PU football drops Ivy League opener Saturday
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Columbia put a major hurdle in the way of the Princeton University football team’s Ivy League championship hopes, but the Tigers have a more serious concern.
Princeton suffered a bigger blow than Saturday’s 38-0 loss to Columbia when Jordan Culbreath was lost for the season. Last year’s Ivy leading rusher with 1,206 yards and 11 total touchdowns did not suit up for Saturday’s game. He played the first half at Lehigh last week before leaving with an ankle injury. Princeton also played against Columbia without starting fullback Matt Zimmerman, who did not play due to the flu.
“Jordan is in the hospital at Robert Wood Johnson,” said PU head coach Roger Hughes. “He has been diagnosed with anemia. We’re trying to find out what the issue is. He’s undergoing tests right now, but it appears at this point, he will not be available for the rest of the season.”
The Lions improved to 2-1 overall, 1-0 in the Ivy League by earning their biggest win in the 125-year history of the series with Princeton. They beat Princeton, 32-7, in 1945.
“I was really disappointed,” Hughes said after his team fell to 1-2 overall, 0-1 in Ivy play. “I felt we had one of the best weeks of practice we’ve had and really felt that that would carry over as we learned how to win a game last week, but clearly it didn’t.”
Columbia’s second win in the last 17 meetings at Princeton was helped by three Tiger turnovers that were converted into 17 points, while the Tigers offense never even reached the red zone in the Ivy opener for both teams.
“In the first half, we turned the ball over and gave them scores,” Hughes said. “In the second half, we started with another turnover. We didn’t create any turnovers defensively. That was really the story of the game, other than offensively we didn’t execute the way we should have.”
Princeton must regroup quickly as it hosts unbeaten Colgate 7 p.m. Thursday in a game to be televised on ESPNU.
“I told the team, you at least get a chance to erase a bad memory,” Hughes said. “We have a lot of work to do between now and then to make sure we play better.”
The Tigers felt the loss of Culbreath early. His replacements at running back fumbled twice in the first half. Culbreath lost just one fumble in 313 career touches.
The Tigers’ second possession of the game began with a false start penalty and it was followed on the next play by a fumble on the exchange between quarterback Tommy Wornham and running back Meko McCray. Columbia took over at the Princeton 19 and needed just four plays to take a 6-0 lead on M.A. Olawale’s 1-yard touchdown run with 6:22 to go in the first quarter. Dean Perfetti missed the extra point.
The next 20 minutes were scoreless as neither team could penetrate the other’s 30-yard line. A penalty on a Columbia punt gave the Tigers the ball at their own 6-yard line with 1:01 left before halftime. Instead of a last-minute drive for the Tigers, running back Kenny Gunter fumbled a handoff on the second play and the Lions took over at the 11.
Princeton’s defense came up with an impressive set to force a field goal attempt, which Greg Guttas converted from 26 yards for a 9-0 Columbia lead with 20 seconds left in the second quarter.
“We actually came out of halftime fairly pleased because they scored on us in a short field and they got that field goal before the half,” said PU captain Wilson Cates. “We were pretty confident coming out of halftime. With the second half, we just didn’t make enough plays defensively and create turnovers to give our offense a short field.”
The Tiger defense continued to play well in the beginning of the second half, but there was no defense when Wornham’s third-down pass to Harrison Daniels, a converted quarterback playing wide receiver, instead went directly to Jared Morine. The Columbia cornerback returned it 51 yards for a touchdown and Olawale hit Taylor Joseph for the two-point conversion to make it 17-0 with 9:44 left in the third quarter.
“I didn’t get the whole signal right,” said Wornham, who was 11-for-36 for 135 yards. “It came off too quick. I was too excited.”
The Tigers’ next possession ended when their fake punt came up 1-yard short of a first down, but the PU defense again held to force a punt. The Tigers used a hurry-up offense to muster their deepest penetration.
A penalty on third-and-2 at the Lions’ 22 moved the ball back five yards, and after regaining the yardage on a Wornham option, Wornham’s flare pass was behind Gunter to end the possession.
“I’ve got to keep learning and got to keep working hard,” Wornham said, “and put in more work than I have been and trust the game plan more. I have to go back to what I did in the first game and trust my reads and the line’s going to make their blocks and make my throws.”
Columbia scored on long touchdown passes on its next two possessions. Olawale found a streaking Mike Stephens, who beat Blake Clemons for a 50-yard touchdown catch on the first play of the fourth quarter. On the Lions’ next possession, Olawale found Austin Knowlin, who slipped one tackle and then hurdled into the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown reception to make it 31-0 with 9:59 to go in the game.
The Lions added a final touchdown on a 1-yard run by Leon Ivery.
“I think we were our own problems,” Hughes said. “We just didn’t execute like we should have. They didn’t do anything differently than we thought they would have. It’s just a matter of execution. When it’s third down, you have to make the throw, you have to make the catch, you have to block, you have to do those things to make plays with the football and we didn’t do that.
“The thing is we’re not scoring points offensively,” he said. “You can overcome it if you can score points. Right now, we’ve got to get more points. That makes our margin for error very small.”