Despite Circle's injury, a big day for passing game

For the first half of the football team's 14-10 win over Lehigh on Saturday, the Tiger offense was all about the Circle of Trust. Shortly before halftime, the Circle was broken, but Princeton shockingly emerged all the better for it.

As the Tigers (1-0) muddled through an opening 30 minutes of scoreless, discouraging football, junior wide receiver Brendan Circle was the lone offensive star, hauling in 55 of Princeton's 115 yards of first-half offense. Coming off an eyeopening 2005 campaign in which he finished second on the team in receiving yards as its most trustworthy possession receiver, Circle quickly rediscovered his chemistry with senior quarterback Jeff Terrell.

But the trusty Circle sustained a hip pointer late in the second half, sidelining him for the rest of the game. Terrell and the Tigers could have crumbled without their offensive crutch, but they instead opened up for a two-touchdown third quarter in which a bevy of other receivers got involved and the ground game finally got going.

Down 10-0 entering the period, Princeton reached the end zone on back-to-back drives to open the third. The Tigers found a cure for their early offensive stagnancy, and it didn't seem to be a coincidence that their rebirth came during Circle's absence.

Early on, Terrell and other teammates seemed to be putting too much faith in Circle, who has an uncanny knack for getting open and is immune to dropping passes.

But while Circle caught the Ivy League by surprise last season, he is now Princeton's most feared wideout. He often found himself double-covered by the Mountain Hawks (1-2), and Princeton did not know what to do when Circle could not get free.

"We looked like it was our first game in a lot of respects, especially in the first half," head coach Roger Hughes said.

Terrell failed to hit a receiver other than Circle until the Tigers' fourth drive of the game. Princeton running backs amassed just 21 yards on 17 first-half rushes, seemingly expecting Circle to bail them out with another big third-down catch. On a day when the Tigers' brand new offensive line surprised everyone by holding up tolerably well, it was their skill position players who were not making plays when given time to in the first half.

Still, Terrell did not believe it was a case of his relying on Circle too much at the beginning of the game.

"I think the defense was giving us Brendan's routes and we were just taking advantage of them," Terrell said.

But it wasn't until the first drive without Circle that the Tigers began to take advantage of their full complement of offensive weapons. On a second-half-opening drive that lasted under two minutes, Terrell completed three straight passes to three different receivers to move his team into striking distance.

First, he hit starting tight end Billy Mitchell for a 23-yard gain, giving the sophomore his first-career reception. Following a 15-yard gain by senior receiver Brian Shields, it was sophomore wide receiver Adam Berry's turn to notch his first catch as a Tiger, moving it to the seven-yard line.

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Without Circle, Princeton was forced to explore its other options, and in doing so opened things up significantly. On the drive's fourth play, junior fullback Rob Toresco rushed up the gut for a touchdown, cutting Lehigh's lead to three, at 10-7.

The second Princeton drive of the half was more of the same, as the Mountain Hawks had no answer for the Tigers' multidimensionality. Sophomore running back R.C. Lagomarsino, who rushed for negative yardage on four first-half carries, moved into the black with a 27-yard rush deep into Lehigh territory.

No Tiger did more to fill the void left by Circle, though, than Berry, who followed up his introductory catch on the previous drive by hauling in the go-ahead touchdown. Channeling his sidelined teammate, Berry ran a perfect route out of the left slot, stopping on a dime in the near corner of the end zone as Mountain Hawks' cornerback Julian Ahye overran him. There, he waited for a pretty Terrell lob pass to drop into his hands for a 14-10 Tiger lead.

After managing just 39 combined yards with Circle in the game for the first half, Princeton's other receivers broke out for 111 yards after halftime. Lagomarsino and the rest of the rushing attack quadrupled their own first-half output with a solid second-half performance.

"It was a scramble," Hughes said of the atmosphere on the sidelines after Circle was forced out of the game. "I'm really proud of our coaching staff from the standpoint that, regardless of the scramble, we had the right personnel on the field."

And perhaps — on a day when so many Tigers needed the chance to learn they can contribute — the right personnel off it.