Football: Peacock shines in thrilling comeback win

Before last Saturday’s kickoff, the football team’s four co-captains walked to the center of the field together for the first time in a long time.

Star senior running back and co-captain Jordan Culbreath, diagnosed with aplastic anemia earlier this season, was out of the hospital and at the stadium. And senior inside linebacker and co-captain Scott Britton, out for the season with a torn ACL, was by his side.

Little did these senior leaders know what kind of game they were in for.

Sophomore quarterback Tommy Wornham threw the most memorable pass of his college career, junior wide receiver Trey Peacock stepped into the spotlight, and junior inside linebacker Steven Cody smothered Cornell (2-6 overall, 1-4 Ivy League) to lead the Tigers to a 17-13 victory.

The win brings the Tigers to 2-6 overall and 1-4 in Ivy competition. It was their first win at home in the 2009 campaign, and it snapped a four-game losing streak. The 17 points they put on the board matched their season-high, set in September at Lehigh.

None of those points was more exciting than the six produced by Wornham’s 78-yard wonder-pass to Peacock in the fourth quarter, which gave Princeton the lead. It was the Tigers’ longest offensive play since 2004, and it marked Peacock’s second touchdown of the day.

Wornham finished the game 16-for-27 passing, good for 198 yards and two touchdowns, while Peacock caught three passes for 113 yards and two scores.

Peacock, the team’s leading receiver, explained that his motivation for performances such as this came from those people who have said he could become a great player.

“I don’t like the word ‘potential,’ ” Peacock said. “Whenever I hear that, it gives me a drive to get there, because ‘potential’ is saying ‘You could be good, but you’re not at that point’ … You have your ups and downs, but you try to stay even-keeled no matter what happens. If you have a good play or a bad play, just focus on the next play, because that’s the most important play.”

On defense, Ivy League-leading tackler Steven Cody, who ranks fourth nationally in tackles per game, racked up 15 tackles and an interception.

The contest was not all positive for the Tigers, though, as they struggled to rush the ball and defend against Cornell’s rush. That kept the score close until the very end.

The Big Red picked up 219 yards on the ground, while the Tigers continued to labor without Culbreath on the field, as they only gained 107 of their own. Junior running back Meko McCray had 44 rushing yards to lead the team.

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Cornell started with the ball, and for the second straight game, the Tigers came crashing in on their opponent’s first play, this time dropping the Big Red back four yards on a reverse. The Cornell offense recovered from this initial setback, though, driving 51 yards largely on the ground to the Princeton 14-yard line over five minutes and 20 seconds. Kicker Brad Greenway converted a 32-yard field goal to give Cornell a 3-0 lead with 9:40 left in the first quarter.

Princeton’s first drive did not go nearly as well, as it was forced to punt after going three-and-out and losing four yards.

But the Big Red was only able to put together two plays once it got the ball back, as senior linebacker John Callahan picked off an errant throw caused partly by freshman defensive back Andrew Starks’ crushing blow to Cornell quarterback Ben Ganter.

The Tigers took over at the Cornell 40, driving 17 yards before senior placekicker Ben Bologna lined up for a field goal. With one kick, Bologna seemed to put all his struggles from earlier in the season behind him, booting a 40-yarder through the uprights to tie the game at three. The field goal was Princeton’s longest since Connor Louden ’09 hit a 40-yarder at Colgate last fall.

Cornell received great field position when it got the ball a few possessions later, but it was unable to convert a 48-yard field-goal attempt, handing the ball back to the hungry Tigers. After the teams traded possessions once more, Princeton began to take control.

On second-and-eight from the Cornell 39-yard line, Wornham connected with sophomore wide receiver Harrison Daniels for a 24-yard pass, propelling Princeton up the field. Three plays later, Wornham found Peacock sprinting into the middle of the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown pass up the middle, earning the Tigers their first lead of the game.

Cornell looked lifeless and could not muster a serious offensive challenge before the end of the half, as Cody’s interception with 2:11 left in the second quarter sucked all of the momentum out of the Big Red sideline.

The beginning of the second half was largely uneventful, as Princeton’s first drive stalled before Cornell took over at its own 24-yard line. After one first down, Cody broke up a pass with a bone-rattling hit that knocked Big Red wide receiver Horatio Blackman to the turf. But Cody came up weakly, appearing to have injured his shoulder. The Big Red took advantage of Cody’s absence, subsequently pounding the ball up the middle on the ground to the end zone. A Randy Barbour one-yard rush with 7:48 left in the quarter tied the game at 10.

After the game, Cody noted that rush defense has been an issue for the Tigers, and that the squad would look to bolster theirs in the coming week.

The Tigers’ next drive stalled after a promising start, and a suddenly rejuvenated Big Red offense took the field looking to put its side on top. With Cody back on the field, though, Cornell found it more difficult to penetrate the Princeton side. It could not complete a pass on third-and-four at the Princeton five-yard line, and it had to settle for a 23-yard field goal with 27 seconds left in the third quarter that put it up by three.

Halfway through the fourth quarter, Cornell seemed to have the upper hand as it held onto its slim lead. But then inspiration struck the Tiger offense, and a Big Red defender blew his coverage. Wornham hit Peacock sprinting up the left sideline for an instant classic touchdown, and the wide receiver strode into the end zone to give Princeton the lead with only 6:13 left.

Cornell head coach Jim Knowles explained that he intended to have two defensive backs covering Peacock on the play, but that only one was present.

On the other side of the ball, the reaction was much more optimistic.

“I didn’t really know where the guy was behind me,” Peacock explained. “But when I came back to the sideline, pretty much everybody came up to me and said if I would have got caught, they wouldn’t have talked to me for the rest of the week, so I kind of had to get in the end zone.”

But if Cornell could have its way, the game was far from over. Indeed, the Big Red took over at its own 30 and drove to the 49, where it faced a fourth-and-one that it knew meant the difference between a win and a loss. Barbour took the handoff and tried to force his way through, but he was stuffed by senior defensive lineman Joel Karacozoff and junior linebacker Keola Kaluhiokalani. The Tigers took over on downs, and they did not look back.