It was not just conventional wisdom telling Lafayette coach Frank Tavani to kick.
"Everybody was telling me to kick right away," Tavani said.
Nine seconds left, game tied, second and goal on the one yard line. In this situation, there's almost no decision to be made. Teams play it safe, trot out the kicker and take the easy win.
"I'm never playing conservative football," Tavani said.
Fine, then hand the ball off to tailback Bill Stocker.
Yes, he had been bottled up for three quarters. In the final period, however, Lafayette's tailback had taken advantage of a tired defense for 67 yards on seven carries. It is a risk, but if you have to go for it, give him the ball and hope he holds on.
Just don't throw the ball. Nobody throws the ball in this situation.
"I was giving [senior wide receiver] Phil [Yarberough] a chance to go up and get it," Tavani said. "He's got a 40-inch vertical leap and I knew that clown at corner couldn't touch him."
Tavani went against football logic. Seemingly, he went against all reason and rationale. He called the fade route to the corner of the end zone. With the game on the line, he told quarterback Marko Glavic to throw to a man who was not open.
Glavic hung the ball up in the end zone, and suddenly the game became one-on-one — Yarberough against Princeton cornerback Paul Simbi.
Meaning in the madness
As it turned out, Tavani was being more rational than he seemed. Yarberough is six-foot, three-inches tall. Simbi is 5-8. Those seven inches turned into seven points and the first Leopard victory over the Tigers since 1982.
"We knew they were young and we wanted to test them a little bit," Yarberough said.
Starting three sophomores — strong safety Kevin Kongslie and cornerbacks Simbi and Clark Webb — and one freshman, free safety Blake Perry, Princeton's secondary is both young and inexperienced.
In the early stages of the contest, however, the group was up to the challenge. Lafayette starter Harry Armstrong was 9-for-22 with two interceptions, and the Lafayette offense was going nowhere.
Then the Canadian came. Glavic — the 6-6 freshman from Ontario, Canada — started taking advantage of Princeton's young corners with short out and slant routes to his taller receiving corps.
Then came the breakthrough Lafayette was looking for. Simbi was stride-for-stride downfield with Leopard receiver Andrew May. May used his 6-3 frame to his advantage, however, and Lafayette soon had a 66-yard touchdown.
"Paul [Simbi] gave up a long one, but he made some major breakups too," head coach Roger Hughes said. "The thing we're going to have to preach to him is that you can't focus on the one bad play when you made 73 good ones."
At times on Saturday, the secondary did show its age. A few pass interference penalties prolonged drives, and with 18 seconds left in the game Glavic found Yarberough for a 54-yard gain to set up the final score.
Height advantage
The unit also showed flashes of brilliance, however, holding its own for the majority of the game against a taller, faster receiving corps. But as it turned out, this was a game of inches. The seven inches in height separating both Leopard receivers from both Princeton cornerbacks made the difference in the game.
"When you're going up against a kid like Yarberough who's six-foot-three and they're 5-8, there's not a lot you can do about that," Hughes said. "I don't have any growth hormone in my bag.
"But because they're young, the sky's the limit."
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