After nearly everything that could have gone wrong for new head coach Roger Hughes and the football team during its game Saturday against Lafayette did go wrong, the Tigers somehow found themselves tied with the Leopards, 17-17, with 45 seconds to play.
Unfortunately, not everything that could have gone wrong had happened yet. Completing an astounding initiation to the collegiate football field, Lafayette freshman quarterback Marko Glavic drove his offense 80 yards against a stingy Tiger defense to push his Leopards over the top, 24-17.
The amazing drive did not truly begin in earnest until only 29 seconds remained and the Leopards were still mired on their own 31 yard-line. Glavic then connected with his star receiver Phil Yarberough for a 54-yard completion that moved Lafayette's chances for victory in regulation from impossibility to near certainty at the Tiger 15. A 13-yard run by tailback Bill Stocker left the Leopards on the two yard-line with nine seconds to play.
Rather than trust his snapper, holder, and shaky kicker, new Lafayette head coach Frank Tavani chose to risk a turnover for a shot at a touchdown. Glavic lofted a pass for Yarberough, who caught 11 passes on the game, on a fade route in the corner of the end zone. The 6-3 senior, who claims a 40-inch vertical leap, elevated to snag the ball, then stretched his legs to graze the ground in bounds.
Until the fourth quarter, the game was not nearly so exciting. Princeton's offense struggled to gain some rhythm, while the Tiger defense kept the Leopards from doing the same. Special teams play nearly crushed Princeton in the first half, as Northrop missed a pair of field goals, while the punt return team fumbled a punt and drew a roughing-the-kicker penalty. Nevertheless, Princeton led on the scoreboard almost entirely because of the efforts of senior linebacker Chris Roser-Jones. On the second play of Lafayette's second drive, Roser-Jones stepped in front of the pass of Harry Armstrong, who started the game under center for the Leopards, and made the interception on the 33-yard-line.
Turnover
Showing surprising moves for a linebacker, the senior followed a front of Princeton blockers until he met a challenge at the four-yard line. Before the Leopards could bring Roser-Jones down, however, senior linebacker Mike Higgins slammed into the back of the pile, shoving his teammate and the ball over the line.
Lafayette threatened to score at the end of the half, reaching the two yard-line on a pass interference call. Roser-Jones came to the rescue yet again, intercepting Armstrong's pass. With the Leopards' regular starting quarterback not playing because of injury, Armstrong's two interceptions forced Tavani to put his last option into the game.
The third-string freshman Glavic would go 18-for-30 in the game for 243 yards and two touchdowns. Using short, precise passes and an impressive combination of speed and agility, Glavic sparked momentum in the Leopards while the Tigers were still floundering.
"Once Marko came in, he was really just throwing the ball all over the place, doing extremely well," Stocker said. "He definitely loosened some things up, and had some long runs that set some things up."
Last resort
Princeton finally recovered from its offensive woes with five minutes to play. Pinned deep in their own end with a previously ineffective offense and trailing, 17-10, the Tigers staged a stunning drive to the tie the game.
Junior quarterback Tommy Crenshaw was primarily responsible for the recovery. He scrambled to convert a third and four, then found sophomore wide receiver Chisom Opara, who had six catches, for 15 yards on a third and 10. He would continue to find pressure, as the Tigers came up against a fourth and 10 with 1:51 remaining. Crenshaw emerged from this circumstance unscathed again, firing a strike to sophomore receiver Nate Lindell for a gain of 13 yards.
The junior capped the drive by sweeping right from shotgun formation, turning the corner and diving for the tying eight-yard touchdown run.
"I guess it did [take a while to get in a rhythm]," Crenshaw said. "I don't think it should have, really. I think everybody was pretty confident in what we were doing. Maybe we were just a little overconfident in the beginning of the game. I personally thought, 'We're going to wipe this team out.' Then I guess we got a little complacent.
"We kept waiting and waiting and waiting to take the game over, and while we were waiting, they just took the game right from us."
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