Football overcomes turnovers, sacks to spoil Columbia's homecoming game

NEW YORK —"We found ways to lose games like this before, but today we found a way to win," head coach Roger Hughes said Saturday after football's 35-32 mistake-filled victory over Columbia (1-2 overall, 0-1 Ivy). Fortunately for the Tigers, the Lions had their share of mistakes to compensate for Princeton's sub-par play.

Princeton (2-1, 1-0) led the Lions 21-14 late in the third quarter. After a typically inept Columbia drive, a 54-yard Lion punt pinned Princeton on its own eight with four minutes, eight seconds left in the third. Princeton only gained one yard on the drive, and the Lions blocked sophomore punter Joe Nardello's kick for a safety.

As was the trend in the game, momentum switched sides after poor execution.

Second chance

The free kick from the twenty-yard line showed a lack of confidence in Nardello, as Hughes chose to kickoff rather than punt the ball. The Lions' next drive stalled quickly, but a downfield defensive holding call gave Columbia new life. The Lions took advantage, moving down the field and scoring a touchdown on a one-yard Derek Smith run. Columbia converted a two-point try to take a 24-21 lead.

The ensuing kickoff went out of bounds, and the Tigers cruised 65 yards down the field.

Sophomore running back Jon Veach scored on the fourth play — and the only second down — of the drive, as Princeton needed only 1:33 to take the lead for good at 28-24 with 12:31 left to play.

Columbia turned the ball over on downs only 13 yards from the Princeton end zone the next drive. The teams traded punts, and then Princeton scored its last points on a blown Columbia coverage. Splithoff rolled right, and everyone on the field followed him except for junior tight end Randy Bly, who caught the ball and jogged into the end zone, making the score 35-24 with 4:30 left. A slowed Columbia team and a tired quarterback Steve Hunsberger were still able to drive down the field on the Tigers for a final touchdown, but could not properly execute the onside kick, and Princeton senior wide receiver Brendan Dillon recovered with 37 seconds to play.

The Tigers had started the game by forcing a fumble on only the third play from scrimmage, only to go three-and-out and miss a field goal.

Still, the defense looked solid, because they caused a three-and-out from Columbia on the next drive. However, senior wide receiver Andy Bryant muffed the punt, and Columbia snagged it. The Lions drove down the field to open the scoring on a wide receiver screen for an eight-yard touchdown.

Princeton's next drive ended in a fumble on the Columbia nine-yard line, but the Tiger defense was able to force another three-and-out, and on the fifth play of the next drive, senior running back Cameron Atkinson maneuvered through the right side of the line for a touchdown to tie the game at seven.

Columbia promptly drove down the field almost solely on the will of Hunsberger, who took a couple of big shots from Tiger defenders both in scrambling and in delivering the ball to his receivers. The drive stalled, however, and the Lions missed a 42-yard field goal.

The teams traded punts on the next two drives, but Columbia came up with an interception of junior quarterback David Splithoff on the next drive. Splithoff's pass was tipped high in the backfield and grabbed by Lion middle linebacker Chris Carey. Columbia was still not able to move on the Princeton defense, but a fake punt fooled the Tigers. Lion punter Nick Rudd only lines up 12 yards from the line of scrimmage, as opposed to the typical 15, leaving the opportunity for a successful fake much greater, and Columbia exploited it for a momentum-shifting 29-yard gain. Hunsberger pushed the Lions the rest of the way in for a touchdown, making the score 14-7, Lions.

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With only 28 seconds left in the half, Princeton would normally run the clock out, but Hughes went for the quick score. On the last play of the half, Splithoff hurled the ball over fifty yards into the waiting arms of senior wide receiver Patrick Schottel. At the end of a sloppy first half, the score was nonetheless tied at 14.

The third quarter did not get any prettier. As the quarter opened, sophomore cornerback Jay McCareins muffed the kickoff, and Atkinson recovered. On the play, the running back took a shot to the groin and was limited for the rest of the game. The first drive of the quarter for the Tigers ended in a turnover on downs at the Columbia 42-yard line. Then the Lions fumbled the ball back to Princeton.

The Tigers were able to take their first lead of the game at 21-14 on the next drive, scoring on a one-yard dive from sophomore running back Jon Veach.

At that point, the Tigers looked to have the momentum, but the next score was Columbia's safety on the blocked punt.

'A' game

Despite Princeton's poor execution and uncharacteristic number of mistakes in the game, the Tigers proved they can pull out a game without playing their best.

"I'm not sure we had our 'A' game here today in all facets," Hughes said, "but we found a way to win with our 'B' and 'C' games here, and that's a sign of a mature team and a team that is hopefully going to become a winner."

"Jack Nicklaus used to say that he won very few tournaments with his 'A' game," Hughes said. "He won a lot of tournaments with his 'B' and 'C' games. I think that's what we did today.