Tigers' offense comes alive against Brown, defense dominates Lafayette
Read
through the game program's
elaborate description of Princeton's
new football stadium, and you can find every inch of the new facility
covered in minute detail -- from its Turbosound Flashlight loudspeaker system to
its 200 orange-berried holly hedges. But you'll find no mention of a feature
that has been even more prominent this season than either the loudspeaker or
the hedges: karma. As many of the 18,622 fans who watched the Tigers
defeat Brown at Princeton Stadium would swear, there is a magical feel to
the team's new home.
How else could they explain the bizarre occurrences they witnessed during Princeton's 31-17 victory over the Bears on October 10? The fans saw a blocked punt by a junior lining up for his first play this season and two touchdowns by a senior seeing his first serious action in two years. They watched a kicker hit a pro-caliber 51-yard field goal and a nickel back make the game-breaking play on a steal and a 40-yard dash. They even saw the Tigers allow 442 passing yards -- the most ever recorded against Princeton in the 128-year history of its football program -- yet still win by two touchdowns.
In fact, in a game the Tigers weren't expected to win, all the strange twists and turns seemed to go Princeton's way. The victory knocked the Bears -- a preseason pick to contend for the Ivy crown -- deeper into the league cellar and elevated Princeton to the status of legitimate title contender. That's right: At 2-0 in the league, the Tigers already have as many Ivy wins as they totaled in each of the last two seasons. If that isn't compelling enough proof of Princeton's resurgence, consider that over the past nine years the Tigers have gotten off to 2-0 starts in the league five times. Each time, they have either claimed an Ivy League championship or at least had a shot at the title entering the season's final weekend.
A league title seemed a distant prospect after Princeton's first three games, an uninspiring 6-0 win over visiting Cornell and two overtime losses at Lehigh and Fordham. But combine a little magic against Brown with four quarters of dominating play, as the Tigers (3-2 overall) displayed the following week in a 28-0 drubbing of La-fayette, and Princeton fans are starting to believe anything is possible.
It certainly seemed that way against Brown, beginning with Rocky Fittizzi '99's blocked punt on his first play since coming back from a hamstring injury. The teams exchanged touchdowns in the first half, with Mike Veronesi '99's block of an extra-point attempt giving the Tigers a 7-6 halftime advantage.
Princeton broke the game open with a 21-point third quarter, ignited by a stunning 40-yard touchdown scamper by nickel back Craig Foote '99 after he swiped the football from the arms of Brown running back Kevin Coyne. Just 2:32 later, after an interception by safety Ryan Demler '00, quarterback John Burnham '99 connected with wideout Ray Canole '99 on a deep post pattern for a 51-yard touchdown and a 21-6 Princeton lead.
From there, Princeton chewed up the clock by handing the ball to Derek Theisen '99, a gritty 5'11" tailback who had sat out the entire 1997 season and played only sparingly in Princeton's first three games this year. Theisen picked up 77 of his career-high 93 yards in the second half, including a six-yard scoring run that gave the Tigers a 28-14 edge. Meanwhile, Princeton's defensive unit was doing its best to repel an aerial assault by Brown quarterback James Perry, who completed 33 of 62 passes for 448 yards, and wideout Sean Morey, who racked up 215 yards receiving. For all the ground it gave up through the air, however, the defense smothered the Bears' running game and made its share of big plays: four interceptions, five sacks, two fourth-down stops, and one fumble recovery. A late 51-yard field goal from the right hash mark by kicker Alex Sierk '99 -- surpassed in distance only by Charlie Gogolak '66's 54-yarder in 1965 -- closed out the scoring at 31-17.
After sharing the quarterback job over the previous two games, Burnham finally took over as the full-time QB. His numbers (14-of-25 for 162 yards and a touchdown) weren't nearly as flashy as Perry's, and he did make two significant mistakes inside the Brown 25-yard line, a fumble and an interception that killed a pair of impressive Princeton drives. But he was steady enough to earn the confidence of Tosches and guide the Tigers to their second straight league victory. "Our philosophy over the years has been to play good defense and be balanced offensively," Tosches said after the game. "Those are our ingredients for winning Ivy League championships."
Following their coach's recipe, the Tigers served up a five-star feast in Easton the following week. Good defense? With its front four harassing the Lafayette passers all afternoon, Princeton held the Leopards (1-5) to just nine first downs. Balanced offense? Burnham connected with eight different receivers, while a troop of running backs, headed by Damien Taylor '99, combined for 198 yards on the ground.
