PU wins on improv play

Tigers football top Penn in double overtime

By: Justin Feil
   Early this season, Roger Hughes promised his Princeton University football team would improvise more this season.
   Certainly, he imagined most of those plays coming from crafty senior quarterback Jeff Terrell and players such as back-up quarterback and occasional wide receiver Bill Foran, a jitterbug with explosiveness when he gets the ball.
   "The coaches just try to put you in positions to succeed," Foran said. "Whatever your strengths are, they want to play to it. That’s what they do as coaches. Depending on the player type, they try to play to your strengths."
   No one could have imagined anything like the ending of Saturday’s 31-30 double-overtime win over the University of Pennsylvania. Terrell and Foran played a huge role in Princeton’s first home win over Penn since 1992, but it was Rob Toresco’s pitch back to Terrell after he was stopped at the goal line on fourth-and-goal in the second overtime that set a new standard for an afternoon of improv.
   "You have to have a structure to it, but sometimes if the structure breaks down, you have to make a play like Rob did today," Foran said. "Ideally, he would have run into the end zone. If the structure breaks down, you shouldn’t just accept no for an answer."
   Toresco did not. His initial thrust toward the end zone was stopped, and as Toresco was trying to bounce forward again, he flipped the ball over his head to Terrell, who ran into the right side of the end zone untouched. Connor Louden added the all-important extra point and when Penn scored a touchdown but botched the snap on its extra point, the game was over and the Tigers sat 7-1 overall, 4-1 in the Ivy League.
   "You have to find a way to win," Toresco said. "If you play football long enough, it’s a heads up play. You know it’s fourth down and the game’s on the line. You have to do something, find a way to get the ball in the end zone."
   Added Terrell: "Playing in the back yard pays off sometimes."
   The second overtime series ended a thrilling fourth quarter that saw one touchdown by the Tigers that seemed to hand them control. But the Quakers scored the first two touchdowns in the fourth quarter that Princeton has surrendered in its last six Ivy contests, including one with 39 seconds to play to send it into overtime at 24-24. On that drive, Hun School graduate Billy May caught three passes for 65 yards, including a 29-yard fourth-and-24 completion. It wasn’t enough to top a Princeton team that bounced back from its first loss of the season.
   "To be able to have two wins in a row against teams of Penn and Harvard’s quality," Hughes said. "I think said wonders for where our program’s come. We’ve changed the culture of the program and now we’re in position to play for the championship next week and the week following."
   Princeton will play at Yale 12:30 p.m. Saturday for a share of the Ivy lead with the Bulldogs, who rallied for a 27-24 win at Brown on Saturday to go to 5-0 in Ivy play, and Harvard, a 24-7 winner at Columbia to keep pace with Princeton.
   "We’re going to have great focus and great intensity," Hughes said. "My concern is that we’re not ready to play on Wednesday. We have to be ready to play Saturday. I think this group is going to be so pumped, we’re going to have to be calming them down a bit."
   There were plenty of reasons to be pumped up after Saturday’s win aside from recent history that had Penn dominating the series. Terrell equaled his career high with three touchdowns and did not have an interception in perhaps his most efficient performance yet. And Foran provided a bigger spark than in any game this season.He kept alive Princeton’s scoring drive to make it 14-7 with a 20-yard gain on fourth-and-3. Foran earlier had a 14-yard carry on the drive, and had a 27-yard run on the Tigers’ second drive of the game. Foran, who lined up at quarterback for three plays Saturday, finished with six carries for a team-high 84 yards.
   "Frankly, I had a sense it would be successful," Hughes said. "Bill came in and did some great things and made it even more successful than I dreamed of."
   Foran also downed two punts inside the 5-yard line and made a solo tackle on kickoff.
   "We work on it every day in practice," Foran said. "It’s actually a really fun drill to do in practice because you run down and you dive and try to knock the ball out of the air. Of the things you do in practice, that’s one of the more things. When you get to do it in a game, it’s just look for the ball and go for it and it’s like keep away."
   Princeton scored on its next possession the first time Foran pinned Penn deep. The second time he pinned them deep, the Tigers defense then forced a turnover.
   "We have quarterbacks who are good athletes," Hughes said. "You see Kenny Gunter going down on special teams. You see Bill doing that as well. The last drive really was because Bill downed it at the 1-yard line and we held them down there and scored.
   "The neat thing is Bill can make so many contributions, not just at quarterback, but on special teams, at wide receiver and having a versatile athlete of his caliber is a huge plus."
   Foran would prefer to be touching the ball every down, but he’s happy to make contributions any way he can to contribute to the Tigers success. Saturday, he had more touches than in any previous game, save when Terrell was knocked from the Brown game with an injury.
   "The No. 1 thing is we’re winning," Foran said. "Everyone wants to be part of a winner. You like to do what you can do, but at the same time you’re still playing football.He added, "The game is more fun when you’re touching the ball definitely."
   He can only hope that there will be more calls for him when Princeton plays at Yale on Saturday. For one, he’d like the chance to get in the end zone.
   "I’m actually kind of upset right now because I didn’t score on one of those plays," Foran said. "They were there. I expect that if I’m in the game."
   Foran’s game as well as 445 yards of offense enabled the Tigers to overcome the best offensive effort against it this season. Penn had 529 yards of total offense.
   "We’ve had to depend on our defense all year," Toresco said. "I think this is one time the defense counted on us to make a play. At times, when you’re in there watching them make big plays, fourth-and-18, fourth-and-23, you kind of get frustrated. I told a lot of guys around me, defense has had our back all year. We have to go in and answer.
   "It’s confidence. It’s calm. It’s the approach we go into with every game, whether it goes into overtime or not."
   Once it got into overtime, the edge went to Princeton. The Tigers had beaten Colgate earlier this season in overtime. Penn lost the previous two weeks in overtime games due to missed kicks.
   "We’d been in one overtime game and won it," Hughes said. "We feel if we get to overtime we have an advantage psychologically. I really wasn’t thinking about Penn, other than the fact that probably their strategy would be, go for it more on fourth down because they’d had so many problems with their kicker. At that point in time, you’re just thinking what you’re going to call down there to get the ball in the end zone."
   In the first overtime, both teams had chances to score but neither did. Penn had the ball first and drove inside the 5 before attempting a field goal. The snap was dropped and the Quakers couldn’t pick up the first down. Princeton then went for a 34-yard field goal, but Louden’s kick had no chance as it was blocked by a host of Penn linemen.
   "You have to spread it out over the whole game," Hughes said. "There were a number of plays that happened on both sides of the ball that clearly could have changed the outcome."
   The one that won it wasn’t one that was in the Tiger playbook. It was one that came when Princeton improvised.
   "I was just hoping he could hear me because I knew I had a free lane to the end zone," Terrell said. "And from my point of view, it didn’t look like Rob was going to get in there. There were about seven or eight guys on him. I just screamed to him and he made a good play and threw me the ball."
   Added Toresco: "I heard him yell something. I turned around and just let it go."