Tigers defense, quick-strike offense bury Big Red
By: Justin Feil
Princeton’s defense recorded a sack on Cornell’s first play and intercepted a pass on the Big Red’s final offensive play. In between, they thoroughly dominated Cornell with four sacks and three turnovers in a 28-6 win Saturday at Princeton Stadium.
The Tigers improved to 2-5 overall, 2-2 in the Ivy League with their first win at home this season, while Cornell dropped to 1-6, 0-4 with its sixth straight loss. Princeton will play at unbeaten Pennsylvania, a 24-21 winner over Brown, 1 p.m. next Saturday in a game that still has Ivy title implications. Dartmouth beat Harvard for the Crimson’s first loss of the season one week after Princeton lost, 43-40, in overtime in Cambridge.
"I’m very proud of how our kids came back from what we thought was a very emotional loss last week against Harvard in overtime," said Princeton head coach Roger Hughes. "We really thought we had a chances to win that game. And that’s been a problem, keeping the emotion high and intensity high. For the last three years, we’ve struggled against Cornell and I was very concerned about it.
"But I give the kids credit and the seniors credit on the team. They called some people out last night and all week long and I thought we played with a lot of emotion and a lot of intensity. And we started the game right. We talked about we played five straight quarters of high-intensity Princeton-type football. Today, we wanted to get that to nine and we got that to nine."
It was there from Princeton’s first defensive play. Princeton linemen Peter Kelly and Joe Weiss had sacks on two of the first three Cornell plays to force a punt, and Greg Fields returned the Big Red punt to the Cornell 32-yard line. Princeton scored on the next play as Jon Veach was uncovered after he went in motion to the two-receiver side and glided down the left sideline as Matt Verbit sent an arcing pass his way for the easy catch and score. Colin McDonough’s first extra point of the season made it 7-0 with 11:15 left in the first quarter.
"Jon came back and said, ‘You put that a little too high. You scared me,’" said Verbit, who finished the game 13 for 23 for 239 yards and three touchdowns. "Coach told us in practice yesterday that that was going to be a touchdown. I dropped back and both their guys ran with the slants. There was nobody out on Jon so I kind of lofted it up there for him."
Twenty-two seconds later, the Tigers made it 14-0. Cornell starting quarterback Mick Razzano fumbled the ball while evading a closing Alan Borelli on Cornell’s first play of its second possession, and Weiss fell on it at the Big Red 23.
"The biggest thing with this week was we caused turnovers," said Weiss, a senior All-Ivy player. "Every week, our coaches put us in the right spots. These guys came up and made big plays when they had to. It’s a major factor in causing turnovers."
On the PU offense’s first play, Verbit found a streaking Blair Morrison down the right sideline this time for another Princeton touchdown, and McDonough’s second extra point gave the Tigers a 14-0 lead with 10:53 to go in the first quarter.
"That was pretty quick," Verbit said of the back-to-back passes.
"It’s a little deceiving because our defense and special teams got us the ball in great situations," Hughes said of the offensive efficiency. "They nice thing is we’ve gotten a short field in the past and we haven’t taken advantage of it. Today we did."
Princeton had another golden opportunity after Abi Fadeyi blocked his second punt in two weeks to give the Tiger offense the ball at the Cornell 42, but Verbit’s long pass to B.J. Szymanski was taken away by Cornell’s Neil Morrissey in the end zone to end the first quarter.
"He caught the ball," said Morrissey, who also came up with a fumble recovery in the fourth quarter. "I took it from him. I wasn’t going to give up."
The Tigers, however, were not dissuaded either. They were able to avoid a potential disaster on their first possession of the second quarter when J.J. Artis recovered Fields’ fumbled punt return at their own 12-yard line, then drove 88 yards and consumed 5:19 of the clock before Verbit found his third different receiver with a touchdown, Jon Dekker. The sophomore tight end got just enough separation and went down low to grab Verbit’s 16-yard scoring strike with 3:05 left in the first half.
At the half, the Tigers had 224 yards of offense 150 of it on passes to Cornell’s 70. Princeton, which had almost 600 yards of total offense last week, had a balanced 401 yards of total output on the day.
On the other side, Princeton’s defense held Cornell to minus-2 yards rushing and 41 yards of total offense in the first 15 minutes. In the second quarter, the Tigers allowed just 29 yards and one first down. In all, Cornell punted eight times in the first half, had one blocked punt and lost a fumble. They rushed 30 times for 28 yards in the game and had just 230 yards of total offense.
A 38-yard field goal attempt by Cornell’s Trevor MacMeekin to start the third quarter hit the left upright and bounced out, and neither team had any better scoring chances in the quarter.In the fourth quarter, McDonough was wide left on a 27-yard attempt shortly after Verbit barely overthrew Szymanski on what would have been a 40-yard touchdown.
The Tigers came right back after a Cornell punt when Veach put the finishing touch on a 59-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to open a 28-0 lead with 8:44 left in the game. Veach’s run was set up by two big plays. On the first play of the drive, Verbit faked an end around to Eric Walz, then hit the freshman receiver who continued uncovered down the right sideline for a 37-yard pick-up. On a second-and-13, Verbit hit Dekker down the middle for a 21-yard completion to moved the ball in position for Veach’s second score of the game.
"The two throws that Matt Verbit made to the tight end, one to score on the throwback and one to put us in position to score the last touchdown were phenomenal," Hughes said. "And Jon Dekker, I think, is going to be a force in this league at tight end.
"Those are things that we had the potential to do all year, but were just spasmodic and didn’t have the consistency that we do now, which is what really pleases me."
Princeton’s first defensive unit held Cornell scoreless before the Big Red managed their only touchdown of the game against the Tiger reserves with 3:16 left in the game. The game was well in hand before then thanks to the Tigers’ ability to capitalize quickly on their defense’s strong start.
"I’m extremely happy," Hughes said of the defensive performance. "Last week, we felt Harvard pushed us around a little bit. I think our defense came out, one, ready to play, and two, one thing with our game plan was we felt we needed to slant a little more, move some people around. I don’t think Cornell was quite ready for that and I think that helped our guys get off to a quick start.
"And, again, I think the emotional level of our defense, initially in the game, they came right out and stopped them early and got us the ball back on a couple quick turnovers. It’s nice to get that kind of start. We’ve been on the other side of that where we’ve been the one turning the ball over, and hopefully this is a sign of maturity with this team."
Cornell finally got on the scoreboard when D.J. Busch, who came on in relief of Razzano, then rotated with the starter as the game wore on, hit John Kellner for a 37-yard touchdown. Christopher Geits’ tackle at the 1-yard line prevented the Big Red’s two-point conversion attempt, and Szymanski covered up the ensuing onsides kick, and Nick Brown ended the final Cornell threat with his first interception of the season before the Tigers ran out the clock.
"As I’ve said all along, our goal is to be a better team when we finish the season than when we started," Hughes said. "If you look at our progression, we’re certainly doing that."