Football, w. soccer keep perfect Ivy marks with wins over Brown

For the second week in a row, sophomore cornerback Jay McCareins saved the day for the football team. The Tigers squeezed by Brown with a 16-14 win Saturday at Princeton Stadium.

McCareins intercepted Bear quarteback Nate Poole on the final drive, effectively ending the game with Princeton (4-1 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) on top.

With one minute, 18 seconds left in the ballgame, the Bears faced second and 10 at their 47 yard-line. A string of short receptions would have put the Bears (0-5, 0-2) in field goal range — three points would be enough to win the game. Instead, he looked deep down the sideline at streaking All-America wide receiver Chas Gessner.

"It was two-deep coverage, and the safety covered the guy on the outside and [Gessner] went inside," McCareins said. "[Poole] threw the ball up into the air, and I was fortunate to come down with it."

McCareins and Gessner were alone on the sidelines, so when the ball went up, it was a battle between just the two of them. If Gessner caught it, Brown would have been well within field goal range and the win.

"I wasn't challenging anybody. McCareins is a good corner," Brown head coach Phil Estes said. "I don't blame our quarterback for going for Chas, it was just underthrown."

That catch was McCareins' second interception of the game and his fourth of the year, tops in the Ivy League. It was also his second game-sealing pick in two weeks.

There was another echo of last week's win over Colgate during the game. Senior running back Cameron Atkinson went 82 yards for a touchdown on the Tigers' fourth play from scrimmage against Brown.

Last week, it was senior wide receiver Andy Bryant's 62 yard reception touchdown on the first play of the game that started Princeton's scoring.

Atkinson's 82-yard run in the beginning of the game was an end-around, allowing him to hit the corner and hope some blocking could free up room for an eight yard gain. As the play unfolded, he beat the Bear linebacker outside, just to be confronted by the Brown defensive back and considerable support.

Instead, the back missed the tackle, and the other Brown players in the area, expecting the tackle to be made, appeared to be in 'play's over' mode as Atkinson sprinted down the sideline for his fifth touchdown of the season.

"I was pretty sure I was going to get tackled," Atkinson said. "I didn't think I could have gotten through."

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Atkinson finished the game with 174 yards, his fourth straight with over 100.

Also finishing with over 100 yards was senior wide receiver Chisom Opara, who had 11 receptions for 152 yards and the team's second touchdown.

Atkinson and Opara led Princeton to a 16-0 halftime lead, but the defense was the big story before and after the break.

The Bears did not score until the Tigers were unsuccessful on a fake punt attempt in the third quarter. On the ensuing play, Poole hit receiver Brandon Buchanan for a 30-yard touchdown, cutting the deficit to 16-7 with two minutes, 14 seconds left in the third quarter. The Bears scored again early in the final period, but the Tiger defense remained steadfast for the rest of the game.

Brown's passing game is probably the most respected in I-AA, but the Tigers were able to hold it to exactly zero points and under 100 yards in the first half. Indeed, All-America Gessner was becoming very frustrated in front of at least one pair of NFL scouts when he went to the locker room having just two receptions for 21 yards.

Leading the Tigers in tackles for the second week in a row was junior linebacker Zak Keasey with 10, followed by McCareins and senior linebacker Drew Babinecz, both with nine.

Junior defensive back Brandon Mueller also recorded another interception. On a separate play that was ruled an incomplete pass, with the advantage of the instant replay in the press box one could see that senior defensive back Paul Simbi indeed made an interception.

"Superlatives can't express my emotions on how I feel about how our defense played," head coach Roger Hughes said. "Wonderful, fabulous."

On the other side of the ball, the Tigers built upon last week's successes with the big play.

Opara did not have any single huge reception as has been typical of the Tiger air attack in the past few games, but he came up with four third-down receptions for first downs that kept the chains moving and the Tigers marching towards their fourth win.

With the victory, Princeton sets up a mini-Ivy League championship game with Harvard at Princeton Stadium Saturday. The winner of the meeting will be favored along with Penn to win the conference heading into the last half of the Ivy slate.