Tigers’ losing streak reaches three in painful fashion
By: Justin Feil
The Princeton University football team became the 20th straight Ivy League victim of Pennsylvania, 16-15, in heartbreaking fashion at Princeton Stadium Saturday.
The Tigers, who have lost a series-record nine straight games to the Quakers, played like the team that had started the season 3-0 not the one that lost the previous two weeks, but still lost their third straight Ivy contest to slip to 4-4 overall, 2-3 in the Ivies when Derek Javarone’s 41-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right with 18 seconds left. Javarone made three other field goals Saturday.
Penn, which improved to 7-1 overall, 5-0 in conference, will host Harvard, a 38-0 winner over Columbia, in a showdown of the two Ivy unbeatens Saturday.
The Tigers more than accomplished one of their goals of being in the game in the fourth quarter. Princeton trailed, 30-0, by halftime last year but led the Quakers, 15-7, after the first play of the fourth quarter Saturday.
Penn, however, scored the final nine points of the fourth quarter on a 19-yard touchdown pass from Pat McDermott to Gabe Marabella and Derek Zoch’s first career field goal, a 27-yarder with 2:54 left that ultimately won the game.
"It hurts bad," said PU head coach Roger Hughes, whose team plays at Yale on Saturday. The Tigers dominated most aspects of Saturday’s loss to Penn. The Tigers rushed for 196 yards against the Ivy’s top rated rushing defense, had more first downs than Penn, completed more passes, had more return yardage and recovered two Penn fumbles. They held the ball for almost 34 minutes of the game to Penn’s 26, but just couldn’t find a way to win.
After Zoch’s kick, Princeton took the ball from its own 20, converted one fourth-and-8 with a 16-yard pass to Greg Fields, moved into Penn territory on a 10-yard reception by Clinton Wu and then had to settle for Javarone’s field goal attempt after two runs – one for a 5-yard loss – and an incomplete pass to Fields.
"We were trying to get it in the end zone," Hughes said. "We went back to a couple runs that had been successful earlier. We also wanted to be smart and protect the ball."
Javarone, who had a previous best of 39 yards last season, had plenty of leg on the kick but it missed the right upright. It was one of the few things to go wrong on a day when Princeton seemed destined to stop Penn’s streak.
"It’s absolutely devastating to lose this game," said Fields, who scored the Tigers’ only touchdown and had eight receptions and 90 yards of return yardage against Penn. "We were confident that we were going to win. Unfortunately it didn’t work out for us."
After an inefficient first half offensively, the Tigers took better advantage of their opportunities while the defense remained strong in the third quarter. Princeton, which did not convert a third down in the first half, converted its first chance of the second half on its way to a touchdown and converted another one as well as a fourth down on its way to a field goal to take a 15-7 lead and put itself in position to win.
"We felt we had to make it a fourth-quarter game in order to have a chance to win it," Hughes said. "And we felt like Penn is very good at capitalizing on mistakes. And while we hadn’t run the ball as effectively as we wanted the last couple of weeks, we felt the offensive line was one of the strengths of our offense. They took that as a major challenge to run the ball and I was very pleased with how they did."
Princeton’s effective running game that resulted in 97 yards of rushing for Jon Veach, 57 for Branden Benson and another 22 for Fields, kept the Penn offense off the field, and moved it into the red zone five times, where it scored four times but had just one touchdown. Princeton got its second-half lead when it was ruled that McDermott’s swing pass to Sam Mathews was a lateral, and when it bounced off Mathews shoulder pads, Princeton’s Peter Kelly jumped on the live ball to end Penn’s first possession of the third quarter.
The Tigers drove 53 yards with Fields capping the eight-play drive with a 8-yard touchdown on a reverse around left end. Princeton’s lead remained at 12-7 when Matt Verbit fumbled as he was stopped shy of the two-point conversion with 4:26 to go in the third quarter.
"The guys did a great job of blocking today," Fields said adding, "on special teams and offensively. The whole team, we were all fired up and ready to go. We came out all pumped up and we played well. But no matter how well we think we played, it didn’t work out."
Princeton added a 33-yard field goal by Derek Javarone with 14:54 to go in the fourth quarter. The kick was made possible after Matt Verbit found fullback Joel Mancl for a 10-yard completion on fourth-and-3 from the Penn 29.
Penn was quick to answer. Its second touchdown of the game on a 19-yard pass from McDermott to Gabe Marabella trimmed the lead to 15-13 with 12:56 left. The Quakers regained the lead after Princeton failed to capitalize on midfield possession to start their next possession. Penn drove 59 yards in 13 plays before Zoch, a freshman, converted his first field goal attempt of his career to allow the Quakers to rally from its second deficit of the game.
The scoreboard did not tell the story at halftime. The Tigers had dominated play for all but three minutes. But Princeton, which ranked next to last in the Ivy League in third-down conversions entering Saturday, finished the first half 0 for 7 on third-down conversions with one interception. Penn wasn’t much better at 1 for 6.
"Our defense flew around," Hughes said. "And we showed them some things they hadn’t seen before."
The Tigers ineffectiveness on offense allowed the Quakers to stay close and pull out to a 7-6 halftime lead.
Princeton took a 3-0 lead on a 27-yard field goal by Javarone, but the Tigers would have liked more after Fields’ 49-yard punt return had given them the ball at the Penn 12. Princeton drove just two yards in their three plays before the kick.
The Tigers missed a golden opportunity to add to their lead when Bill Foran stripped Penn’s Duvol Thompson on the ensuing kick and Doori Song recovered for the Tigers at the Penn 27. But two plays later, Fields fumbled back to the Quakers after he’d moved the ball inside the 10-yard line on an otherwise well-run reverse.
But the Tigers defense stopped Penn, and the Tigers again took over in Penn territory after a short punt. Again after driving to the Penn 10, they had to settle for a field goal, this one a 32-yarder from Javarone to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead with 1:59 left in the first quarter. The quarter ended with Princeton having started four of their first five possessions in Penn’s end of the field.
"We preached about playing from a short field," Hughes said. "Against a good defense like Penn’s, you’re not going to drive it 80 and 90 yards a lot."
Penn did not cross midfield until a fourth-down stop gave them the ball at the Princeton 46 with 10:58 left to go in the second quarter. The Tigers’ defense allowed them to stay there for just one play as they threw Mathews for a 5-yard loss to move the Quakers back to their side of the field. The Tigers did not surrender a Penn first down through the first 25 minutes of the game.
Then, on third-and-8 from their own 13, Penn completed a 32-yard pass to Dan Castles to move from the shadow of their goal line out near midfield. It was their first first down of the game. Seven plays later, Von Bryant raced around right end on a pitch play for a 12-yard touchdown run and Zoch’s extra point gave the Quakers a 7-6 lead with 2:11 to go before halftime. All five of Penn’s first-half first downs came on their scoring drive.