Tigers set for showdown with Harvard
By: Justin Feil
Harvard brings a balanced offense to Princeton Stadium on Saturday.
It better because the Princeton University football team has not treated opposing offenses well this season. The Tigers moved up to first in the Ivy League in scoring defense with a 17-3 win over Brown on Friday, which was second behind Harvard in scoring offense before the game. The defending Ivy champion Bears, who fell to 1-4 overall, 0-2 in the Ivies, were held to their lowest total since a 1996 season-opening shutout by Yale.
"To shut Brown down to three points, their offense always scores points," said Princeton head coach Roger Hughes, whose team improved to 5-0 overall, 2-0 in Ivy play. "Phil Estes (Brown coach) does a great job with their offense. To get the pressure we did and make things happen on both sides of the ball in the second half, the neat thing is these kids never panicked."
Princeton again erupted in the second half to break a 3-3 halftime tie. The offense picked up scores on a leaping 18-yard catch by Rob Toresco over the middle and on a 40-yarder by Brendan Circle, both throw by Jeff Terrell. It was more than enough with the way the defense played.
Brown entered the game with the third-best total offense in the league with 380 yards per game, but was held to 157 total yards. The Bears’ air attack, tops in the Ivies at 289 yards per game, netted just 116 yards.
Princeton caused three turnovers, two on interceptions of Brown’s Joe DiGiacomo. The Bears quarterback entered the game ranked fourth in Division I-AA with 272 yards passing per game, but was limited to just 71 yards. Princeton didn’t make anything easy, totaling seven sacks, including three by Tom Methvin. J.J. Artis made one fully extended diving interception and Luke Steckel’s first career interception sealed Brown’s fate in the fourth quarter and gave the Tigers their first 5-0 start since the 1995 Ivy championship season.
"League game, we’re 4-0, this is a big league game, all league games are big for us, and we came out with some excitement," said Methvin, who also made the stop to win the Colgate game in overtime last week. "We came to play tonight. It’s a team win, team defense. A lot of times when I’m getting through, it’s because we have blitzes on, it’s because we have backers putting pressure on. I really attribute it to a team win."
The sophomore has become part of one of the quickest developing front sevens in recent history for the Tigers. Even when Princeton did not get to DiGiacomo, they put pressure on him that caused him to rush his throws. Linebackers Jon Stem and Tim Boardman picked up a sack apiece as did Methvin’s partners on the line, Pete Buchignani and Jake Marshall. Marshall is a senior, but Methvin and Buchignani are in just their second year of collegiate action.
"Remarkable. It was phenomenal," Hughes said of the line play. "And they’re getting better and better as they get more and more mature. When you’re trying to have great pass defense, it has to start up front. By being able to get pressure without having to blitz, now you can play complete coverage and get pressure on the quarterback. That’s a hard combination to try to play offense against."
Harvard will take its crack at it this Saturday in a showdown of the lone Ivy teams with unbeaten 5-0 records. Yale and Penn are also 2-0 in Ivy play for a four-way tie for first place. There are no non-league games left for any Ivy team.
"Being 5-0 and giving us a chance to challenge for the league title is huge," Hughes said. "Hopefully, it’ll get a buzz around campus and get a lot of people down here to the game. We had a great crowd tonight. Next week this place should be rocking."
Friday night lights brought out 10,136 to see the Tigers return for just their second home game of the season. Friday night or Saturday, the Tigers have made Princeton Stadium an unpleasant place for Brown. The Bears are the only Ivy League team to have never won at Princeton Stadium and Brown hasn’t won in Princeton since 1996.
"We were able to shut down the run game early and then kind of tee off and go after DiGiacomo," Hughes said. "If your quarterback is not playing well in a pass offense, you’ve got problems.
"We were able to get enough pressure on him. I thought our defensive secondary played great against a very good set of wide receivers. Our defensive effort was phenomenal."
The offense again had its struggles, but came up with a pair of timely drives. Terrell finished 17 for 27 for 185 yards and the two touchdowns and also led the Tigers with 57 yards rushing. Getting ahead by two touchdowns made DiGiacomo’s job even harder.
"They were still obviously in the game," Methvin said. "That’s crucial to get ahead. Once our offense came out ahead, we know they’re going to go on the pass. Then it’s time to strap it on and go. That’s really the time you need to turn it on and get to the quarterback."
Princeton needed one final interception from Steckel to ice the game. Steckel intercepted DiGiacomo’s intended pass for Paul Raymond at the goal line. Princeton took control and ate up 9:40 of the clock before Louden’s 36-yard field goal was blocked.
"It was huge," Hughes said of Steckel’s pick. "Psychologically for them, they’d just gotten a turnover and gotten the penalty to keep the drive going. So they went down the field and they were almost ready to score and Steck’ comes up with a big interception to hold them out.
"The other thing it did was motivate our offense and we took a lot of time off the clock running the football, which we hadn’t done a good job of. At that point, we may have worn them down a little bit."
Princeton definitely wore down Brown’s quarterbacks. The Bears ended up using their third-string quarterback at the end of the fourth quarter against an attacking Tiger unit.
"Coach was constantly talking about getting pressure on the quarterback, pressuring DiGiacomo," Methvin said. "That’s the key to it. When you pressure the quarterback, he starts throwing it earlier, he’s worried to throw it.
"It’s a lot of fun. When you get in a situation like that when you know they’re going to pass the ball, you strap it up and go. It’s a lot of fun."
The offense is making plays when it has to. The defense is growing stronger. Things are coming together just in time to take on the preseason Ivy favorite, Harvard. The Tigers ended a nine-game losing streak against the Crimson last year. Harvard will bring a solid defensive unit and a more balanced offense to Old Nassau on Saturday for their shot at what is fast becoming a Tiger unit that is shutting down offenses of all varieties.
"We don’t want to see teams to see us vulnerable either way," Methvin said. "We’re a team that handle the run or the pass. When we scout teams, we play accordingly."
Added Hughes: "They played tremendously well tonight. Whatever this team does, doesn’t surprise me. I think we surprised people in the first three games, but now, whatever they achieve and whatever they do, they never cease to amaze me."

