Football: Squad aims for first Ivy victory

Late last Thursday night, as the football team attempted to stop Colgate’s attack in the first overtime at Princeton Stadium, things were looking up for the Tigers. Princeton held a 14-7 lead and seemed to have a chance at building serious momentum heading into the heart of its Ivy League season. Then the Red Raiders scored twice, dashing the Tigers’ hopes and confirming one of the team’s worries. That success this season would certainly not come easily to them.

The resilient but beleaguered Tigers (1-3 overall, 0-1 Ivy League) will face Brown in Providence, R.I., in a Saturday afternoon game, the second of their young Ivy season.

While Princeton has spent the last week recovering from its double overtime heartbreaker, Brown (2-2, 0-1) is favored to win coming off its tight upset victory over No. 25 Holy Cross.

It has been six seasons since Princeton won its second Ivy game after dropping its first, so the Tigers will certainly be looking to buck this trend. Indeed, to realistically stay in contention for the Ivy title, the Tigers will need to top Brown on Saturday.

This year, the Tigers look to snap a two-game losing streak to the Bears. In 2007, they fell, 33-24, in Providence. The next year, they lost, 31-10, at home.

Last year’s loss was not entirely fruitless, though, as it saw now-sophomore quarterback Tommy Wornham’s debut. He played one series, picking up one completion on three attempts for two yards.

Wornham and his Princeton team will be coming off eight days of rest and are playing in their second straight nationally televised game. Last Thursday, the loss to No. 17 Colgate was on ESPNU. Saturday’s matchup will be on Versus.

The Tigers won their only away game, at Lehigh, in September. The team aims to continue its road success, as the confines of Princeton Stadium have not proven friendly this year.

On the other hand, each of the Bears’ games this year has been close. They started the season with two losses — by one point at Stony Brook and by three at Harvard — before rebounding with two wins — by eight against Rhode Island and by three against Holy Cross.

Brown is led by quarterback Kyle Newhall, last week’s Ivy League offensive Player of the Week. Newhall has completed nearly 66 percent of his passes this season, notching nine touchdowns along the way.

Junior linebacker Steven Cody said Princeton is looking to build on its defensive performance against Colgate’s high-powered offense when it faces Newhall’s side. “Any time you can hold a whole offense like [Colgate’s] to seven points in regulation, you feel pretty good,” he said.

But Cody added that Brown’s attacking scheme, which focuses on passing, is very different from Colgate’s run-centered system.

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“Obviously you have to adjust to what they do a little bit. [The Bears] pass the ball a lot more than Colgate [does],” he said. “But other than that, we’re going to be running the same packages.”

Cody noted that Princeton has been particularly preparing for Brown’s top three receivers, Bobby Sewall, Buddy Farnham and Trevan Samp. The three have been prime targets for Newhall so far this season, each racking up more than 65 yards per game.

Anchoring the defense with Cody will be senior linebacker and co-captain Scott Britton, last week’s Ivy League defensive Player of the Week. He and Cody both came up with 16 tackles against Colgate, with Britton amassing two-and-a-half tackles for loss and one sack. Senior defensive end Joel Karacozoff added 12 tackles of his own.

On the offensive front, the Tigers will continue to look to a number of targets at receiver and tailback. Last Thursday’s game was Wornham’s first multi-score game, as he connected with junior receivers Trey Peacock and Andrew Kerr for touchdown passes.

Still, if the Tigers want to move the ball effectively, they will have to find a way past Brown’s formidable secondary. Defensive backs Chris Perkins and A.J. Cruz lead the team in tackles and have combined to break up seven passes this season.

Wornham said his team would aim to score more in the first half after struggling to put points on the board against Colgate.

“I’m looking to have more times to score earlier,” he explained. “We’re moving the ball fine, but we have small penalties or miscues in the red zones.”

He added that he was getting more comfortable in his starting role and that the offense would also be secure with the running back tandem of junior Meko McCray and freshman Akil Sharp. As for receivers, Wornham explained that the team is looking to distribute the ball to multiple wideouts.

“I’m throwing to all the guys, not just looking to one guy all the time,” he said. “We’re just going in with our own game plan … It’s definitely going to be tough, but I have to think we’re going to have a good game.”

Whether or not Wornham and his squad play well Saturday may prove integral to the ultimate success of Princeton’s season, which will wrap up exclusively against Ivy opponents.

In short, if the Tigers hope to call this season a positive one, the pressure will most certainly be on in Rhode Island this Saturday.