Tigers fire blanks in season opener

Sprint football's wideouts were shut out by Cornell (2-0 overall) Friday night, as the Tigers lost, 29-0.

With Princeton's pass-oriented offense, one stat is the most telling: The team completed just 16 of 54 passes for 128 yards and three interceptions.

"The [passing] percentage was so low because the quarterback and receivers were not on the same page," head coach Thomas Cocuzza said. "They were on different pages of different books within different libraries on separate campuses of two colleges with no Internet to communicate. And ultimately that is my fault."

Cornell got off to a hot offensive start, as Michael Fullowan caught a 66-yard touchdown pass from Zak Dentes four minutes into the game. Jason Zittel made a 31-yard field goal and Dentes completed a 35-yard touchdown pass to Jason Remillard, putting the Big Red ahead 16-0 in the first quarter.

Princeton's junior quarterback Alex Kandabarow threw an interception to Rob Napolitano, who returned the ball 39 yards for a touchdown with 8:06 remaining in the second quarter, putting the Big Red up 23-0 at halftime.

But the Tigers' 'D' buckled down in the second half. Dentes' one-yard touchdown pass to John Rossman midway through the third quarter was Cornell's only score of the second half. The extra point was mishandled, giving the Big Red a 29-0 lead.

"I know we let them get on top of us early, but then we played one heck of a second half," senior captain Bennett Graham said.

Princeton missed several scoring opportunities. Kandabarow almost connected with sophomore Drew Dixon for what could have been a wide-open 55-yard touchdown pass, but the ball slipped through Dixon's hands.

With four or five wide receivers, the offense is more vulnerable to the pass rush.

"On offense, the offensive line will look to give Kandabarow more time and the receivers will refine their patterns," Graham said.

The Tigers' offense sports a "hot route" system, which sends one receiver on a quick inside slant in order to help the quarterback get rid of the ball when he's being blitzed — which is nearly every play.

"The hot routes saved our quarterback from being sacked 21 times rather than just twice," Cocuzza said.

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The Tigers' running game also struggled, with the team rushing 11 times for a net loss of seven yards.

On the defensive side, Princeton allowed Cornell to complete 15 of 22 passes for 180 yards, making its passing attack more than twice as efficient as Princeton's.

"The defense had an extremely impressive showing," Graham said. "If we wrap up on a few of those tackles and the game is all of a sudden a gridlock of defense. They could hardly run the ball and our defensive backs were doing a great job on coverage."

The Tigers take on Penn at Princeton Stadium next Friday at 7 p.m. With one week to prepare, Princeton will continue to practice the fundamentals of the new system.

"I expected the offense to start slowly, [since the new system] is complicated," Cocuzza said. "It requires a complete understanding along with many repetitions. We will be practicing the areas that need most improvement — catching and defensive recognition."

Princeton hopes to improve its passing game with more practice.

"We just need to be patient," Graham said. "The catches will come with more reps this week and more confidence up front on the line."

Just one game into the season, the team is willing to accept more recruits.

"We are hoping that school spirit, pride and a love for football will rally a few students to join the team in the next two weeks," Cocuzza said. "It is our hope that they will assist us in our effort to make this program as successful as the rest of the University."