Penn’s final home game of the season hits differently for Rick Santos and the seniors
Penn has lost all of its last five games against Harvard. The Quakers view their final home matchup of the season as a “legacy type game.”
In some ways, Penn’s matchup with first-seeded Harvard on Saturday afternoon carries a different weight.
For head coach Rick Santos and the freshmen, it’s their first homecoming game. For the seniors, it’s goodbye to Franklin Field.
“I was just talking to my mom about it,” said senior linebacker Cole Olsztyn. “I can’t believe these are my last two games as a Quaker already. It seems like just yesterday I was getting to campus [in] August for freshman year.”
Santos added: “We need to play for [the seniors]. We need to honor them with our effort and our toughness.”
That effort is what Santos believes will give Penn (4-4, 2-3 Ivy League) an edge against the Crimson, who beat the Quakers in each of their last five meetings and have been Ivy League co-champion the past three seasons. This season, Harvard is averaging 27.8 points, tied for first in the league, and 387.3 yards per game while leading the Ivy in multiple defensive categories.
» READ MORE: Penn’s defense steps up in comeback road win over Cornell
“Harvard doesn’t have many weaknesses right now, to be honest with you,” Santos said.
With top running backs Donte West and Tommy Lafayette out for the season because of injury, Penn will need to be “creative” offensively.
Karson Siqueiros-Lasky will get the start at quarterback in Penn’s final home game of the season, and Santos said he expects him to “play the majority part of the game,” while freshman Miles Teodecki will play “situationally.”
Siqueiros-Lasky started last Saturday, and his passing game propelled Penn to a 14-13 win over Cornell. He completed 24 of 38 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown.
“That was definitely the momentum we need going [into] this week,” said Olsztyn, who had his first interception since high school against Cornell.
Olsztyn said the seniors have worked to lay a foundation for the team and build an “upward trajectory.”
Freshman wide receiver Mason Page could be a key part to the team’s future. Page is second on the team with 408 receiving yards and has two touchdowns through eight games. He ranks eighth in the Ivy League in receiving yards.
“He was a dog in high school, as he is out here,” said Jack Sacchetti, a freshman defensive lineman who also was teammates with Page at West Forsyth High School in Cumming, Ga. “Once he committed here, I’m like, ‘We got a guy.’”
Page added: “You’re playing against guys that are three or four years older than you, so I knew that I needed to work twice as hard just to even be equal with them.”
Page is averaging 13.4 yards per catch against Ivy League opponents.
“The moments never really seem too big for him,” Santos said.
» READ MORE: Miles Teodecki had offers from Power Four schools. The quarterback chose Penn instead.
While playing at Franklin Field for the last time is “surreal,” senior defensive back Josh Narcisse said, “it doesn’t change the fact that we’re all very focused on our goal for this week.”
The seniors have yet to beat Harvard, “so this is a legacy type game for them,” Santos said.
“Let’s create a memory that they can have for a lifetime,” he said, “and that’s beating a team as good as Harvard.”
