Raiders rain on Tigers' parade

Defense wins championships. Offense puts fans in the seats. But what does special teams do?

The least-appreciated of football's three dimensions proved its importance Saturday afternoon at Princeton Stadium, as a pair of special teams miscues in the game's first three minutes doomed the football team to a 16-10 defeat at the hands of Colgate.

The Tigers (3-1 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) let Geoff Bean return the opening kickoff 60 yards for the Raiders (3-2), then fell victim to a 1-yard Jordan Scott touchdown run three plays later.

Colgate missed the extra point, but senior kick-returner Jay McCareins gave the ball right back when he was stripped on the ensuing kickoff. The Raiders recovered the fumble at Princeton's 25-yard line, and the Tiger defense was forced to play with a short field for the second time in as many minutes.

Colgate quarterback Mike Saraceno quickly found wideout Kenny Parker on a slant, and Parker slipped backwards into the end zone for a touchdown. That score put the Raiders up 13-0 before the few fans who braved a rainstorm to watch the game could even open their umbrellas.

"I don't know how you can start a game worse than the way we started it," head coach Roger Hughes said.

Even so, over 57 minutes remained for Princeton to strike back.

But the field, already dotted with pools of standing water thanks to the steady downpour, was not getting any drier. And the Tigers — though they showed a fair amount of fortitude in outscoring Colgate, 10-3, the rest of the way — succumbed, in the end, to the sloppiness of their environment. "When you get down early and you're playing catchup and [trying] to throw the ball effectively," Hughes said, "the weather's really not conducive to that."

Princeton punted or turned the ball over on 11 of its 13 possessions. Primary among the offensive unit's woes was its failure to convert on third down, making good on just three of 13 such opportunities.

Thanks to the efforts of the defense, though, the Tigers opened three drives in the final eight minutes with the chance to take the lead. It was the fact that Princeton managed only 12 yards of total offense over that span that sealed the team's fate.

"We tried to claw our way back," Hughes said, "and it seemed like every time we did something good we shot ourselves in the foot."

Helping the Tigers was a quartet of senior linebackers. Justin Stull, Abi Fadeyi, Nate Starrett and Rob Holuba each compiled double-digit tackle totals. Co-captain Stull led the way with 13 takedowns, raising his team-high total to 35, and notched his third sack of the season.

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McCareins, meanwhile, hauled in his league-high fifth interception from the cornerback position, timing his jump perfectly to grab a Saraceno pass the moment it glanced off the fingertips of the intended receiver.

He then returned the pick 25 yards to the Colgate 15-yard line, setting up a 27-yard field goal by senior kicker Derek Javarone that made the score 13-3 eight minutes into the second quarter. The make tied Javarone with Taylor Northrop '02 for the Princeton career field-goal record, at 38.

The Tigers' second score was similarly precipitated by the defense. With 10:46 to play in the game, a fumble forced by Stull was ruled — after much referee deliberation — as having been recovered by Starrett 34 yards from the Raiders' goal line.

On the next play, senior wide receiver Greg Fields caught a first-down pass thrown up the middle by junior quarterback Jeff Terrell. Having broken a tackle with a nifty juke, Fields cruised into the end zone, and Javarone's extra point made the score 13-10. Fields was the only Tiger able to move the ball effectively through the mud, amassing 181 all-purpose yards on four catches, four rushes and five returns.

Colgate went up six points with a field goal on the following drive, but for the final 7:46, the Princeton defense ensured that its offense would have ample opportunities to take the lead.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, it was then that Terrell and his butterfingered receiving corps commenced with the foot-shooting that Hughes referred to after the game. Of Terrell's 13 final pass attempts, 12 were incomplete. On the day, Terrell completed just 11 of 28 passes for 161 yards, threw an interception, and lost a fumble.

But much of the blame must be shared by the would-be recipients of Terrell's passes, who, in dropping on-target throws, often appeared to be dealing with a wet pigskin for the first time.

"It looked to me," Hughes said, "like we had the balls delivered where they were supposed to be and we had the right patterns called, but we didn't execute and make the catch."

In short, the offense's performance was not the type of thing fans flock to see — even on the sunniest of days. And though the Tigers' defensive stars played like champions, a pair of miserable special teams plays early on reminded Princeton of the steps it still needs to take to become a complete team.