Penn Opens Ivy Play Friday Night Against Dartmouth

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The University of Pennsylvania football team will play its Ivy League opener on Friday night, welcoming the Big Green of Dartmouth to Franklin Field.

Penn is 2-0 on the season after going up to Bethlehem last weekend and outlasting Lehigh in a wild match-up, 65-47.

"We knew that we were going to have to score points, they are an explosive offense," Penn head coach Ray Priore tells KYW Newsradio. "Our kids just grew from week one to week two on offense. I was really, really happy to see the success they had."

The Quakers got a lot of big performances in that win (they rolled up 615 yards of offense), but the biggest was provided by sophomore running back Karekin Brooks. Starting for the injured Tre Solomon (ankle), Brooks finished with 268 yards on the ground (four yards shy of the program record for rushing yards in a game) and scored three touchdowns. He also threw a touchdown pass.

"For a young player he's so, so meticulous and so detailed," Priore says of Brooks. "It was great to watch him play and perform. Very, very humble young man and a real, real hard worker. Let's hope he can just keep on building upon it and building upon it. He's really talented."

Priore says Solomon has been working hard to get back healthy and is currently day-to-day.

Penn went 3-0 on Fridays a season ago, playing probably their three sharpest games of the season. Priore talks about why they have been able to have success on a short week.

"I think the biggest thing is we don't really change what we do during the week at practice," he says. "We keep it very, very similar, very consistent."

Dartmouth is also 2-0 on the season and this will also be the Ivy opener for the Big Green. Last week, Dartmouth also had a wild game, beating Holy Cross 27-26 in overtime.

"Very, very sound defense," Priore says of the Big Green. "Very, very big and strong and physical. Receivers that can run, good stable of running backs."

Last season's match-up between these two teams was one of those sharp Friday night performances for the Quakers who went up to Hanover and won 37-24.

Friday night's game kicks off at 7:00pm.