PHILADELPHIA — At its best in coach Mike Murphy’s decade-long tenure, Penn has found a way to pick off a heavyweight over the course of a typically ambitious nonconference schedule.

It lost in overtime to Maryland last month, was blasted at Duke and then dropped a one-goal decision at Penn State.

Now, though, the Quakers are making up for lost time.

A week after edging Cornell on the road, Penn claimed one of the most riveting games of the Division I season, a 13-12 triple-overtime thriller over defending national champion Yale Saturday on an afternoon that featured a bit of everything at Franklin Field.

“It’s definitely a relief,” senior goalie Reed Junkin said. “It was great that we had a schedule like we did in the beginning with those three top-five, top-10 teams, because that helped us prepare for a game like this where we were actually able to finish it off. This month’s been really good because our whole team has been able to hunker down and actually finish the game.”

Freshman Sam Handley scored the game-winner 58 seconds into the third extra period for the Quakers (5-3, 3-0 Ivy), an opportunity made possible only when Tyler Dunn beat the horn in regulation to force overtime in the first place. Neither would have had such meaningful opportunities without a defense anchored by Junkin, who made 22 saves as Yale (6-2, 2-1) peppered him with 66 shots.

Jack Starr stopped 15 shots for the Bulldogs, who erased a three-goal deficit in the fourth quarter and outshot the Quakers 8-2 in overtime.

“I thought they were both great,” Yale coach Andy Shay said. “It was an incredible day in the goal.”

It wasn’t exactly a barometer for the Quakers, who have won five in a row since an 0-3 start. The 16-15 victory at Cornell — a week after a 19-10 pounding of Princeton — offered a glimpse of what Penn could be. But Yale had still taken seven in a row and 10 of the last 11 from Penn, including a 21-6 humbling in last year’s Ivy semifinals to finish off the Quakers’ 7-8 season.

Before Saturday’s game, Penn coach Mike Murphy alluded to one of famed basketball coach John Wooden’s tenets — the sequence of learning how to play, then how to compete and finally how to win.

“We felt like we learned how to play in the preseason, we learned how to compete in February and now we’ve learned how to win in March,” Murphy said. “We think that fed a lot of how we approached that game, just with being persistent and having some grit.”

The Quakers were out of sorts on offense in the early going, but Junkin managed to keep them in it. He made 12 saves in the first half as Yale took a 6-5 lead into the break.

With a boost from faceoff man Kyle Gallagher, who was 11 of 19 against Yale’s TD Ierlan before the Albany transfer went 7 of 10 in the final period plus overtime, Penn took a 10-7 lead into the fourth quarter and proceeded to trade goals with the Bulldogs.

“At one point, it felt like we had a comfortable lead up three,” Murphy said. “But with their faceoff guy and the way they play, I found it hard to believe we were going to beat them by six. Sure enough. …”

No kidding. Yale rattled off four consecutive goals in a span of seven minutes, finally reclaiming the lead with 2:05 to go when Matt Gaudet deposited a feed from Joseph Sessa.

The comeback and the tight contest were both very much in character for the Bulldogs, who have split four one-goal games this season after playing just two of them all of last season.

“That’s what we expect of our guys,” Shay said of the rally. “We tend to do that and we try to make it as close a game as possible for now.”

Yale took a shot clock violation with 32 seconds left, and its exceptional ride made it a struggle for Penn to make it across midfield. Even when the Quakers did, they only had about 15 seconds and spent half of it trying to settle in for a shot.

Finally, Dunn ripped a left-handed sidearm shot past a screened Starr as time expired.

“I didn’t see a slide coming and I knew it was a now-or-never situation, so I dodged my heart out and it was a good-placed shot,” Dunn said.

After getting four saves from Junkin in the first two overtimes, Handley finished things off with a clean look from eight yards out.

“They passed to me backside and I just went,” Handley said. “I felt like I got a step and took a shot I feel like I’ve taken about a thousand times.”

The end-game work of both Dunn and Handley hints at the options available to Murphy’s team. Six Quakers scored multiple goals Saturday, and while Handley now has a team-high 31 points (15 goals, 16 assists), Penn already has eight players with at least 10 points.

The Quakers had only seven players reach that figure last year, creating an abundance of possibilities in a largely balanced offense.

“We were joking about it just now. In a lot of the timeouts, we’re not quite sure who we want to put in there because we have a bunch of guys who kind of have hot hands,” Murphy said. “In the end, we decided to go with Handley and Dunn in the midfield because they’re pretty dependable and consistent. There are guys we didn’t put in there I think could have scored as well.”

With defeats of Cornell and Yale — the presumed preseason pacesetters in the Ivy — Penn is one of two teams still unbeaten in league play. The Quakers visit the other one (Brown) next weekend, then face Harvard, Dartmouth and Vermont prior to the Ivy League tournament.

It’s enough to fuel thoughts of Penn doing things it hasn’t accomplished in decades. The Quakers haven’t won even a share of the Ivy League regular season title since 1988, though they did claim the Ivy tournament in 2014. Penn’s most recent victory in the NCAA tournament came in 1988; it was one-and-done in appearances in 1989, 2004, 2006, 2011 and 2014.

While Murphy and his players clearly enjoyed Saturday’s triumph and the manner it was achieved, the Quakers are determined to maintain perspective with so much of the season still to come.

“It’s big, but it’s still March,” Murphy said. “I understand. The TV guys were asking me yesterday --- big opponent and all that stuff. We’re playing well, and obviously, Yale’s an established power. They’ve done what they’ve done and won our league the most part the last six or eight years and they won the national championship. We beat the No. 1 team in the country last year, Duke, and then we didn’t finish that well."

Added Junkin: “Our mission is to make it as far as we can this year, and I don’t think this changes it much.”