Sprint football hoping to repeat past, collect first win against Big Red

There are only five schools in the country that play sprint football. If you venture too far from the campuses of Army, Navy, Cornell, Penn or Princeton, no one has any idea the sport even exists.

With such a small set of teams, chances are pretty good you've never seen a sprint football game. Even if you have taken in a match and even if you've seen Princeton and Cornell play before, it is highly unlikely that you've seen a Tiger win.

Why is that? How long has it been since Princeton won a game on Frelinghuysen Field?

A long time. A very long time. Since October of 1999 in fact.

What comes to mind when you think of that year? Senior year in high school and the first semester at Princeton for the class of 2003? The last year of the millennium? A really cool song by Prince?

Okay so maybe not for that last reason, but 1999 was certainly a memorable year. Especially for the sprint football team. When it's been two years since your last win, you usually don't forget.

On October 1, 1999 Princeton beat Cornell,12-7. The coverage in the 'Prince' a few days later called the Tigers' defense 'dominant' and 'overwhelming.' The offense was just potent enough to pull out a win.

Quarterback Geoff Gasperini '01 ran for two touchdowns and tallied 97 total yards in the air, earning him 'Athlete of the Week' honors in the 'Prince.'

"It's a good win," then-head coach Bob DiPipi said afterward. "That's the way we've been winning them — either our offense comes through or our defense shuts them down."

Fast forward to September of this year in Ithaca, N.Y. For a school renowned for its educational opportunities in hotel management, Cornell was less than hospitable. Despite leading the game in both total yards and first downs, the Tigers were sent home with a 26-7 loss in the season opener.

Princeton gets a second chance this weekend when Cornell comes to town.

Mistakes on special teams haunted Princeton throughout. A partially blocked punt led to the Big Red's first touchdown, putting the Tigers in a hole from the outset.

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"We need to avoid special team breakdowns on punts and kickoff coverage to control the flow of the game," junior tailback and linebacker Christian Gomez said. "If we control the clock, avoid turnovers and score consistently in the red zone, we should emerge victorious."

There are some legitimate reasons to believe that the Tigers might pull out a win. The offense has been effective against Cornell in the past, gaining 316 yards and 16 first downs in the last matchup.

As Gomez implied, however, even with advantages in total offensive production and time of possession, scoring has been a serious concern for the Tigers. The team has been outscored badly early in the season — 131-25 in the first three games.

Princeton has fallen victim to some big plays though, giving up field position too easily on defense.

"We have focused on stopping the option and the toss sweep, which was to a certain extent successful in the first game," Gomez said.

This next episode in the ongoing saga of the winless sprint football team will be decided largely by Princeton's offense.

If the Tigers can capitalize on their offensive output, they'll pick up their first win in two years. If not, the team may face the prospect of another season with a zero in the win column.