Football: In the end, Colgate’s persistent ground game wore down defense

Heading into Thursday night’s matchup, the football team was not expected to win. No. 23 Colgate was coming to town, bringing with it an undefeated record and an imposing running game. The Tigers (1-3 overall, 0-1 Ivy League) were coming off a 38-0 loss to Columbia less than week earlier, and the Red Raiders (6-0) had run circles around their opponents so far.

But then something unexpected happened under the Princeton Stadium lights: The Tigers kept it close.

Every Princeton-Colgate matchup since 2005 has finished with a seven-point margin of victory or less, and Thursday’s was no different. The Tigers battled to the bitter end, ultimately succumbing in double overtime by a score of 21-14.

The Tigers entered the game expecting Colgate’s running attack — the nation’s best — to be ferocious. Princeton had struggled against the run in its first three games of this season, and the Red Raiders have two of the country’s most dangerous rushers.

But early on the Tigers held up against the run, holding the Red Raiders to 81 rushing yards in the first half before allowing 137 after the break. In the overtime periods, the Colgate offense did not pass the ball once, relying solely on the run to score two touchdowns and seal a victory.

By game’s end, senior linebacker and co-captain Scott Britton had amassed 16 tackles, with one sack and two-and-a-half tackles for loss. He was joined by junior linebacker Steven Cody, who posted 16 tackles of his own, and senior defensive end Joel Karacozoff, who had 12. The Tigers stopped Colgate on three fourth downs over the course of the game and essentially neutralized the rushing attack until the second half.

Head coach Roger Hughes said after the game that he had expected Colgate to run, and that this reliance made a serious difference in the end.

“I thought they would try to run a little bit more: They know what they do best,” he said. “They went to their bread and butter.”

The Tigers only converted one of their five opportunities on fourth down. All told, they controlled the ball for almost twice as long as Colgate, but were unable to score when it mattered.

In the early going, the Tigers drove down the field with relative ease, reaching the red zone three times in the first half. The Princeton running backs, freshman Akil Sharp and junior Meko McCray, took the ground game to a new level after struggling against Columbia on Saturday. With All-Ivy League senior running back Jordan Culbreath out for the season, the tandem proved workable: Sharp gained 58 yards on 17 carries, and McCray posted 74 on eight carries.

Culbreath’s absence was noticeable throughout the game, and the football team’s players and staff all donned yellow “21” stickers — 21 is Culbreath’s number on the field — in tribute to the back.

Junior wide receiver Trey Peacock said that Culbreath was watching the game from his hospital bed in Virginia, and that the team was thinking of him throughout the game.

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The passing half of the Tigers’ offense was firing effectively, as sophomore quarterback Tommy Wornham appeared to be well-synchronized with his receivers throughout the game. His 31-yard strike up the middle of the field to Peacock tied the score at seven with nine minutes, 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter, swinging the momentum to Princeton. Wornham ended the game with 215 yards passing and two touchdowns. Peacock led the team in receiving, racking up 83 yards on six receptions. In the first overtime, Wornham’s laser to sprinting junior wide receiver Andrew Kerr put the Tigers up by seven before Colgate responded.

But while Princeton’s offense started impressively, it was unable to convert when it reached Colgate’s red zone. Ultimately, Princeton’s failure to convert three first-half red-zone chances proved to be the difference.

Though the Tiger defense stretched itself to stop the Red Raiders, it could not support the low-scoring offense through two overtimes, as Colgate ran through the Princeton line in the extra frames to secure the win.

The first time Princeton gained possession in the first quarter, it drove 73 yards to the 20-yard line, where senior placekicker Ben Bologna’s 37-yard field-goal attempt was blocked. At the end of the second quarter, Bologna’s second attempt was also blocked, this time from 24 yards out. Hughes described the kicking game as one of the major reasons for the Tigers’ loss. “If we don’t have mistakes in the kicking game, that means we don’t go to overtime.”

In the end, though, Hughes was not wholly pessimistic about the game, as the Tigers proved that they could play with powerhouses.

“If we play like that,” he said, “we have a chance to win every game.”