Four turnovers equals fourth Ivy loss

The 13,408 fans who attended the football team's homecoming game against Yale on Saturday were greeted with surprises from beginning to end. Surprisingly, Princeton dominated the undefeated Bulldogs in the first half. Confusingly, the Tigers were still unable to score a touchdown. Mystifyingly, No. 12 Yale (9-0 overall, 6-0 Ivy League) regained control of the game two plays into the second half en route to a 27-6 win over stumbling Princeton (3-6, 2-4).

With the Bulldogs driving from their own 20-yard line and the score tied at three less than a minute after halftime, Yale quarterback Matt Polhemus found wide receiver Chris Denny-Brown wide open on a crossing pattern. Eighty yards and a missed tackle later, Denny-Brown surged into the endzone, putting the Bulldogs up 10-3 with a lead they would not relinquish.

"In the second half we had a mistake in our coverage that gave up a touchdown early, and Yale capitalized on the momentum," head coach Roger Hughes said.

After a 17-yard return on the ensuing kickoff, the Tiger offense took the field looking to retaliate. Princeton moved the ball 42 yards over nine plays, and facing fourth down at the Yale 29-yard line, Hughes decided to go for the first down over attempting a 46-yard field goal.

Senior quarterback Bill Foran took the snap and ran with it, but he was unable to pick up the two yards necessary to move the chains, putting the ball back into the Bulldogs' hands.

The teams traded punts on the two ensuing drives, with junior punter Ryan Coyle pinning Yale on its own one-yard line with a 46-yarder.

The Tigers were unable to take advantage of their field position, however, as one 27-yard pass by Polhemus had the Bulldogs out of danger. From there, standout Yale tailback Mike McLeod took over, pushing the Bulldogs back into scoring range as the third-quarter clock ticked away. Nine seconds into the fourth quarter, Yale kicker Alan Kimball connected on a 40-yard attempt to put the Bulldogs up 13-3.

McLeod carried the ball 36 times on the afternoon for 114 yards and a touchdown, increasing his Ivy League-leading rushing total to 1,462 yards. That total is nearly twice that of Penn's Joe Sandberg, who sits second in the league with 793 yards. Princeton senior fullback Rob Toresco put on a rushing clinic of his own on the ensuing Tiger drive, picking up 38 of his 55 yards on the day. The Princeton drive stalled, however, as the Tigers neared the endzone, and on fourth-and-seven, junior kicker Connor Louden drilled a 31-yard field goal to pull Princeton to within a touchdown, 13-6.

"We got it to a one-possession game again, which is what we wanted it to be in the fourth quarter," Hughes said.

The excitement was short lived, however, as McLeod quickly reasserted control of the game. Over the course of an eight-minute, 60-yard drive, Yale put the ball in McLeod's hands on 11 of 13 snaps, setting up another touchdown connection between Polhemus and Denny-Brown. The score essentially sealed Princeton's fate, putting it down 20-6 with little more than two minutes remaining.

The Bulldogs kept piling it on, though, as strong safety Matt Coombs intercepted a Foran pass on the next drive and ran it back to the one-yard line. McLeod moved the ball the final 36 inches to put his team up three touchdowns for the final, 27-6 margin.

Princeton's failure to capitalize on its offensive opportunities was a trend from the beginning of the game, when the Tigers' promising opening drive ended with a crippling gaffe.

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After successfully moving the chains from their own 26-yard line to the Yale two-yard line, the Tigers began to stall. After losing a yard on a Toresco attempt to get into the endzone, Hughes called for an end-around to junior wide receiver Adam Berry.

The handoff was fumbled, however, and Berry was unable to grab it back before Yale defensive lineman Joe Hathaway smothered it.

The game's next three drives ended in punts, and the Tigers regained possession on the Bulldog 47-yard line as the first quarter wound to a close.

Less than two minutes later, Princeton found itself back on the Yale two-yard line with a chance to atone for its early miscue. This time, Foran elected to run for the goal line himself but was slammed from the side by Bulldog Nick Solakian, who knocked the ball loose from Foran and into the hands of Yale cornerback Paul Rice. Rice made it 55 yards the other way down the field before Berry caught up with him in Tiger territory.

Six plays later, Yale fans were on their feet as the Bulldogs took a surprising three-point lead.

"Obviously the game came out the way it came out because we didn't execute when we needed to," Hughes said.

Before halftime, the Tigers were able to even the score after reaching the Bulldog two-yard line one final time. Again unable to move those final two yards into the endzone, Princeton settled for a 20-yard strike from Louden, which knotted the score at three.

Princeton's first-half failures to capitalize offensively seemed all the more glaring when those offensive chances dried up after halftime. Yale emerged from the locker room reenergized, storming to a win that sets up a first-place showdown next weekend with bonfire rival Harvard, also undefeated in the Ivies.

The Tigers, meanwhile, can only join their fans in shaking their heads over an increasingly mystifying season.