Penn’s Malachi Hosley snaps a 109-year-old program record as the Quakers power past Cornell

Penn started out the season with a run-by-committee backfield, made up of a senior, junior, and sophomore.

No more.

Freshman running back Malachi Hosley established himself as the lead back after rushing for 261 yards and two long touchdowns in Penn’s 23-8 rout of Cornell on homecoming weekend on Saturday.

“He’s an especially talented young man,” said Penn coach Ray Priore. “There’s a little adage I heard one time: If you have to teach a dog how to bite, you got the wrong dog. If you [have] to teach a running back how to run, you’ve got the wrong running back. It’s all instincts. He really just has natural instincts, sees things, and he’s got God-given talent and speed.”

The win puts the Quakers (6-2, 3-2 Ivy) back in the title race, as they attempt to become the first team since 1982 to earn at least a share of the Ivy title while having two conference losses.

Last year, Penn fell short of the title with two losses. This year, the conference features a notable amount of parity, allowing the Quakers to still have a shot if they beat Harvard and Princeton in the final two weeks.

The Quakers will face their toughest test next Saturday (1 p.m., ESPN+) when they travel to Ivy leader Harvard (7-1, 4-1). The Crimson are the only Ivy team with one conference loss, while three others – including Penn – have two.

Penn could earn a share of the Ivy title but to win it outright, the Quakers would need a lot of help. Penn would need Dartmouth (4-4, 3-2) to lose one of its final two games, Yale (5-3, 3-2) to lose next week at Princeton (4-4, 3-2), and Yale to beat Harvard in the final week of the season.

Against Cornell, Hosley ran for a staggering 261 yards — the third-most in a single game in Penn history — with two touchdowns on 21 carries, including a 96-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. That run set the record for the longest offensive play in Penn history, topping the 95-yard TD run by Sykes Tucker in 1914.

“The accolades feel good and all, but just [helping] the team win feels better,” Hosley said. “And the job’s not finished. We got two more games left.”

Before the play that broke the 109-year-old record, Hosley already had one of the Quakers’ longest plays of the season with a 68-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Hosley began seeing some action in week three against Dartmouth when he caught a pass for a 52-yard touchdown. The following week in a win against Georgetown, Hosley collected 101 total yards and three touchdowns. Since then, Hosley has carried the ball at least 15 times in all but one of the last four games.

“This summer, I just wanted to come in, learn the playbook, help as best I could. And I just took it day by day,” said Hosley. “I stayed humble and hungry, and then more chances and opportunities kept knocking, and I just opened the door.”

It’s a tradition at Penn football games for fans to throw toast onto the field at the end of the third quarter. But a plethora of fans threw toast a little early against Cornell and for good reason.

With around two minutes left in the quarter and Penn on its own 4-yard line, Hosley bounced a carry up the middle to the outside, cut back inside, and was off to the races for the 96-yard score.

“As I got the ball, I was patient, and as I got it, I just saw everything get washed,” said Hosley. “So then I was able to bounce it, and then I just ran straight and then I looked at the jumbotron to see the last dude that was [chasing] me.”

Added Priore: “They collapsed everything. He’s got the patience and the get-up-and-go that he can do that. Not everybody has the ability to take it 0 to 20 to get outside on these guys and take it the distance, and that’s a gift.”

Immediately afterward, Penn fans celebrated by throwing their toast onto the field.