Taylor became the fourth different back in five games to lead Princeton in rushing -- following Kyle Brandt '01, Nathan McGlothlin '99, and Theisen -- and against Lafayette Taylor piled up a career-high 90 yards and two touchdowns. Taylor's two scores came just 2:08 apart in the second quarter, giving Princeton a commanding 21-0 halftime lead en route to the Tigers' second shutout of the 1998 campaign. Brandt and Burnham also rushed for touchdowns as Princeton outgained Lafayette 359 yards to 166 and controlled the ball for more than 36 minutes in the win.
Their non-conference games over, the Tigers will receive their most severe tests of the season over the next three weeks. Sandwiched around a visit to Columbia, the Tigers take on last year's league champion, Harvard, and this year's only other unbeaten Ivy team, Penn. But if recent form holds true, Princeton might have an intangible edge. Both games are at Princeton Stadium, where the Tigers have yet to lose.
"The last two weeks, we've played together," Tosches said. "We've gotten good contributions from all three phases of the game [offense, defense, and special teams]. That unity, that consistency will have a lot to do with how we finish out this season."
A little Princeton Stadium karma won't hurt, either.
-- Mark Sabath '98
"So far, so
good" is the mantra of
the undefeated field hockey team
(11-0 overall, 5-0 Ivy). The Tigers have defeated five top-20
teams already this season, but the toughest stretch is still to come. "The way
our schedule works," coach Beth Bozman explains, "all our key games are at
the end. We play five top-10 teams in the last seven games, which will tell
us how good we really are."
The team opened that seven-game stretch with an impressive 3-1 win
over eighth-ranked Delaware. At times, especially in the second half, the
Tigers looked dominant -- both disrupting the Delaware offense and
controlling the midfield. The game would have been a blowout were it not for the
inspired play of the Delaware keeper, who made 13, often spectacular, saves.
After the game, Bozman was pleased that her offense had been able to
generate consistent pressure. "I've been
concerned about scoring," she admits. While
offense was supposed to be a strength of the team coming into the season, the
team has missed the presence of Amy MacFarlane '98 in the center
midfield. Kirsty Hale '99, Princeton's offensive star the last three seasons, moved
back from attack to take MacFarlane's place, and although earlier this season
Hale broke the Princeton record for goals scored in a career, the move has
limited her production. Before the Brown game Bozman tinkered with the
lineup -- including moving Hale back to attack -- but those changes were
temporary.
The Tigers do have plenty of talent on the front line, and Hale
believes the offense may have turned the corner. "We're starting to
come together," she says. "We still need to get things done faster --
better passing combinations and more shots outside -- but we're getting
pressure." Perhaps the Tigers' greatest asset up front is their speed,
and against Delaware they repeatedly burned the defense with
thru-passes. "It's the same in every sport,"
Bozman says. "Speed kills."
Despite a rash of recent injuries, the defense has been playing
extremely well, limiting a good Delaware offense
to two shots. When healthy, Princeton starts four
seniors, and, as Bozman says, "You can't recruit
experience." Teams that manage to get past
the defense have had plenty of trouble trying to
solve keeper Meg DeJong '99, who sports a gaudy
.27 goals against average and has performed well all
season. "Meg is making the saves that she is supposed to
make," Bozman says. "It's nice to see her
get rewarded after four years of hard work."
As for being snubbed in the rankings -- despite being the only
undefeated team in Division 1, the Tigers hold the same third slot they occupied
at the beginning of the season -- Bozman is unconcerned. "It's all going to
sort itself out in the next couple weeks," she says. "Just so long as we
don't end up number 3."
Experienced hockey teams hope to build on last season's success
Twenty-four
banners decorate the beams and walls of Hobey This season a 25th banner will be raised on the
most orange-and-black night of the year, October 31,
before the men's hockey team's exhibition with New
Brunswick. Only this banner will celebrate a men's championship season.
The 37th ECAC Tournament featured Princeton's
first championship and has buoyed Tiger expectations for
a repeat performance and a return to the NCAA
Tournament, where the team dropped a one-goal contest to
eventual champion Michigan in the opening round last year.
A preseason poll of the 12 ECAC coaches placed Princeton, with
two first-place votes, second behind perennial power Clarkson.
The Tigers even appeared in the national poll among teams "also
receiving votes," just two notches out of the
top 10. The predictions are realistic as the
Tigers return 10 forwards from last season, all of whom saw
regular ice time, and all seven defensemen.
