Brody Gilkison, Contributing Photographer
The clash between Yale (3–2, 0–2 Ivy) and Penn (2–3, 0–2) under the lights on Friday night features two football teams anxiously trying to get their first conference wins of the year in a bid to stay within touch of the top of the Ivy League.
The Bulldogs are coming off a solid win against Lehigh, which should give them the confidence they need to hit the ground running on Friday night. This season, the Bulldogs have shown their ability to perform in both a passing offense and, more recently, a running offense. This should make the Quakers’ game planning more difficult and give the Bulldogs room to get creative in their play calling.
Last week, running backs Josh Pitsenberger ’26 and Tre Peterson ’25 ran for a total of 166 yards, and the week before that, quarterback Grant Jordan ’25 threw 412 yards against Dartmouth. These stats are promising for the Bulldogs as they head into Friday’s competition with several offensive strategies available.
Defensively, the Bulldogs have been struggling to keep points low. The unit gave up 44 points against Dartmouth and 21 points against Lehigh in their past two games. However, the Bulldog defense has been able to come up with some big plays recently, including four forced turnovers against Lehigh.
Looking towards Friday, the Bulldogs should continue to make these momentum-shifting plays and tighten up their defense to give their offense as many opportunities to put the ball in the endzone as possible.
For the Quakers, the offense features their star running back Malachi Hosley. Hosley leads the Ivy League in rushing yards per game with 117 and is tied for first with five rushing touchdowns. Hosley has been the bright spot of a Penn offense that has struggled in the early part of the season, averaging just under 23 points per game.
One way the Quakers will look to spark offense is in the kick return game, with the electric return specialist Julien Stokes. Stokes missed all of last season but was a First Team All-Ivy specialist in 2022. In his return to action this season, Stokes has picked up right where he left off, leading the Ivy League with 30.6 yards a return.
On defense, the Quakers have struggled against the pass this season. Penn allows opposing quarterbacks to complete an average of 68.4 percent of their passes for over 283 yards a game.
The game is sure to feature fireworks, with both teams better offensively than defensively and equally hungry for an Ivy League win. Additionally, as part of the Ivy League’s deal with ESPN, the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
The game will kick off at 7 p.m. on Friday night in Philadelphia.