Princeton seeks first conference win this season in Providence

After a heartbreaking defeat to the Columbia Lion’s at the hands of a 63-yard score with a minute to play on Sept. 30, the Princeton football team will get another shot at an Ivy League opponent when they face Brown at 12:30 p.m. this Saturday at Brown Stadium in Providence, R.I. Princeton hopes to regain some ground in the Ivy League standings this week after losing to Columbia at home for the first time in seven years.

The Tigers will try to build on the momentum from a big win last week against Georgetown, where Princeton triumphed 50-30. The game was not even as close as the score would indicate, as Princeton led by 34 points at the end of third quarter.

Senior quarterback Chad Kanoff was responsible for much of the success, throwing for 313 yards on 25 of 29 passing, with four touchdowns and no interceptions. This performance was especially important for Kanoff, who came off of a three-interception game against Columbia the week before. Kanoff now ranks second in the Football Championship Subdivision, not only in completion percentage (73.2 percent), but also in completions per game (28).

Freshman cornerback CJ Wall contributed another solid performance in the win against Georgetown, notching his third interception of the year. This time, he returned the pick to the end zone on a 38-yard scoring drive. Wall also has 21 tackles on the season and his performance helped earn him his second Ivy League Rookie of the Week award.

Although Princeton was able to win against Brown last year, the Tigers have lost six of their last seven games against the Bears in Providence. Brown (2-2) has also won both games at home this year. These include wins against both Bryant University (28-23) and the University of Rhode Island (24-21). The Bears are also hoping to secure their first Ivy League victory of the season on Saturday, as they lost to Harvard 45-28 a few weeks ago in Boston.

The Bears rely mainly on a passing attack, with twice as many yards per game passing (237.5) as rushing (120.3). Brown’s quarterback situation isn’t nearly as secure as Princeton’s, however, as the Bears have cycled through three different quarterbacks so far this season. Junior Nicholas Duncan started the season, until he was replaced by senior Thomas Linta in the fourth quarter of the Harvard game, when Brown was down by 36 points. Linta went on to score four consecutive touchdowns in the losing effort.

Linta appeared to be the clear starter until a losing effort against Stetson University, in which he threw two interceptions and was replaced by freshman Jeffrey Jonke, who did not have much success, going 5 for 13 on passing. If Linta can channel his performance from the game against Harvard, Brown will be a tough matchup for Princeton. The Tigers secondary, although recording four interceptions in the season, have given up an average of 325 yards per game.

The game on Saturday can be streamed live on the Ivy League Network. It is also available on the radio through either the Princeton IMG Sports Network (103.3 FM WPRB in Princeton) or through the TuneIn app.