Penn Stuns Howard In Teams First Ever Meeting
Tagged under: News, Penn, Pennsylvania Colleges, pfn
Nicholas Mastripolito | October 12, 2026
Penn notches their first home victory in the Rick Santos era.
150 years ago, the Penn football team had just been established; football was still new, and nobody at the time understood just how historic the program would be. In year 150, Penn announced the beginning of a brand new era of football under incoming Head Coach Rick Santos. On Saturday, Santos picked up his first home victory at the historic Franklin Field, defeating Howard by a final score of 24-20.
Coming off back-to-back losses, Santos was well pleased with his team’s fight. “The message of the week was to double down on your preparation, on your commitment level.” “Really proud with how they kept fighting.”
Penn kicked off the game with an opening punt, giving way to the Howard offense highlighted by 5th-year QB Ja’Shawn Scroggins. Scroggins led a 14-play drive that was finished off by a Scroggins rushing score, making the score 7-0 with 5:06 left in the first quarter.
The Quakers found their groove offensively during drive number two, with Freshman QB Miles Teodecki completing a few big passes to set Penn up in field goal range. After multiple incomplete passes, Penn elected to try the 20-yard field goal. Walters kick sailed through the uprights and made the score 7-3 approaching quarter two.
Howard went three-and-out on their next drive and handed things back over to Penn. UPENN got things rolling with a 41-yard rush from Miles Teodecki to end the quarter. On second and five, Teodecki was blown up and forced out of the game due to injury; backup Karson Siqueiros-Lasky. Siqueiros-Lasky was sacked on his only play of the series, and the Quakers settled for no points as Mason Walters missed the 41-yard kick.
Howard went another drive without scoring and handed the ball over to Penn. Karson Siqueiros-Lasky led a massive drive, resulting in a Penn score. Siqueiros-Lasky found his roommate Jack Donnelly for the score, putting the Quakers up 10-7.
“It’s pretty cool for it both to be our 1st touchdowns,” Said Siqueiros-Lasky. “It was awesome”
After the Penn touchdown, Howard punted it away and then immediately got the ball back off of a fumble recovery. The Bison were quickly able to capitalize with a mesmerizing Zaden Jackson one-handed 30-yard touchdown reception. Things did not get much better for the Quakers in the first half when Siqueiros-Lasky was intercepted right before halftime, allowing Howard to score 3 more before the half came to a close.
Coming out of the half, Howard took over possession and marched down the field, chewing up 6 minutes of clock and scoring 3 more on another field goal from Matt Conord. Conord’s field goal put the Bison up 20-10 over Penn with nearly 9 minutes left in the third quarter.
On the next drive, the Quakers faced a difficult fourth down and one decision from their own 37-yard line; Penn did not convert and handed the ball over to Howard in great field position. Thankfully for Penn, Howard was unable to take advantage and punted the ball right back to the Quakers.
Penn began a great drive before the end of the third quarter, setting up a big play. The Quakers ran a trick play philly special type play, that found Siqueiros-Lasky catching a pass from Isaac Lee. Penn now found themselves only trailing by 3.
Neither team got anything rolling on the next three drives of the game, and Penn found themselves trailing by 3 on the last drive of the game. Taking things down to the wire, the Quakers converted on 4th and 7 and then found the endzone. Karson Siqueiros-Lasky to Isaac Lee propelled the Quakers to victory. Howard threw a game-sealing INT, and Penn squeaked out a much-needed victory.
