Season scuttled, 2-6 football hopes to resurface against Yale

The football team has found a number of ways to motivate itself this year. With every painfully close loss, the team has redirected its goals, evolving from dreams of an undefeated year through hopes of winning the Ivy League.

Now, out of contention in the Ivy League at 2-3 with two games to play, Princeton (2-6 overall) has seen most of its goals washed away, making the remainder of the season a salvage operation.

"We have two games left in this season," senior defensive lineman Nick Freitag said. "[We're looking for] something we can end this season on a positive note with."

Three weeks ago, when the Tigers were tied for first place at 2-1, it seemed unlikely that they would be in this position. Though Princeton had just lost a close game to Harvard, it was still a favorite in an intense Ivy League race. Most players imagined that the champion would not be decided until the final two weeks of the year.

The biggest of those late season matchups was to be against Yale, which was also tied for first place three weeks ago. But tomorrow's game is no longer the marquee clash it once promised to be. Princeton has fallen two games out of first place, while Yale is barely clinging to its title hopes.

The Elis stand at 3-2, only one game out of first place, but trail Penn, Harvard and Cornell, who are tied for first place at 4-1. Nevertheless, neither team is lacking in motivation for this weekend's game. The tradition of heated contests among Harvard, Yale and Princeton provides all the spark necessary in the 122nd meeting of the Tigers and Elis.

"The goal of the program is obviously to win the league, and we don't control that situation anymore," Yale head coach Jack Siedlecki said. "But I don't think it really matters when you get to these two teams. We're expecting a great football game."

Although the Elis trail three teams in the Ivy League race, Princeton head coach Roger Hughes considers them the strongest team in the league. Their results over the course of this season seem to bear this out. Yale's balanced offense and tough defense have helped produce an overall record of 6-2.

For most of the season, the Elis have relied on star running back Rashad Bartholomew for a large percentage of their offense. On pace to eclipse the school rushing record with an average of more than 200 yards per game in his first five games, Bartholomew has since been slowed because of a toe injury.

Bartholomew will be near full strength in this weekend's game, but a greater portion of the team's offense will still rest in the arm of junior quarterback Peter Lee. Lee's task is made considerably easier by wide receiver Eric Johnson, who presents a number of concerns for the Princeton coaching staff.

"The Lee kid has been very impressive to us from the standpoint of decision-making," Princeton assistant coach Don Dobes said. "We need to pressure him, and we need to tackle [Bartholomew] and hopefully we can defend Eric Johnson. He is just a big receiver that bounces your little defensive backs around, finds space, and Peter sticks in the pocket and finds him."

Regardless of the strength of its opponents' weapons, Princeton has largely managed to keep them in check in nearly every game this year. Of the team's six losses, only the 34-6 defeat at the hands of Colgate on Oct. 7 was a blowout. The remaining games have been in doubt until the very end. The most important task for this weekend, therefore, might not be tackling Bartholomew or defending Johnson, but finding a way to win where it had previously found ways to lose.

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"It takes kids making plays in those crucial situations," Hughes said. "I think as the weeks have gone on, we're making more and more of those plays — we're just not making enough of them. Over these next two weeks, we have to try to get as many good plays and big plays as we can, and those will all translate into wins on the scoreboard."