Tigers top Harvard before 16,284 at Princeton Stadium
By: Justin Feil
The last time the Princeton University football team met Harvard with both teams unbeaten after five games, the Tigers’ so-called Team of Destiny prevailed, 10-3.
That was 1922, when it was en vogue to punt on first and second down to avoid turning the ball over.
Turnovers were critical as the Tigers came up with five of them and made their case for having destiny on their side again this season with a 31-28 win over a Harvard team before 16,284 Princeton Stadium fans Saturday. It was the Tigers’ first win over the Crimson in the 10-year history of Princeton Stadium.
The win helped No. 21 Princeton improve to 6-0 overall, 3-0 in the Ivy League while No. 15 Harvard dropped to 5-1 overall, 2-1 in the Ivies. The win has Princeton tied atop the Ivy League with Yale, a 17-14 overtime win over previous Ivy unbeaten Penn on Saturday.
"There’s a great confidence building in this team that someone’s going to make the play to win the game," said Princeton head coach Roger Hughes, whose team goes on the road at Cornell next week. "Someone’s going to make the play on the ball."
Princeton scored the winning points when Jeff Terrell, who sat out the end of the second quarter with a mild concussion, found Brendan Circle, who spun out of two tackler’s reach with 4:37 left in the game for a 20-yard touchdown catch to help the team rally from just its second deficit of the game.
"We knew if we just kept getting the ball back, something good was going to happen," Hughes said. "Our defense did a great job of getting balls back quickly, with more time on the clock and great field position."
Princeton’s defense, top-rated in the Ivies, was tested all day and gave up a season-high in points to the Ivy’s top-rated offense. But the Tigers buckled down for a shutout fourth quarter and ended Harvard’s last three possessions with interceptions, the last two by Kevin Kelleher.
The junior defensive back was right in the line of fire to intercept Liam O’Hagan’s offering with 3:15 left in the game. He returned it to the Harvard 21-yard line, but Princeton’s 39-yard field goal was blocked to give the Crimson one last chance.
After Harvard picked up a fourth-down conversion, Jake Marshall tipped O’Hagan’s pass high in the air and Kelleher won a jump ball to bring it down and seal the Tigers win with 1:09 left.
"That was one of the better feelings towards the end of the game," said Kelleher, whose interceptions were the first of his career. "We do our best to play defensively like there’s no score on the board. We try to get pressure every play. There was no change when we got down vs. when we were up.
"It feels good to fight from behind and as a defense, really seal it off. That’s really what happened. The pressure on the quarterback on the two turnovers, that’s really a credit to our front guys. They were in O’Hagan’s face. It feels great to seal off a win."
The first of the three fourth-quarter interceptions, by linebacker Luke Steckel after Harvard had driven into Princeton territory, set the Tigers up for their winning drive from their own 39-yard line. Steckel’s second interception in as many weeks came as Harvard attempted a reverse option pass with receiver Chris Sanders throwing the ball. Instead of a knockout punch, it gave the Tiger offense new life.
"We preach turnovers all the time," Hughes said. "We had a lot of chances for interceptions in previous games and luckily today we came up with those. On our side of the ball, we didn’t turn it over as much. We talk about the turnover ratio as a crucial factor in winning the game. And as it turned out today, it was again."
After two negative plays, Terrell hit Brian Brigham for a 19-yard gain over the middle. The drive appeared to stall on an incomplete pass from Terrell to Rob Toresco, but Harvard safety Daniel Tanner was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for celebrating. Princeton picked up 15 yards on the penalty. Terrell fumbled the next play but Toresco helped the Tigers avert disaster when he fell on it. The next play Terrell found Circle inside the 10 and the junior wideout did the rest to atone for an earlier potential touchdown.
"It’s the same play we’ve been running for a few weeks," said Circle who finished with six catches for 114 yards. "Jeff just kind of put it up and I was able to come down with it.
"It certainly doesn’t feel very good to drop a touchdown," he added. "But it feels that much better when you catch one."
The defense made sure the lead would hold. Princeton held three-time first-team All-Ivy pick Clifton Dawson to 64 yards on 21 carries. Dawson still had three touchdowns and passed Brown’s Nick Hartigan for first place in all-time rushing touchdowns with 54.
"If you’d have told me we’d hold Clifton Dawson to 64 yards rushing today," Hughes said, "I’d have said, you’re doing things that are illegal. The defensive effort was outstanding. Liam O’Hagan, added an added dimension that we hadn’t been able to practice against because he can make so many plays with his feet. It’s a team win."
