Crimson QB throws for 292 yards, two TDs
By: Ken Weingartner
The quarterback was at it again.
This time, however, it wasn’t Princeton freshman David Splithoff.
Harvard’s Neil Rose completed 25 of 36 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns, including the go-ahead score with 11:05 to play, to lift the Crimson to a 35-21 win over Princeton on Saturday afternoon.
Rose, who narrowly missed his fourth 300-yard passing day of the season, threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Chris Stakich on a fourth-and-6 play to put Harvard ahead to stay, 28-21. Blitzing Tiger defenders Clark Webb and Chris Roser-Jones got to the quarterback just after he released the ball.
"I thought Neil Rose played an outstanding game," Princeton coach Roger Hughes said. "We tried to put a lot of pressure on him. There were times where we hit him and he wouldn’t go down. He made some unbelievable throws under great pressure."
Hughes said the Tigers were forced to blitz Rose because of the abilities of Harvard’s receivers and the inexperience of the Princeton secondary, which starts two freshmen in Blake Perry and Brandon Mueller.
"I don’t want to use youth as an excuse, but our secondary is not experienced," Hughes said. "We didn’t feel we could match up, so we felt we had to put pressure to try to force some bad plays. We’re trying to create some turnovers as well … but (Rose) did not do that, to his credit."
The Crimson improved to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in the Ivy League. Princeton, which lost a chance to sit alone atop the league standings, dropped to 2-4 overall and 2-1 in the Ivy. There now is a five-way tie for first place.
It was Harvard’s fifth straight victory over the Tigers, equaling the school’s longest series win streak against Princeton. The previous streak was from 1912 to 1916.
"The coaches put us in the best position to make plays and get some yardage," Rose said. "We did a great job this week of game-planning and made an emphasis on picking up the blitz, which is something I’d not done well coming into this game. Our offensive line gave me a lot of time and our receivers are play-makers. That makes my job a lot easier."
Splithoff, who last week became the first freshman to start at quarterback for Princeton and led the team to a 55-28 win over Brown, had a solid outing Saturday. He scored all three Tiger touchdowns on runs of 4, 20 and 4 yards. Through the air, he was 13-of-23 for 155 yards and no interceptions. He even caught a 17-yard toss from Chisom Opara on an option-pass.
The freshman took a hard hit while scrambling on the Tigers’ final offensive play of the contest. He was feared to have a broken cheekbone, but Hughes said Splithoff was OK.
"He’s going to be a tremendous player," Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. "But when you’re that young and that inexperienced, you’re not going to be able to make as many plays with your arm as you will down the road. We didn’t want him to run the football. The main thing was to contain him as well as we possibly could. That was the most important thing."
Crimson cornerback Andy Fried said the key was to keep Splithoff off balance. Harvard sacked Splithoff four times.
"He has all the ability in the world," Fried said. "We were messing around with him with our coverages. We thought that we could rattle him a little bit by doing that; that after he went by his first or second reads, he would start running it. And he did. He did a good job running the football."
Princeton got on the scoreboard first when Splithoff engineered an 80-yard, nine-play drive midway through the opening period. During the march, Splithoff completed his first four passes, giving him 14 consecutive completions going back to the Brown game. The streak broke Mark Lockenmeyer’s team record of 13 straight completions set in 1980.
A 59-yard return by Chuck Nwokocha on the ensuing kickoff helped set up Harvard’s first touchdown, a 2-yard run by Matt Leiszler. The scoring run came one play after Princeton recovered a Crimson fumble, only to see the play negated by a defensive holding penalty.
For the game, the Tigers were penalized 12 times for 65 yards.
Harvard used a 13-play, 81-yard drive to take its first lead with 5:23 left in the half. Leiszler, who finished with 89 yards on 24 carries, scored from two yards out. The key play on the march was Rose’s two-yard gain on fourth-and-1 from the Princeton 4 to keep the drive alive.
Cameron Atkinson’s 58-yard kickoff return helped the Tigers tie the score at 14 on their ensuing possession. Splithoff scored on a 20-yard run, sidestepping a Crimson defender in the backfield before bursting up the middle to the end zone.
Rose’s first touchdown pass, a 25-yarder to Carl Morris, gave Harvard a 21-14 lead early in the third quarter. The four-play drive followed Mike Cataldo’s recovery of a Princeton fumble at the Tigers’ 49.
Princeton tied the game on the strength of a 13-play, 65-yard march after the Tiger defense stopped Harvard on downs. Splithoff ran four times for 31 yards on the drive while Atkinson had six carries for 26 yards.
After Rose’s touchdown pass to Stakich gave Harvard the lead for good, Leiszler’s third scoring run – this one from 8 yards out – gave the Crimson a cushion with 3:18 to play. The run capped a 10-play, 69-yard march that took 5:04 off the clock.
Princeton drove to the Crimson 14 on its final possession, but turned over the ball on downs with 49 seconds to go in the game.
"We told our kids it was going to be a war the whole game," Hughes said. "I’m very proud of how our kids played. I thought they played with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of emotion. Playing hard doesn’t necessarily mean you’re playing well. Certainly, 12 penalties hurt us. We turned it over once, and they did not. I think that was the difference right there."
First Quarter
P – Splithoff 4 run (Northrop kick)
H – Leiszler 2 run (Blewett kick)
Second Quarter
H – Leiszler 2 run (Blewett kick)
P – Splithoff 20 run (Northrop kick)
Third Quarter
H – Morris 25 pass from Rose (Wright kick)
Fourth Quarter
P – Splithoff 4 run (Northrop kick)
H – Stakich 35 pass from Rose (Wright kick)
H – Leiszler 8 run (Wright kick)
Harvard: Leiszler 24-89, Palazzo 7-47, Stakich 1-40, Rose 10-24.
Princeton: Splithoff 18-50, Atkinson 10-41, Brandt 6-21, El-Amin 2-8, Cheatham 2-3.
Harvard: Rose 25-36-0 292.
Princeton: Splithoff 13-23-0 155, Opara 1-1-0 17.
Harvard: Morris 5-87, Cremarosa 4-48, Taylor 4-35, Farley 4-16, Stakich 2-44, Leiszler 2-19, Meeker 1-24, Smalling 1-12, Kramer 1-10, Palazzo 1-(minus) 3.
Princeton: Opara 4-56, Morrison 3-31, Citovic 2-26, Brandt 2-11, Cheatham 1-26, Splithoff 1-17, Ligue 1-5.