PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania and Princeton football teams met for the 109th time on Saturday at Franklin Field, and the Quakers won the game 38-35. It was the highest-scoring game in this rivalry since Penn pinned a 46-28 loss on the Tigers all the way back in 1940.

That said, when the game was over the Homecoming crowd of 9,073 was walking out of Franklin Field with nearly as many talking points as there were combined yards (979) in the contest.

First the good stuff. The final scoring of the day came with just 1:12 remaining, when Will Fischer-Colbrie found his All-America wide receiver, Justin Watson, for a 15-yard touchdown. It was the last of eight catches for Watson on a day when he became the program's all-time leader in career receptions and added to his records for career receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. Jack Soslow nailed the PAT, and that set the margin at three.

As it turned out, the final 1:12 is when the game got most interesting. And, you might argue, most controversial.

Penn's kickoff was a touchback, so Princeton started on its own 20 and immediately gained 11 yards when Chadd Kanoff found Tiger Bech. However, the Tigers were called for a false start, called a timeout, then got hit with another false start which pushed them back to their own 21-yard with a first-and-20.

Kanoff then threw a pass to Jesper Horsted that was tipped and picked off by Jyron Walker in front of the Princeton sideline. Game over, right?

Not so fast. Penn was called for offsides, and the next thing you knew Princeton was snapping the ball with first-and-15 at its 26, Kanoff hitting Stephen Carlson for a first down at the 41. Perhaps buoyed by the second chance, the Tigers went for 22 yards on their next play as Kanoff hit Jordan Argue to get the ball well into Penn territory.

Kanoff missed his target on first down after that, but on second down he hit Bech for 19 yards to the Quakers' 18-yard line and another first down. The next play was another pass for five yards, to the 13.

On second and five, and with 12 seconds left, Kanoff sent a pass into the deep right corner of the end zone that Carlson appeared to bobble and then catch. Immediately, the referee on the sideline signaled touchdown and the Princeton bench went crazy.

Not so fast.

The referee on the back line ran in and signaled no catch. After a discussion, and despite massive protestations from the Tigers sideline, that call remained.

Princeton still had seven seconds left, though, and with it being third down the Tigers decided to kick a 31-yard field goal and send the game to overtime. Two Penn timeouts later, the ball was snapped, and the ball was kicked wide right.

Pandemonium switched sidelines, the Quakers bouncing all over the place and being held back by the coaches lest they get called for a delay-of-game penalty. (There were still three seconds left.) Order was finally restored, Fischer-Colbrie took a knee, and only then could everyone breathe.

Penn travels to play Harvard next Saturday. Game time is 12 p.m..