Football seeks strong finish

"The neat thing about football," Princeton head coach Roger Hughes said Wednesday, "is that you get to wipe the ugly taste out of your mouth from last week and get to put a better taste in your mouth."

It's hard to imagine that only seven days could rid Princeton (6-3 overall, 4-2 Ivy League) of the bitter taste left by last weekend's punch-in-the-stomach defeat — tragic not only in the way the team lost but also in the magnitude of the defeat.

But with a matchup against Dartmouth (2-7, 1-5) looming Saturday, and with second place in the Ivy League still up for grabs, the Tigers have no choice but to move on. The team has, after all, managed all year to take the season one game at a time and has allowed the water to run under the bridge as necessary.

"Coming off of Saturday, we were not in a great mood," sophomore wide receiver Brendan Circle said. "But all season we've focused on this one game at a time and [on] the attention to detail, and that really hasn't changed for this week."

The Tigers have bounced back from adversity before, most noticeably when, earlier this year, they came off a two-game losing streak to beat Harvard for the first time in a decade.

But what is done is done, and the football team must now focus on the matchup against the Big Green in Hanover, N.H.

"I gave them about 48 hours to mourn. The grieving period is over. We made it pretty clear that that was the case Monday night at 5 o'clock," Hughes said. "I would say that with each day that passes, as our game plan starts to unfold for Dartmouth, our focus is becoming better and our execution is becoming crisper."

Despite sitting second to last in the Ivy League with a 1-5 record, Dartmouth will still demand all of Princeton's focus and attention. Hughes noted that no collegiate division has more parity than does the Ivy League, and any team truly can win or lose on any given Saturday. Before its eventual loss last weekend, the Big Green held a lead against Ivy League-leading Brown heading into the fourth quarter.

Both the offense and defense of Dartmouth are ranked seventh in the Ancient Eight, but the Big Green have a number of high-impact players the Tigers must watch out for on the defensive side of the ball.

"They feature a defensive end that is probably the best one in the league in [Anthony] Gargulio," Hughes said. "He leads the league in sacks. You have to know where he is all the time. You have to be sure you account for him."

Dartmouth also features a strong secondary, led by senior Steve Jensen. Despite its poor overall defensive standing, the Big Green's pass defense is tops in the Ivy League, allowing a mere 167.4 yards per game.

Their ranking on the offensive side of the ball can be deceiving as well. Dartmouth handed the offensive reins over to freshman quarterback Joshua Cohen midway through the season, and he has performed admirably. He is second in the league with 204.6 yards passing per game and has completed 60 percent of his passes. Cohen, however, gets little support from the running game, which averages a mere 45.1 yards per game.

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With an average of 352.6 yards per game, the Princeton offense has moved the ball nearly 100 yards more per game than have the Big Green. The Tigers' attack, however, will be hurt by the absence of injured senior wide receiver Greg Fields.

"I would say his chances of playing are maybe five percent," Hughes said. "It's a shame, because when he catches the ball, he averages 12.1 yards every time he catches it, and when he's standing by me that's not good."

Fields did not suit up last week against Yale, either.

One unit that will be at full strength is the Tigers' vaunted defense. Led by a bevy of seniors, from linebackers Abi Fadeyi and Justin Stull to cornerback Jay McCareins, Princeton is ranked first in the Ivy League in scoring defense, having given up only 18.1 points per game. Furthermore, McCareins leads Division 1-AA with eight interceptions this season.

The Tigers know the unfortunate truth that an Ivy League title is likely out of their reach. Barring an unexpected loss by Brown against Columbia — winless in the league and losers of seven straight games — Princeton will, at best, remain in a tie for second place in the league.

Nevertheless, a win would salvage what is left of an otherwise memorable season, one in which the Tigers were picked in a preseason poll to finish sixth in the league. Princeton has a chance to finish the season with seven wins, a feat that no Tiger team has achieved since the Ivy League championship season of 1995.