Tiger defense stands tall in fourth quarter
By: Bob Nuse
This time, Princeton University wasn’t about to let a lead slip away.
The Tigers scored two touchdowns in less than two minutes in the fourth quarter to break a 10-10 tie, then used a stifling defense to keep Brown off the scoreboard and come away with a 24-10 win Saturday at Princeton Stadium.
With the win, Princeton improved to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the Ivy League. The Tigers now find themselves in a three-way tie atop the league along with Harvard and Pennsylvania. Harvard comes to town next week to face the Tigers at Princeton Stadium.
Last year, Princeton let leads slip away in the fourth quarter three times during a season that ended 2-8. Last week, Colgate scored two touchdowns in the final six minutes to beat the Tigers, 29-26. But this time, the defense wasn’t about to let that happen.
"Our mindset every week is to not let that happen," Princeton senior defensive end Chris Browne said. "As much as you try to play game to game, you don’t forget an experience like last week. But you try to use that as a positive and not let it happen again.
"We definitely try to stay aggressive. When we get a lead, we always want to keep it. Because of what happened last week, we were even more committed to not let it happen again."
This time, there was not even an inkling that a lead would slip away. Princeton stayed aggressive on defense in the fourth quarter, blitzing Brown quarterback Andrew Vita and keeping the pressure on.
"I’m very proud of our effort," Princeton coach Roger Hughes said. "Our kids came to play today and that was a real good Brown team we played. I was very pleased with our execution. We had no penalties other than the kickoff out of bounds. I told the players after the game, this was a team win.
"Our defense held Nick Hartigan to 66 yards. We came up with turnovers. We had no penalties. We had a big kick return by Greg Fields. We had big sacks at the end of the game by Zac Keasey and Abi Fadeyi. We won this game as a team."
The game was tied, 10-10, after three quarters when n the first play of the fourth quarter, Michael Meehan tipped a Brown pass and Zac Keasey intercepted it to give the Tigers the ball at the Brown-21. Princeton then found itself with a fourth down and less than a yard to go from just outside the 1-yard line. After a timeout, Branden Benson carried the ball into the end zone to once again give the Tigers the lead, 17-10.
After three plays and a punt by Brown, the Tigers scored again on a 50-yard pass play from Verbit to Brian Shields. The point after by Javarone gave the Tigers a 24-10 lead. It was the third time this season that Princeton had scored on a one-play scoring drive.
From that point, the defense took over and did not let Brown come close to scoring.
"I thought we stayed aggressive, just like we did against Colgate," Browne said. "We kept the blitz coming and we didn’t let down. That’s the way we play."
"I was real proud of our defense," added Keasey, the Tigers’ senior inside linebacker. "We did a good job. The defensive line makes it happen so that the linebackers can run around the field and make plays."
The first half was a bit of a defensive battle, although both teams moved the ball.
After Brown was forced to punt on its first drive, Princeton marched right down the field and went 68 yards in 11 plays before settling for a 22-yard field goal by Derek Javarone to take a 3-0 lead.
Brown’s best chance to score in the half came in the second quarter when the Bears had a first-and-10 at the Princeton-34. But back-to-back sacks by Chris Lebeis and Brandon Mueller pushed Brown back to the 50-yard line, where it was faced with a third-and-26. After a gain of no yards, the ensuing punt pinned the Tigers inside the 5-yard line.
Princeton then drove 86 yards n 13 plays, only to see the drive end with a missed 29-yard field goal by Javarone that left the score 3-0.
On its first possession of the second half, Princeton lost the ball on a fumble. On Brown’s first play, Joe DiGiacomo connected with Efren Blackledge on a 37-yard flea flicker pass to give the Bears the ball inside the 10-yard line. The Princeton defense held on three plays, and Brown went for it on fourth down, with Hartigan rushing in from the 2-yard line to give the Bears the lead, 7-3.
But Princeton came right back thanks to a 77-yard kickoff return by Fields, giving the Tigers the ball at the Brown-15. Four plays later, Jon Veach ran the ball in from the 3-yard line to give the Tigers the lead again, 10-7.
Brown got even on its next possession when the Bears drove 55 yards in just over four minutes to set up a 27-yard field by Steve Morgan.
Princeton then scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter, with Benson running in from the 2 and Matt Verbit connecting with Brian Shields on a 50-yard pass for the other score.
"Our team was just ready to play today," Hughes said. "We were ready to play on Wednesday. They were fighting on Thursday and they were fighting on Wednesday. The crispness of practice was unbelievable all week. Even the demo team was doing everything perfectly."
In the second quarter, Verbit moved into second place on Princeton’s all-time total yards list. The senior moved ahead of Jason Garrett and now has 4,620 yards. He trails only Doug Butler on the list. Butler finished with 4,695 yards during his career as a Tiger.
On his first completion of the second half, Verbit moved into second place on the all-time passing yardage list, moving ahead of Garrett. Verbit now has 4,326 career passing yards. Against Brown, he completed 13 of his 15 passes for 147 yards. Veach led the rushing attack with 75 yards on 20 carries.
Princeton can now savor this win for a day before getting ready for Harvard in a battle between two teams tied for first place in the Ivy League.
"This is the most unbelievable team in terms of playing it one week at a time," Hughes said. "It’s a credit to the players and the senior leadership we have that they are able to stay on the task at hand each week. They have never looked ahead to anything but the next game."
And for Princeton, that means a showdown with Harvard with first place on the line.