown has defeated Cornell and Penn in consecutive outings and risen to No. 4 in the Ivy League.
While last week’s victory over the Big Red was a dramatic comeback, during this weekend against the Quakers, Bruno did not trail at any point. Although Brown’s defense has been phenomenal all season, ranking seventh in the Football Championship Subdivision in scoring defense, the offense struggled to score for the first half of the year. In their opening five games, the Bears put up a cumulative 75 points.
Brown has nearly matched that total in just their two most recent games, though, scoring 74 points.
“We want to take a lead, we want to hold the lead and we want to ultimately control the game,” quarterback James Murphy ’27 told The Herald in a post-game interview. “That’s what we did today.”
The Bears commanded Saturday’s game by playing complimentary football — excelling on both sides of the ball.
“We’ve been underperforming all year on an offensive standpoint,” running back Matt Childs ’28 said in a post-game interview. “It’s good to get it rolling.”
Brown wasted little time in getting on the board against Penn, rapidly moving into the red zone. From there, the Penn defense, which entered the game with the second fewest yards allowed in the FCS, buckled down. Brown was forced to kick a field goal, giving the Bears a 3-0 lead.
The Quakers began marching downfield — but the Brown defense would not let their opponent build momentum. Near the 50-yard line, Penn quarterback Miles Teodecki kept the ball on a scramble before Brown defensive lineman Nathan Marsh ’28 knocked the football loose. Defensive back Alejandro Bello ’28 jumped on the fumble, giving the Bears’ offense the ball. The Bears capitalized on their advantageous field position, finding themselves around the 5-yard line six plays after Penn’s fumble. Following three short rushes, Brown lined up for fourth-and-goal mere inches from the end zone. Childs, who racked up three touchdowns against Cornell, took the handoff and pushed across the goal line, putting Brown up 10-0 — an advantage they maintained for the remainder of the game.
Just four minutes into the second quarter, Brown put more points on the board. Murphy dropped back and floated a high back-shoulder pass to wide receiver Carson Hill ’29, who made the grab in the end zone for his first career touchdown. The extra point by Drew Crabtree ’29 extended the Bears’ lead to 17-0 early in the second quarter.
Over the next 10 minutes of gametime, Brown and Penn exchanged possession six consecutive times. The stretch featured five punts and one fumble by Murphy.
“I don’t think there was a lot of satisfaction with how (the offense) played, and that’s a good thing when you’re putting up close to 30 points,” said Murphy. “We got a lot to improve on.”
While Brown’s offense found itself in a lull, the Bears’ defense was firing on all cylinders. In the first half, Bruno forced 5 punts and held Penn to 99 yards of offense. The Quakers did manage to get on the board with 24 seconds left in the second quarter, sending a 53-yard field goal through the uprights.
Still, Brown ran into the locker room in command of the game, leading 17-3.
In a post-game interview with The Herald, Head Coach James Perry ’00 credited the Bears’ early lead to the linemen, who “just played beautifully, very, very physically.”
After forcing a Penn punt, Brown deployed three straight rushes on their first drive of the second half. On third-and-22, Murphy dished a shovel pass to running back Qwinten Brown ’26.5, who sliced through the heart of the Quaker defense for a well-timed 28-yard gain.
The Bears made their way to the Penn 5-yard line, but their nearly 8-minute-long drive stalled, and Bruno was forced to settle for a field goal and a lead of 20-3.
On Penn’s following drive, quarterback Karson Siqueiros-Lasky came off the bench and strung together four straight completed passes to lead the Quakers into Bruno territory. But on a fourth down, defensive back Brock Owen ’27 took that momentum back and executed a diving pass deflection.
Still, the Bears’ defense did not get much time to catch their breath. On the first play of Bruno’s ensuing possession, Childs fumbled the ball — but after the sea of white and brown jerseys parted, Brown retained possession. On the following play, Murphy was intercepted by a Penn defender on a shot downfield.
Penn took advantage of the turnover, orchestrating a 10-play drive that culminated in their first touchdown of the afternoon and cut the lead to 20-10 early in the fourth quarter.
The defense “played solid,” captain linebacker Max Malo ’27 told The Herald in a post-game interview.
Brown’s next drive featured a heavy dose of Childs, whose 92 all-purpose yards led the team.
On third-and-long, Murphy hurled a deep pass to wide receiver Trevor Foley ’28. The veteran receiver climbed the ladder and made a stunning 29-yard catch over a Penn defender. Shortly thereafter, Crabtree sent his third field goal of the game through the goalposts, making the score 23-10.
With only a few minutes remaining, Brown’s defense took the chance to put the game on ice. Defensive back Kalyl Lindsey ’27 perfectly read an errant pass by Siquieros-Lasky and picked it off.
“I just sunk off (the receiver) doing my job, and you got to catch them when they throw to you,” Lindsey told the Herald post-game.
Three plays later, Brown returned to the end zone. With offensive lineman Charlie Pe’a-Shropshire ’27 surprisingly lined up as a fullback, Jackson Bennett ’27 received the handoff and scampered 18 yards up the left sideline for the touchdown and a 29-10 lead.
On their next drive, the Quakers marched the ball downfield but seemed to turn it over on downs in the red zone. Due to an inadvertent whistle by the officials, though, Penn got a second chance at fourth down and capitalized with a garbage-time touchdown.
But the Bears were determined not to end the day with a bitter taste in their mouths. Penn attempted an onside kick in the final moments, which Malo plucked from midair. The standout linebacker returned the kick all the way to the end zone, putting an exclamation-point score on the 36-17 victory.
“We needed to get the ball. I saw green grass, I was like, I might as well take this to the crib,” Malo said.
“Honestly, we played together. We played like we love football. Our coach always says it, on Saturdays, it’s love day, so you got to come out and play,” Lindsey said.
Brown will look to push their win streak to three as they head to New Haven to face Yale (4-3, 2-2) this Saturday.
Lindsey quoted what he described as a common Malo phrase: “You got to smell (the win), but don’t taste it. It’s like cologne,” he said. “So we’re gonna enjoy it, and then we go on to the next one tomorrow.”
