Fumbles, Cornell offense overcome sprint football

With a few minutes remaining in the third quarter and Cornell leading 18-6, freshman sprint football quarterback L.T. Lawler heaved the ball deep for freshman wide receiver Dennis Bakke along the sideline. The ball was underthrown, but Bakke leaped over the Cornell defender in front of him, snatched the ball from his grasp, juggled it two or three times, and came down with it in bounds within easy striking distance of the Big Red goal line.

It was the last in a string of big pass plays on a long Tiger drive that was rapidly turning the tide of the game. After giving up three scores in the second quarter, the Tigers defense was locking up the Big Red offense, and a Princeton score on this drive would have brought the game back within reach. After Bakke's grab, Princeton was knocking on the door.

But it was not to be. The play was called back for a penalty. The Tiger offense stalled, and on the ensuing drive, another Big Red touchdown put the game out of reach.

Such was life for the Tigers (0-4 overall, 0-2 CSFL) on Friday at Frelinghuysen Field, as Cornell (2-2, 1-1) came away from New Jersey with a 24-6 win.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Big Red scored 18 second-quarter points before Princeton could get on the scoreboard just before the half. Cornell followed this with another six in the third quarter to bring the score to 24-6. The Big Red failed on all four point-after attempts.

Whenever the Tigers needed a big play or a big stop, they came ever so close before letting the chance slip through their fingers.

Take, for instance, the Big Red's third touchdown. They had driven deep into Princeton's zone, but the Tiger defense seemed to clamp down on Cornell just in time. After three failed plays, the Big Red were stuck with a fourth-and-long from the 20, and their kicker hadn't made a kick all game.

So they went for it, and just when the Princeton defense seemed on the verge of a huge stop, Cornell quarterback Sunil Gupta hit Michael Ormsby for a strike down the middle, and the game was almost out of reach. Charlie Tamm capped the drive with a 16-yard rush to finish the second-quarter scoring spurt.

Princeton had five turnovers in the game, and the Big Red limited the Tigers to just 84 net rushing yards, 81 of them by junior tailback Christian Gomez. Lawler ended the day 9-for-26 for 97 yards.

Cornell controlled the clock and the game from the outset, rushing for 169 yards. Gupta passed for only 69 yards, but threw two touchdown passes — an eight-yarder to Ormsby and a 36-yarder to Chris Hood that capped a 12-play drive.

The Tigers head to Annapolis, Md. to take on Navy this Friday.