Tigers use balanced attack for first win of season
By: Justin Feil
The Princeton University football team knew exactly how Columbia felt Saturday night. Only a week before, the Tigers watched as Lehigh scored 34 straight points after trailing 3-0 on its way to a 34-10 win over PU.
Princeton flipped the tables on Columbia, falling behind, 3-0, in the first quarter before putting up 34 points on its way to a 44-11 win, its first victory of the 2001 season, in front of 13,559 appreciative fans in the home opener. Afterward, the emotions poured over for the Tigers who improved to 1-0 in the Ivy League and 1-1 overall.
"I’m so proud of this team," said PU head coach Roger Hughes, apologizing through his tears. "The emotion and frustration of all last year and this year to this point is coming through right now. We kept telling the kids, ‘Believe, believe, believe. Keep working hard.’ They paid a tremendous price this summer, and last week we were frustrated again with a number of things we did. We said, ‘Hey, we’re going to be good if you just keep believing in yourself. Keep working, keep working, keep working.’ And they’ve done it."
It was a joint effort as the Tiger offense and defense took turns battering Columbia. The Lions finished with just 93 total rushing yards and had four turnovers, three that were interceptions. On offense, Princeton showed the kind of balance it’s been wanting. Princeton had 191 yards rushing to go with 217 yards passing.
Columbia scored first when it converted an interception of Princeton’s David Splithoff into three points. It was a rare mistake by the Tiger sophomore quarterback and an even rarer Lion highlight. The Lions’ resulting drive consumed five minutes, 30 seconds and went 60 yards before settling for a 27-yard field goal from Sam Warren to take a 3-0 lead with 6:25 to play in the first quarter. The Lions had the ball first-and-goal from the Princeton 9, but Tiger cornerback Paul Simbi and linebacker Chris Roser-Jones broke up back-to-back passes.
Splithoff began the day just 4-for-9 in the first half, but helped establish the run attack that was so vital to Princeton’s success. He scored twice on short runs as Princeton built a 17-3 half-time lead. His confidence seemed to grow with each Tiger score, and there were three in succession to begin the second half.
"As the game goes on, your confidence just builds," said Splithoff, who finished the day 11-for-19 for 204 yards and two touchdowns while running for 51 yards and the two other touchdowns on 10 carries. "When you get confidence, sometimes you just make plays. It’s all about making plays, and our confidence grew as the game went on. I felt more confident as the game went on. You kind of let the game come to you. Once you get that going, it’s like, ‘Let’s get this going and get some points on the board.’"
After Columbia’s first score, Princeton put plenty of points on the board. The Tigers used Cameron Atkinson and Splithoff to answer the Lions and take its first lead, 7-3. The two traded off on big plays as the Tigers used 10 total plays to drive 78 yards, the last two when Splithoff danced over the left side for a 2-yard touchdown run on the option.
Atkinson began the drive with a rugged 13-yard run up the middle, then five plays later Splithoff broke free for a 16-yard pick-up on an option and three snaps later Atkinson burst down the left side for 20 yards on an option to the Columbia 2 to set up Splithoff’s score.
"We have big athletes up front," explained Atkinson of the running game’s success. "I knew they were going to produce, I just didn’t know exactly when. I thought it was going to be last week. We didn’t really get it going, but I think it was more of scheme thing. This week, they were physical, they blew them off the ball. The run game was great."
It helped Atkinson celebrate his 20th birthday in style as the junior amassed 115 yards on 18 carries, good for 6.4 yards per rush. And he continued to get chances because the Princeton defense found ways to get the ball back in the offense’s hands.
Princeton’s Chris Roser-Jones was step-for-step with his man 20 yards downfield when he reached up to intercept a pass from Columbia’s Jeff McCall at the Princeton 25-yard line. He followed a host of blockers 51 yards down the left side until he was taken down from behind at the Columbia 24.
It took the offense just six plays to capitalize on Roser-Jones’ interception, and it did when Splithoff scrambled 12 yards for a touchdown on 3rd-and-11. Unable to find a receiver, the sophomore tucked the ball and shot through the right side then dived in as he neared the end zone to give Princeton a 14-3 lead with 5:55 to play in the second quarter.
"Our defense did a phenomenal job of creating turnovers and this week we turned them into points," Hughes said. "That’s what we harped on all week. If we got a chance, we wanted to take advantage of it. Lehigh did that last week and if we want to be the caliber that the best teams are in this league, we have to do the same thing."
Roser-Jones proved that Princeton did not even need the offense on the field to be productive with turnovers as he supplied six points by returning his second interception of the night 41 yards for a score with 11:01 to play in the fourth quarter. It was a fitting finish for the Princeton defense that played so well.
Princeton built a two-touchdown lead at halftime after its defense forced a Columbia punt and the Tigers got a 40-yard punt return from Andy Bryant to maintain their momentum. Princeton’s offense took over at the Columbia 45, and proceeded to use the remainder of the first half to move 24 yards before Taylor Northrop booted a 38-yard field goal as the first half expired to give the hosts a 17-3 lead. The Tigers had the ball at the Columbia 3, but lost yardage on two of the next three plays before Northrop’s kick.
Princeton continued to add to its lead when it came out of the locker room and marched 69 yards in 5:06 before Northrop hit a 22-yard field goal to up the Tigers’ lead to 20-3. The big play on the drive came when Splithoff hit Chisom Opara on a crossing pattern and the junior wide receiver turned it into a 33-yard gain to put the ball at the Columbia 21-yard line.
"The nice thing was we had success in virtually every facet of our game, which then opens up all the other facets that we can use," Hughes said.
Opara took it the whole way next time as he and Splithoff connected on a 78-yard touchdown pass, the longest touchdown pass in Princeton Stadium history, to build Princeton’s lead to 27-3 with 7:19 to play in the third quarter.
"We came out and started to use what was effective in the first half, make it look like that, and run the play-action pass off of it," Hughes said. "Dave did a great job. I didn’t think he was ever going to release that first touchdown to Chisom. When we lined up, I said, ‘We have this. It’s over. It’s a touchdown if we just complete it.’ Dave hung in there, and Chisom did a nice job of reading the safety and beating him."
Princeton regained the ball in excellent field postion when the Tiger defense continued its domination with a stop on fourth-and-1. The Lions gave the ball to Johnathan Reese, but he was met initially by sophomore defensive tackle George Pilcher, who penetrated the Columbia line quickly, and then Blake Perry and a host of Tigers who did not allow a yard.
The Tigers took two plays this time, before Splithoff rolled left and hit Brendan Dillon with a 31-yard touchdown strike to make it 34-3.
"I think tonight we clicked and I still think we can get better," Splithoff said. "It was just a matter of we had a great week of practice, I think we learned from our mistakes last week what we need to do better and we worked on those things. And we’ll continue to get better. Hopefully this won’t be a one-time thing."
Columbia finally scored a touchdown when Reese scored from a yard out and made the two-point conversion to cut the Tigers’ lead to 34-11 before Roser-Jones added his interception return and Northrop nailed a 36-yard field goal with 5:15 left in the game to end the scoring and send the Tigers into the locker room a very happy and confident squad as it begins preparation for next Saturday’s 1 p.m. game against Colgate at Princeton Stadium.
"I think it’s huge," Splithoff said. "It goes back to confidence. Once you get that first win under your belt, you know you can do it, you know things are going to work, you know what needs to be done. Coach talks about playing 60 minutes. I agree with that. We played a half last week. If we can play 60 minutes, we’re going to be a good team. Our confidence is going to grow, things are going to work and we’re going to be fun to watch."