Princeton turns over victory to Mountain Hawks

"It was almost comical," head coach Roger Hughes said.

There was no better or more honest description of the brutal first half that left the football team (0-1 overall) trailing 23-0 at intermission against Lehigh (1-1) on Saturday. Turnovers doomed the Tiger efforts, with a quintet of costly miscues sustaining the scoreless drought — plays that ran the gamut from the unfortunate to the absurd.

The Mountain Hawks, while hardly playing a flawless game, nonetheless managed to capitalize on the majority of Princeton's mistakes en route to defeating the Tigers, 32-21.

On the first play of the game, junior tailback R.C. Lagomarsino found a wide-open running lane and slashed forward for 15 yards. When the Mountain Hawks finally caught up with him, however, defensive back Brannan Thomas stripped the ball and lineman Paul Bode recovered the fumble to give Lehigh the ball on Princeton's 48-yard line.

Coincidentally, this spot would end up being the Mountain Hawks' average starting fielding position in the match-up — a testament to the short field Princeton ceded to Lehigh throughout the game.

The Tiger defense fought for every inch, but a one-yard touchdown run eventually put the Mountain Hawks up seven. On Princeton's very next drive, senior quarterback Bill Foran was intercepted by Thomas. This turnover again gave the Mountain Hawks a short field with which to work, and they quickly converted it into another touchdown.

Foran's shaky performance can be partly attributed to first-start jitters, though the more salient factor may have been Lehigh's aggressive defense. With a strong, experienced secondary, the Mountain Hawks were able to play man-to-man coverage while blitzing from all angles.

Foran ended the half having completed as many passes to his teammates — two — as to the ballhawks in the Lehigh secondary.

The most bizarre and game-changing takeaways, however, occurred on special teams. On Lehigh's first punt of the game, early in the second quarter, sophomore wideout Jeb Heavenrich attempted to field the ball on a bounce before failing to secure it successfully. The Mountain Hawks recovered the botched punt return.

Three drives later, following yet another Lehigh scoring drive, Princeton's return unit allowed a standard kickoff to fall between them. The Mountain Hawks again recovered the ball, resulting in a true football anomaly — a 46-yard onside kick.

For his part, Hughes expressed consternation and confusion about the performance of his special teams.

"It's disappointing," Hughes said, "especially as much as we work on special teams, to see those things happen. And as much as we work on turnovers, to see those things happen."

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The five first-half turnovers resulted in a massive disparity in time of possession — a disadvantage that proved particularly taxing on the defense, which was forced to stay on the field for 22 minutes in the first half alone.

Senior linebacker Tim Boardman refused to blame the offense's struggles for that dramatic statistic, citing dropped interceptions and missed tackles as problems on the defensive side of the ball.

"We don't count on the offense to win the turnover battle," Boardman said. "We as a defense lost the turnover battle."

Considering the circumstances, though, it would have been difficult for the defense to perform much better. With Lehigh's average starting field position in Princeton territory, the Tiger defense spent much of the night with its back against the proverbial wall. Of the Mountain Hawks' five scoring drives, only one was longer than 50 yards — a 51-yard effort in the first quarter.

Thankfully for the Tigers, there is still plenty of time to right the ship. Princeton adjusted quickly to Lehigh's defensive scheme and only turned the ball over once in the second half, during which the offense thrived by testing the Mountain Hawks downfield.

Princeton's second-half performance was solid overall and avoided the fluky mistakes that plagued the team in the early going. Despite the loss, Hughes struck an optimistic note after the game.

"It is not acceptable to lose," Hughes said, "[but] the sun will come up tomorrow. We've got nine games left."

Comedies, after all, are supposed to have happy endings.