Northrop wide left, football loses another heartbreaker at Harvard

With only seven seconds left in the fourth quarter, Princeton was down by two. The Tigers put their faith in senior place kicker Taylor Northrop, who is in competition to break the Ivy League record for most field goals in a career. Harvard tried to ice the sure foot by calling its last remaining timeouts.

From the Harvard 39-yard line, on the right hash mark, Northrop set up his kick. The wind was whipping through Harvard Sta-dium, and seagulls rode the currents over the stadium. The snap was perfect, and the hold was right where it was supposed to be. Northrop took his aim, followed the steps he had practiced a hundred times, kept his head down, made solid contact with the ball, and followed through.

"I stayed through it, and I hit it nice — I definitely hit it solid," he said. "I kept my head down, and I thought it was through."

The ball sailed wide left.

In a game that was remniscent of many competitions for Princeton in the Hughes years, the Tigers (1-4 overall, 1-2 Ivy League) lost a heartbreaker to the Crimson (5-0, 3-0), 28-26.

"We feel Taylor had a strong enough leg," head coach Roger Hughes said. "It wasn't an issue, once we got it past the 40, we knew he had the leg strength — it was just a matter of making it a little easier for him."

While the game ended tragically for Princeton, the Tigers did mount an impressive comeback after the strong Harvard squad took a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter. With their 11 point lead in hand, the Crimson were driving when senior linebacker Chris Roser-Jones picked off Harvard quarterback Neil Rose's pass. It was Roser-Jones's third interception of the season, and the first thrown by Harvard quarterback Neil Rose in 111 attempts.

Princeton converted the turnover into points when sophomore quarterback Dave Splithoff connected with junior tight end Mike Chiusano from nine yards out for Princeton's first touchdown of the day.

On its next drive, Princeton took the ball 56 yards in only two plays for another touchdown. First, Splithoff handed off to junior running back Cameron Atkinson, who then flipped it back to the quarterback. Splithoff found junior wide receiver Chisom Opara wide open down the field for a 49-yard completion. Then, Atkinson finished off the drive with seven minutes, 23 seconds left in the second quarter. After another Northrop field goal with 2:02 left in the half, the Tigers led 20-14.

"I am very proud of how our team played," Hughes said. "I thought the coaches did a great job in preparing us. The kids were ready, and I thought we played with a lot more emotion."

The third quarter turned out to be a battle of defenses. Rose was sacked twice, once by George Pilcher and once by senior defensive end Phil Jackman. He remained strong, and after Harvard marched to Princeton's three-yard line, Rose went over the top on a quarterback sneak, took two hits, and tumbled into the endzone, giving the Crimson the lead again. Rose was finished for the game, though, with a right shoulder injury.

Harvard was not finished. Mimicking the Tigers' trickery, the Crimson used their own flea-flicker play, and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick found wide receiver Dan Farley open for a 39-yard completion. Fitzpatrick then hit wide receiver Carl Morris for a 13-yard touchdown to finish the drive.

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Princeton put together another successful drive, capped off by an Atkinson 27-yard touchdown. The Tigers went for the two-point conversion but were unsuccessful. That made the score 28-26 in favor of Harvard and set up Northrup's chance at the game winner.

While it was a disappointing loss for the Tigers, they performed far better than they had over the last two weeks. They averaged just over three yards on the ground and just over 12 yards in the air. The team did commit 10 penalties for a total of 95 yards, however, thwarting several promising drives. On defense, Princeton continued to cause turnovers, forcing one fumble on the goal line and nabbing three interceptions, which they returned for 59 total yards.

These turnovers came from the team's playing more physically. The defense pounded on Rose, causing him to throw bad passes under pressure.

"I thought we played well in all facets of the game," Hughes said. "Offensively we had too many penalties and some execution problems, but other than that, the effort, the physicalness, the toughness, and we got better today."

Though the team improved, its Ivy League championship hopes have dwindled to less than a glimmer. Having now dropped two consecutive League games, the Tigers are in a huge pack on the bottom looking up. Both Harvard and Penn remain undefeated, and Brown is just one step behind, at 2-1. Unless the Tigers and the three teams they are tied with can come up with some big upsets in the coming weeks, the Ivy title will be the property of one of those top three teams.