Harvard increased its season-long third-quarter advantage to 65-7 with two unanswered touchdowns after halftime. The Crimson used 93-yard drive on its first possession of the half to cut the lead to 24-21. On 3rd-and-10 from its own 7, O’Hagan swung the ball to Dawson in the left flat. Princeton linebacker Brig Walker had Dawson tackled by the leg, but he twisted away for a 9-yard gain. Harvard gambled on 4th-and-1, and O’Hagan picked up the first down with a sneak up the middle.
Harvard used two big plays to move deep into Princeton territory. O’Hagan scrambled for a 32-yard gain to help the Crimson cross midfield, then on the next play hit Corey Mazza down the left sideline for a 35-yard pick-up. Television replays showed Mazza bobbling the ball as he fell out of bounds. Three plays later, Dawson powered into the end zone from 1 yard out to bring Harvard within three points.
Princeton missed a chance to open a 10-point lead on the ensuing possession when Terrell’s third-down pass went through the hands of Circle who had broken open at the goal line down the right sideline.
The Crimson took over when Terrell’s next pass was intercepted by Andrew Berry and returned to Harvard’s 48. The Crimson marched down the field to take the lead, 28-24, on a 15-yard pass from O’Hagan to Mazza with 3:55 left in the third quarter. O’Hagan was under heavy pressure from Jon Stem, but got the ball to Mazza who came back to the ball in the front right side of the end zone. But even trailing for the first time since the fourth minute of the game, Princeton felt confident it could come back with a final drive.
"We said, this is where we want to be," Hughes said. "We want one drive to win the game. We only need one possession to win the game. This is what we talked about. Our defense was good enough to hold us to that point."
Turnovers and miscues played a key role as the Tigers jumping out to a 24-14 halftime lead. Princeton scored on its last three possessions of the first quarter to answer Harvard’s first score, then traded touchdowns in the second quarter.
The Crimson’s Michael Berg blocked the punt to end Princeton’s first possession of the game, and on Harvard’s first play, Dawson took a screen pass from Chris Pizzotti and went 20 yards virtually untouched for the score.
It was an ominous start but Princeton, as it has all season, answered right back. Terrell engineered a 76-yard drive to even the score, 7-7, going the final 29 yards on an option run in which the seas parted on the right side.
"It was just a triple option that we practice all the time," Terrell said. "They did a great job of picking up the other two guys, the fullback and the pitch back, but there was a wide-open lane for me. All I had to do was run to the end zone. It was pretty open."
The Tigers immediately got the ball back when Tom Methvin tipped Pizzotti’s pass and Tom Hurley came down with it. Princeton had to settle for a 22-yard field goal from Conner Louden to take a 10-7 lead with 3:36 to go in the first quarter.
Princeton took advantage of another miscue to end Harvard’s next possession. On fourth down from Princeton’s 46, the Crimson attempted a fake punt, but the ball sailed through the hands of punt protector Matt Curtis. Punter Matt Schindel was tackled as he attempted to pick up the bounding ball and the Tigers’ Collin McCarthy recovered all the way down at the Harvard 12.
Terrell found tight end Jake Staser in the right side of the end zone on third down for a 17-7 lead as time expired in the first quarter.
Both teams added touchdowns in the second quarter with drives led by their back-up quarterbacks. O’Hagan, last year’s starter who returned from a five-game suspension Saturday, had to move the Crimson just 29 yards after a 14-yard punt by Colin McDonough gave them golden field position. Harvard appeared to be stopped on third down at the Princeton 7-yard line, but Steckel was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for celebrating to keep the drive alive. Dawson scored on a 4-yard run on the next play to cut the Tigers’ lead to 17-14 with 9:13 before halftime.
Princeton lost Terrell for the remainder of the second quarter after helmet to helmet contact as he was tackled to end their next possession.
"I got my bell rung," Terrell said. "They just wanted to be cautious and make sure the headache was gone. I don’t know if it was technically a concussion."
A 61-yard punt by McDonough and strong defensive stance got the Tigers the ball back at the 50-yard line with 4:57 left. Bill Foran, in his first action this season at quarterback, hit Adam Berry for a 12-yard completion on a 10-play drive, but it was his legs that did most of the work. On 4th-and-6 from the Harvard 25, he spun and retreated before finding room down the left side for a 14-yard gain. Two plays later, R.C. Lagomarsino gave the Tigers a 24-14 lead on a 10-yard misdirection run with 58 seconds before the half. That lead did not hold up, but the Tigers made the plays for the win in the end.
Last year, a win over Harvard broke a nine-year curse and showed that Princeton University’s football team could play with anyone. This year’s win might be bigger.