Defense leads Princeton in win over Lehigh
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Saturday’s display at Lehigh was more what the Princeton University football team had in mind from its defense.
The offense — that will have to wait until this Saturday’s Ivy League opener at Columbia.
Lehigh fumbled four times and Princeton intercepted a pair of passes and batted away the final-drive attempt to take a 17-14 win over the Mountain Hawks on Saturday.
”On the defensive side of the ball, I thought our kids flew around and played very well,” said PU head coach Roger Hughes after his team improved to 1-1 overall. “Outside of a couple drives, I thought they played very well. I’m very pleased how they ran around and caused turnovers when we needed them to.”
The Tigers definitely needed the two picks as their offense mustered just 95 yards of offense outside of one huge play by quarterback Tommy Wornham. Princeton had jumped to a 7-0 lead on Steve Cody’s 77-yard interception return in the first quarter when Wornham delivered a convincing fake handoff before keeping it for a 68-yard touchdown run down the right sideline for a 14-0 lead.
Lehigh answered with a touchdown of its own that was set up by a big kickoff return to make it 14-7 at the half. In the third quarter, Wilson Cates’ interception gave the Tigers a short field that they converted into a 31-yard Ben Bologna field goal, his first of the year, for a 17-7 lead.
”We emphasize getting turnovers all the time and clearly that was the difference in the game,” Hughes said. “It started out with Steve Cody making a big pick for a touchdown. He did a great job. We might have to use him as a running back the way he looked running down the sidelines.
”And then Tommy pulling the ball on a read play and taking it down there. Other than that, offensively we didn’t generate much. And certainly we have to do a better job of that and get our defense off the field.”
The Tigers ran just 17 plays in the first half and Wornham completed only 3 of 5 passes he attempted for 15 yards. Lehigh ran 40 plays, something that added up by the end of the game.
”I was not feeling great,” said Cody, who led Princeton with 11 tackles. “I wasn’t feeling very explosive. I was glad we could come out with the win.”
The defense held the Mountain Hawks to 17 total yards in the third quarter. It’s the second straight year that the Tigers stifled the Lehigh offense. Last year, Princeton won, 10-7, on a last-second field goal. It didn’t come down to that after the Tigers halted the Mountain Hawks final drive soon after it started.
The Tigers declined a holding penalty that could have made it fourth-and-7 from the 42, instead backing the Mountain Hawks up 10 yards and keeping it third down. Two plays later, on fourth-and-20, Chris Lum’s jump ball was knocked away from De’Vaughn Gordon by PU senior safety Dan Kopolovich. He finished with nine tackles.
The Tigers defense bent a little in the game, but wouldn’t break. Lehigh’s first possession of the fourth quarter went all the way to the Tigers 14. On fourth down, however, Lehigh went for it rather than kick a field goal to make it a one-possession game, but bobbled the handoff to turn the ball over on downs.
”I wasn’t surprised they went for it,” Hughes said. “They had us back on our heels a little bit at that time. If they had gotten a first down and gone into score, it’s a whole different game.”
The Tigers did just enough to secure their first win of the year. They did so without Jordan Culbreath, last year’s top Ivy rusher, who left the game at the end of the first half and did not return with an undisclosed injury, as well as JP Makrai, their starting tackle and long snapper.
”Championship teams win games and win hard games,” Hughes said. “I don’t think we brought our A game by any means offensively, but defensively I thought we played pretty well.
”Jack Nicklaus won a lot of games with his C game, and I told those guys, that’s the sign of a champion, to win a game and not bring you’re A game and not play as well as you could have, but still find ways to win is a great character builder. It’s something we can build on as we go forward.”