PU football picks off win

Tigers remain unbeaten with win over Harvard

By: Justin Feil
   Kevin Kelleher is part of a Princeton University team that has made big plays all season.
   Saturday, it was Kelleher’s turn as he came up with interceptions to end Harvard’s final two possessions of the game and seal No. 21 Princeton’s 31-28 win over the No. 15 Crimson before a season-high 16,284 at Princeton Stadium. Princeton’s biggest win to date helped it improve to 6-0 overall, 3-0 in the Ivy League while Harvard dropped to 5-1, 2-1. The Tigers are tied atop the Ivy League with Yale.
   "Those were the first two interceptions of my career so it’s a great way to end it, especially against Harvard," Kelleher said. "They put a lot of points on the board but they were lucky enough to have some short fields to get some touchdowns. We just tried to play consistent defense, from the front to the back. I think we did a good job of that."
   Princeton held three-time first-team All-Ivy running back Clifton Dawson to 64 yards on 21 carries. Dawson, who had averaged 195.7 yards rushing per game in his first three meetings with Princeton, still had three touchdowns and passed Brown’s Nick Hartigan for first place in all-time career rushing touchdowns with 54. Liam O’Hagan, in his first action of the season at quarterback for Harvard, passed for 168 yards and a touchdown and ran for another 89 yards over the final three quarters.
   "If you’d have told me we’d hold Clifton Dawson to 64 yards rushing today," said PU head coach Roger Hughes, "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."
   While Harvard’s O’Hagan gave the Crimson a spark off the bench, he couldn’t outdo Princeton quarterback Jeff Terrell, who was magnificent when he had to be.
   "What’s made this team successful is the confidence throughout the entire game, especially in the fourth quarter," said Terrell who threw for 223 yards and two touchdowns. "Just keeping our poise and keeping confident."
   Terrell scored Princeton’s first touchdown of the game on a 29-yard option run to erase a 7-0 Crimson lead, found Jake Staser for Staser’s first career touchdown to help the Tigers to a 17-7 lead. Terrell was knocked out of the second quarter, but back-up Bill Foran led Princeton on a drive that gave the Tigers a 24-14 halftime lead, a lead they relented when Harvard scored two touchdowns in the third quarter. Terrell, who returned after halftime, then engineered the game-winning fourth-quarter drive for the fourth time this season after Luke Steckel intercepted Harvard’s reverse option pass halfway through the fourth quarter.
   "We preach turnovers all the time," said Hughes, whose team travels to Cornell on Saturday. "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 for a 4-yard gain. 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."
   Kelleher also felt pretty good catching one. Harvard still had a chance to at least tie the game with a field goal when it blocked the Tigers’ final field goal attempt, but Kelleher came down with a pass that was deflected at the line of scrimmage by Jake Marshall.
   "The last one, as soon as it was tipped, I knew I was going to try to go get it," Kelleher said. "I figured it was going to be a fight. It was a little of a jump ball.
   "A tipped ball that advanced 10 or 15 yards down the field is like a big steak for a defensive back. As soon as I got there, I was able to get up and get it. Your eyes get big when you see it."
   Princeton had opened eyes with a 5-0 start, but in beating Harvard at Princeton Stadium, something they had not done in its 10-year history, the Tigers showed last year’s win over the Crimson was not a fluke. Princeton was the last team to beat Harvard when it snapped a nine-year losing streak to the Crimson. Princeton is one of four remaining unbeatens in Division I-AA.
   "This team is blessed with the confidence we can beat anybody," Kelleher said. "We’re not going to be able to just show up and beat anyone. But if we come out and play our A game and play technically sound, we can compete with any team in the league. Harvard is perennially one of the best teams in the league and one of the best teams every year.
   "There’s always a rivalry. We knew we had to show up today. We had confidence coming off last year. Every year is a brand new year. This game was a totally different game than last year."
   Princeton is hoping it can continue to do things a little differently from last year when they finished tied for second in the Ivy standings. The Tigers have not been 6-0 since their 1995 Ivy championship year.
   "One of the things that’s been in the backs of our minds," Hughes said, "is we need to be undefeated in October. That’s been really where our downfall has been in the past."
   Beating Cornell on Saturday would accomplish that feat and set the Tigers up for a November that will include home games against Penn and Dartmouth sandwiched around what is shaping up to be a showdown in New Haven with Yale.
   "There’s a great confidence building in this team that someone’s going to make the play to win the game," Hughes said. "Someone’s going to make the play on the ball.
   "We knew if we just kept getting the ball back, something good was going to happen," he added. "Our defense did a great job of getting balls back quickly, with more time on the clock and great field position."
   Terrell and the offense got the Tigers the lead it was looking for in the fourth quarter and the Princeton defense intercepted its biggest win of the year, perhaps in a decade.
   "Harvard is always a big obstacle," Kelleher said. "So it was a great win today. It feels awesome because it was a team win. The offense played well. The defense played well all-around. It’s just a nice feeling."