Included in the bunch is a pair of candidates for the
Hobey Baker Award as the nation's top player: forward Jeff Halpern '99 and defenseman Steve Shirreffs
'99. Halpern established a school record for goals last year
with 28 and drew rave reviews at a summer invitational
camp. Head coach Don Cahoon plans to continue to align
the cocaptain with Scott Bertoli '99 on what promises
to be the most lethal of four solid forward lines,
though he's looking to fill the vacancy at right wing.
Shirreffs, meanwhile, is coming off a breakthrough
All-America year that saw him add a potent offensive dimension
to a game already well-rooted in defensive toughness.
Young forwards Chris Corrinet '01 and Kirk Lamb '01
could have impact seasons as well.
Future flag-raising may depend on the play
between the pipes. Graduated goaltender Erasmo Saltarelli '98
started 34 of 36 games last year, leaving little time for
backups Craig Bradley '00 and Nick Rankin '99. That duo
will contend with newcomer Dave Stathos '02 for playing time.
"We're all pretty confident that the goaltending
will sort itself out," says cocaptain Syl Apps '99, a stellar
face-off specialist and possibly the ECAC's best defensive
forward. "It may take a while. As it is, we have three
pretty good goalies vying for the spot. We're pretty
confident that one of them -- if not all -- will step up."
The Tigers also know what not to believe: the
preseason hype. Last year's highly touted squad never
managed to win back-to-back league games during the
regular season and needed four outstanding performances
over a seven-day period in mid-March to resurrect the
campaign and win the ECAC tourney.
"I think what we really learned last year is that
you can't get too high when things are going well, and
you can't get too low when things are going badly," Apps
says. "You have to take things evenly and allow your talent
to come through and win the games."
How far can one victory propel a team? The
women's ice hockey team will learn the answer this season.
The Tigers open the season on Nov. 6, eight months removed from the
upset of second-place Northeastern that thrust the
upstart squad into the ECAC Tournament semifinals. With his team tabbed
by the league coaches to repeat its seventh-place
finish, Princeton coach Jeff Kampersal '92 hopes
the sweet taste of the league championships might
provide a motivational edge.
"It's a confidence-builder to beat one of
those teams," Kampersal says. "I've seen the players
coming to the rink more often to lift on their own or do the extra bike rides. They don't have to be told
what to do; they do it themselves."
With 17 returning letterwinners, the Tigers are
teeming with experience. Forward Ali Coughlin '99, who
scored 41 points last year, remains the offensive catalyst. She
is part of a strong group of leaders up front that
includes second-year captain Erin O'Dea '99 and the
antagonistic Danya Marshman '00.
Princeton will rely on gritty defensive play while it
nurtures new goaltenders Susan Maes '02 and Jamie Rodriguez
'01. That will place emphasis on the blue-line group led
by the talented Dani Holtschlag '00 and Annamarie
Holmes '01 and bolstered by rookie Aviva Grumet-Morris '02.
With the return of several 1998 Olympians to the
fold and the explosive growth of girls' hockey at the
youth and high-school levels, the ECAC as a whole is
probably as talented as ever. Still, Kampersal is confident that
his team can keep pace with the New Hampshires and
Browns of the league. "We have enough talent to put a scare
into any team," he says. "It's going to come down to team
defense and goaltending."
-- Mike Jackman '92
It's a
problem the Tiger womens' In the first half of the Tigers' October 14 meeting with
Lehigh, the tactic appeared to be working. "Their whole focus," observed
coach Julie Shackford, "was to get behind the ball and break up plays."
The Tigers, five games into a winning streak that had taken their
record to 8-2, were locked in a scoreless tie with an opponent that
would finish the game having taken only two shots on goal.
In the second half, however, as Shackford put it, "the dam
broke." Cocaptain Julie Porter '99 scored her first goal of the game at
the 53:35 mark and followed with her second at 72:35. Then,
sophomore Jennie Platt took over. Shackford said she had been telling the
Florida native she was due for a breakout game, and Platt had that and
more, scoring three goals in three and a half minutes and adding a
fourth at 84:20 to cap the scoring and take Princeton's record to 9-2.
As usual, the defense was stifling. In addition to keeper
Jordan Rettig '01, who has five shutouts this season, Princeton has
gotten excellent play from senior cocaptain Janet Santo. "She has really
been our anchor on the field," Shackford says.
