Football faces Dartmouth in season finale tomorrow

Although the Tigers have been eliminated from Ivy title contention, the game 1 p.m. Saturday against Dartmouth at Princeton Stadium has profound meaning for the football team.

After last week's loss to Yale, 7-3, Princeton finds itself in a precarious position as far as its record goes. The Tigers are now 3-3 in the Ivy League, and a win on Saturday could finally put them over .500 at the end of the season in the Ancient Eight. The last time the Tigers finished above .500 was in 1998.

Princeton is currently 5-4 overall. A win this Saturday will put the team at 6-4, a much needed improvement over last season's paltry 3-6 record, and the best the team will have finished under head coach Roger Hughes, who is in his third year at the helm). And a 6-4 finish — even though two of those losses came to Princeton's biggest rivals, Harvard and Yale — shows that Hughes' recruiting classes and coaching style have had a major effect on the Princeton football program.

More importantly, however, this game marks the end of several illustrious careers of players in the Orange and Black. And it is only appropriate that they be finishing their time as Tigers on home turf.

Senior wide receiver Chisom Opara has been a key component of the Princeton offense nearly every year he has been with the team. He is only the third Princeton player in history to reach 1,000 yards career receiving. His abilities as a play-maker have helped the Tigers out of some tough situations.

Along with him on the offensive side of the ball is senior running back Cameron Atkinson whose imnprovements as Princeton's main tailback have made the rushing attack solid.

"Cam used to be a track star who played football. Now he is a football player who also happens to run track," Hughes said of Atkinson at the beginning of the season. His analysis of Atkinson's change is correct: this season especially, Atkinson displayed an ability to make the right cut, finding the hole or seam in the defense and always falling forward for the extra yardage. On top of that, Atkinson posted several 100-yard games and joining a select few in the 1,000-yard career rushing club in Princeton history.

"All the seniors are getting together at breaks in practice, saying things like, 'This is the last Tuesday practice.' I'll probably never put on uniform ever again after Saturday," Atkinson said, "but I'm focused on winning on Saturday."

Along with these two offensive powerhouses, several players on defense will be playing in their last games of their college careers. The other captain, linebacker Drew Babinecz, faces the end of his career in which he has been one of the Tigers' leading tacklers. Strong safety Kevin Kongslie has provided experience and leadership to a defensive backfield that started off very young in the last two seasons, finally maturing this year.

Nonetheless, it is not only the Tigers' last game of the season, it is also Dartmouth's, and rest assured that there are seniors on the Big Green who would not mind winning their last game either.

Throughout the entire season, however, Dartmouth has been an Ivy League cellar-dweller. The Big Green are currently 3-6 overall, 2-4 in the Ancient Eight. But one of Dartmouth's wins came earlier in the season against Yale, who recently defeated Princeton.

Dartmouth and Yale are the only two teams in the Ivies to hold a winning all-time record against the Tigers. Against the Big Green, Princeton has only managed 36 wins, with 41 losses and three ties.