Culbreath produces game-winning TD for Tigers
By Zoe Crain, Special Writer
In its first home game of the season, the Princeton University football team set the stage for what should be a memorable year with a 36-33 win over Lafayette in a double-overtime showdown.
Head coach Bob Surace, the former first-team All-Ivy center, picked up his first win as head coach after a remarkable one-yard touchdown from senior running back Jordan Culbreath at the conclusion of two overtime sessions.
Princeton began the game on the right foot, as junior Patrick Jacob put the Tigers on the scoreboard with a 22-yard field goal, just two minutes and thirty five seconds before the first quarter ended.
The second quarter got the Leopards back into competition mode. A 22-yard pass from Lafayette’s Ryan O’Neil got in the hands of wide receiver Kyle Hayes for a touchdown, punctuated by an extra point from Davis Rodriguez. The O’Neil-Hayes duo brought Lafayette back down to the end zone at the end of the half, adding another seven points to Lafayette’s total.
Sandwiched in between these two Lafayette runs was some Tiger action as well. Junior quarterback Tommy Wornham got the ball to Andrew Kerr for a four-yard touchdown. The extra point from Jacobs kept Princeton in the running. At the conclusion of the first half, Princeton trailed Lafayette by a 14-10 score.
In the third quarter, Princeton again got a touchdown, but only in between two scoring plays from Lafayette.
Lafayette’s Vaughn Hebron took a one-yard run with eight minutes and 25 seconds left in the third quarter, boosting its lead to 11 points. Just a minute and a half later, Princeton retaliated with a three-yard touchdown pass from Wornham to Matt Zimmerman. A pass interception prevented Princeton from gaining any more points and the third quarter drew to a close with Princeton trailing, 24-16.
The fourth quarter took a 180 degree turn and featured two Princeton scoring plays, with one scoring play from Lafayette in the middle. Wornham took a five-yard run of his own to add six points to the board with 13:03 left in the game. Princeton took a gamble and went for the two points, which was successful with a Wornham pass to Trey Peacock. Lafayette broke the tie with a 21-yard Rodriguez field goal. With just 45 seconds left in the regular game, Princeton was able to tie the score with a 24-yard field goal from Jacob to drive the game into overtime.
Princeton started out ahead in overtime with a 39-yard field goal from Jacob. The Tigers were unable to keep this lead as the Leopards scored three points to tie it.
The second round of overtime put Lafayette up with a 26-yard field goal. But it all came to an end as Princeton put Culbreath over the end line for a touchdown and a three-point win.
As the team stormed the field and surrounded Culbreath, he said that he was still in a state of shock.
”I didn’t really know they were coming,” he said. “All of a sudden, I just saw all of these people in my face. It really was a fun experience.”
Culbreath said that although the victory is nice, the team still has improvements to be made.
”This is just one step,” he said. “We have a lot of steps to clean up. We’re going to improve from week two to week three, just like we did from week one to week two. We still made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes tonight.”
His teammate, linebacker Jon Olofsson, agreed that this win is the only the beginning of the changes that the Tigers must make.
”(The win) shows how far we’ve all come,” Olofsson said. “Even though we still have a long way to go, it’s definitely a good win for our team. With everyone coming together the way we did, it was a total team victory tonight.”
Surace feels that the rest of the team’s games will be similar to the one against Lafayette — as physically demanding and as important.
”We’re going to have eight more games like this,” Surace said. “That’s just the kind of team we are. We’re tough. We play physical. We aren’t as disciplined as I’d like. It’s got to get fixed or else we might not be able to pull it out at the last second like we did today.”
The Tigers are at Columbia on Saturday in New York for a 12:30 p.m. kickoff. Following the Columbia game, Princeton will be at home for the next three matchups against Colgate, Brown and Harvard.