Princeton is 3-1 in Ivy League play with wins over Cornell,
Brown, and Yale. The Tigers fell 4-0 to nationally-ranked Dartmouth on
September 26.
While the Tiger women have been dangerous this year, the Tiger
men have struggled. Flashes of brilliance, including tight games with No.
20 Seton Hall (a 1-0 overtime loss) and No. 22 Rutgers (a 1-0 loss)
have not been enough to overcome the Tigers inconsistent play.
After stumbling to an 0-4-1 start that included a 4-0 loss to Ivy
rival Dartmouth, the team beat Rider University 3-0 and Cornell 5-3
to earn its first two wins. The mini-streak was followed by losses
to Rutgers and Brown, and a 2-1 overtime win against American,
leaving Princeton with a 3-6-1 record and seven games remaining.
Good news for Tiger fans with an eye on the future is the play
of freshman Matt Behncke. Brother of talented junior defender
Griff, the younger Behncke leads the team in scoring with four goals.
-- Rob Garver
Jesse Marsch '96 plays well for Fire
Former
Princeton standout Jesse
Marsch '96 has played a key
role in the Chicago Fire's surprise appearance in the
Major League Soccer finals. In the quarterfinals, Marsch scored
the final goal in a shootout to lead the Fire over the Colorado
Rapids. Next, in the first game of the best-of-three semifinals, Marsch
scored in the 86th minute (his third goal of the season) to lead the
Fire to a 1-0 victory over the heavily favored Los Angeles Galaxy.
A few days later, in the second game of the series, Marsch scored
again in a shootout to help the Fire finish the upset. At press time, Chicago
was waiting to play the winner of the Columbus/D.C. United
series in the finals.
There is another Princeton link on the Fire: the team's head
coach is Bob Bradley '80, who was Princeton's head coach for 12
years before leaving to become an assistant coach at D.C.
United. Bradley coached Marsch both at Princeton and at D.C.
United, and over this past offseason, after the expansion Fire hired
Bradley as their first coach, he traded for his former player -- who
was buried on the D.C. bench. Apparently the reunion has paid off.
Water polo earns high seed under rookie coach
For the first time in years, the
men's water polo team has positioned itself beautifully for the series of postseason tournaments
that culminates in the NCAAs. The Tigers finished the regular season at
12-3, and on the strength of that record they both qualified for the
ECAC tournament and garnered the third seed at the Southern
Conference Championships.
Should the Tigers win their first- round game at Southerns,
they'll qualify for Easterns -- and should they win Easterns, they'll
qualify for the NCAAs. Princeton may not face an easy road, but by earning
a higher seed it's increased its odds. "Making the NCAAs is
possible," says captain Oakley Brooks '99.
"And I wouldn't have said that last year or the year before." Parity has
ruled among the top teams in the east this season, and while the
University of Massachusetts and Queens are the favorites to emerge from Easterns,
Brooks says, "No one's standing out as an unbeatable team."
Like most Princeton teams of the past, this edition is heavily
reliant on quickness and speed, which should help the Tigers in the large
tournament pools. Still, other teams are starting to make adjustments
on defense against Princeton, forcing the team to rely more heavily on its
half-court offense. Fortunately, hole set Forrest Christo '01 has played
very well at two meters, and the Tigers have even developed some
outside shooting to complement their fast-break game.
As usual, the team is strong in the cage. In addition to Greg Stoll
'00, who last season was named to his second consecutive All-Southern
Conference team, freshman Jon Pharris has played well enough to earn
a significant amount of playing time.
Behind the scenes, first-year coach Luis Nicolao, a
former player and assistant coach for Navy, has done an excellent
job in his rookie season. Rather than making any radical
changes, Nicolao has tried to build on previous years.
"We're playing pretty much the same strategy this season," Brooks
says. "We swim teams a lot in games, play good defense, and rely on
the goaltending." The Tigers hope that will be a potent combination
come tournament time.
Undefeated field hockey faces tough stretch
DEFENSE SOLID
Baker '14 Memorial Rink: 16 bear the names of ECAC
men's and women's teams, five honor the Tiger
women's Ivy League championships, one recognizes the Ivy
League itself, another carries a replica of the Princeton shield,
and one represents a local youth hockey program.
Women's hockey
soccer team has faced frequently
this year: opponents intimidated by the Princeton offense will
pack defenders sardine-tight in the box, hoping more to cramp the style
of the Tiger forwards than to actually score goals themselves.
Men's soccer