NEW HAVEN, Conn. — In two plays, the football team's season was saved.
Down 14-13 with one minute, 12 seconds to play, 80 yards to cover, and no timeouts, Princeton rode the stunning efforts of senior fullback Marty Cheatham and sophomore wide receiver Chisom Opara to beat Yale, 19-14.
Princeton completed its miraculous drive with a 32-yard scoring strike from senior quarterback Jon Blevins to Opara. Most expected Princeton to trot junior kicker Taylor Northrop out to try for his third field goal of the game, but instead Blevins heaved the ball deep.
Two Yale defenders surrounded Opara in the end zone, ready to make Princeton's gamble a disaster. Opara positioned himself perfectly for the slightly underthrown pass, however, outleaping the defensive backs to haul down a dramatic score.
"We ran an out and up on their left cornerback," Opara said. "It was a great call. In that situation, we easily could have kicked a field goal. I don't think they expected it. Certainly I didn't expect it either.
"Jon gave me a ball I could make a play on, and I just did what I could."
Workhorse
Without Cheatham's efforts, however, Princeton would never have been within striking distance. After Yale sacked Blevins on the Tigers' drive-opening play, the senior dumped a pass to Cheatham in the flat on second down. With two Yale linebackers standing in his path, Cheatham's only option was to get out of bounds to stop the clock.
"I was screaming, 'Get out, get out, get out!' " Princeton head coach Roger Hughes said. "I knew he was trying to get out of bounds, and I was actually thinking about the next call."
Hughes was not alone in assuming the play was over, as the crowd quieted and players on both sides slowed to a walk. Cheatham, however, had other ideas.
"As the guys came over to make the tackle, my head was kind of down and I saw my feet were still in bounds," the fullback said. "There was no one around me, so I just started running straight ahead, and I was wide open."
The play would not actually end until Cheatham stumbled to the ground 44 yards later. Had he stepped out, the Tigers would have been stuck on their own 18 with less than a minute to play. On Yale's 38, however, a minute was more time than Princeton would need to smash the Eli's lingering hopes for a second-consecutive Ivy crown.
"I was right there," Yale captain Peter Mazza said, plainly showing the torture the memory dealt him. "I let up. I stopped running. I won't know why I stopped running until the day I die. I was right there."
Cheatham's terrific performance began well before the final minute of the game. Effective as a receiver out of the backfield throughout the season, the senior snagged eleven passes for 164 yards on the game.
Though a number of his catches were short shuffle passes, Cheatham did the most damage slipping downfield in passing situations. Five of his catches came on third down and kept Princeton's drives alive, including the Tigers' first touchdown.
That touchdown play was typical of Cheatham's work. Faking a simple flat route, Cheatham turned downfield, where Blevins found him over the middle. Despite heavy pressure from the Yale defense, Cheatham held onto the pass and then smoked the assembled defenders on his way to a 44-yard score.
Blevins entered the game at the beginning of the second half, hoping to rouse the Tigers from a slow-moving first half that resulted in a 14-3 deficit. He did just that, completing 12 of 19 passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
Princeton's defense also rallied in the second half, allowing Yale only 94 yards of offense. Yale's star running back Rashad Bartholomew, who hammered out 84 yards on 20 carries in the first half, had only 29 yards in the second.
Nevertheless, Princeton seemed doomed to be 2-4 in the Ivy League with only one game to play. Instead, the win leaves them at 3-3 and only needing a win against lowly Dartmouth next Saturday to finish over .500.
"I think we've experienced so many last minute losses that we're well aware that anything can happen," Cheatham said.
After a season of agonizing losses for Princeton, anything — actually two things — finally did happen.
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