PU football sees improvement in run game in loss to Lafayette
By: Justin Feil
For the second straight week, the Princeton University football team dropped a 28-13 decision to a Patriot League opponent. Saturday, it was Lafayette that jumped to a 28-0 lead in a game that followed a little too closely the script from last week’s loss to Lehigh.
Lafayette scored on its first three possessions as Joe McCourt scored on runs of 1 and 3 yards as well as a 9-yard pass reception from Marko Glavic. Glavic scored on a 3-yard keeper with just 14 seconds left in the first half before the Tigers mounted another last-gasp comeback.
McCourt, the last opposing running back to reach the 100-yard rushing mark against the Tigers nine games ago, did so again Saturday. He finished with 108 yards on 29 carries. Glavic completed 19 of 33 passes for 160 yards and the one touchdown.
"We knew they had both weapons in their arsenal," said PU head coach Roger Hughes. "And we knew they were going to use them a lot all day. We prepared for them. It just didn’t work out."
Things started ominously for Princeton as Lafayette took the opening kick, drove 80 yards in 18 exhausting plays that consumed 6 minutes, 54 seconds before McCourt scored on third-and-goal from the 1. It was the fifth successful third-down conversion for the Leopards on the drive. Making things more difficult on the day was the loss of Blake Perry, who returned to cornerback after starting at free safety last week. Perry suffered a high ankle sprain on a tackle in Lafayette’s first series.
The Tigers had the ball just four plays on their first possession when Greg Fields took a swing pass and fumbled after a 3-yard gain. Lafayette’s Maurice Bennett recovered at the Princeton 33. Seven plays later, McCourt went through the left side for a 3-yard score. To add insult to injury, back-up Lafayette quarterback Mike O’Connor was able to pick up the botched extra point snap and find the left corner of the end zone for a two-point conversion, and with 3:18 left in the first quarter the Tigers trailed 15-0.
After three plays netted but three yards, the Tigers punted back to Lafayette, which drove 64 yards in 10 plays, the final nine yards for the touchdown on a pass to McCourt in the left flat on third-and-6. Princeton did not stop Lafayette on a third-down play until 7:44 remained in the second quarter, and by then, they trailed 22-0. Lafayette held a 9-minute, 40-second time of possession and 30-7 total offensive plays advantage in the first quarter.
"We came out flat," said Hughes who is 0-2 for the first time since the 2000 season. "I noticed it in the pregame, I told the team that ahead of time. I certainly don’t have an answer for it. It’s my responsibility to make sure we’re ready to go.
"The disturbing and frustrating thing is I thought we had one of our best weeks of practice from the standpoint of intensity, focus. All the things that pointed to us playing a much better first quarter were certainly there. We’ll go back and reevaluate and may change how we practice a little bit. But certainly we can’t spot good teams like Lehigh and Lafayette 14 points and try to claw from behind."
Lafayette needed just five plays after the second Fields fumble of the game set the Leopards up at the Princeton 23 to increase their lead to 28-0 as the kick by Mike Davis failed.
For the second straight week, Princeton can look to its second-half effort as an example of how it needs to begin the game 7 p.m. Saturday when it hosts Columbia in its Ivy League opener.
"One of the benefits of having two non-league games before we get into the Ivy League is a chance to hopefully get a few mistakes corrected," Hughes said. "We certainly made some corrections defensively. We need to make some better ones. Offensively, we have to do a better job protecting Matt. We corrected our run game to some extent. Now we have to make sure we correct our protections and our execution of our screen game."
Unlike last week when the Tigers didn’t find the end zone until the fourth quarter, Matt Verbit connected with Eric Walz for the freshman wide receiver’s first career touchdown, a 19-yarder, with 1:19 left in the third quarter to pull Princeton to within three scores at 28-7. Verbit finished his second start of 2003 with good numbers again – 253 yards on 20 of 42 passing as well as 28 yards rushing. He was sacked four times.
Blair Morrison led the Tiger receiver corps. He had seven catches for a career-high 111 yards. Last week’s leading receivers, B.J. Szymanski and Jon Dekker, did not have a catch between them in the first half. Szymanski finished with four grabs for 47 yards. Dekker caught two passes for 20 yards.
Princeton made things interesting when Branden Benson scored on a 1-yard run with 9:53 left, but the Elliot Bishop kick failed to make it 28-13. Bishop was used for extra points in place of Derek Javarone, who missed the point after against Lehigh. Bensen finished tied with Jon Veach with 55 yards rushing. Bensen rushed 11 times; Veach nine.
"We ran the ball much more effectively than we did last week which is a positive sign," Hughes said. "I thought Lafayette beat us in every phase of the game. They beat us in the kicking game. Twice we got in situations where we were trying to claw our way back in it, and gave up big returns. That hurt our momentum."
Against Lehigh, Princeton also put themselves in position to tie with two scores with 10 minutes left in the game, and as they did against the Mountain Hawks, Princeton could draw no closer when it couldn’t find the big play.
Lafayette converted a fourth-and-2 situation on its ensuing possession after it started in Princeton territory thanks to a 57-yard return by Larry Johnson. Johnson returned the kickoff 39 yards after Princeton’s first score.
Christopher Gueits’ hit popped the ball loose from Glavic with five minutes left in the game, but the Tigers missed a chance to take over. When the Tigers did get the ball back on downs, they drove 47 yards before Verbit was stopped short on an option on fourth-and-1 at the Lehigh 28. Lafayette converted a third-and-3 and ran out the clock before the Tigers had another offensive chance.
"You have to give Lafayette some credit too," Hughes said. "It’s not like we just played poorly. They executed very well. They converted on some third-and-longs. You have to give them some credit as well."