Football: Tigers battle defending champs

Halfway through its 2009 campaign, the football team hasn’t gotten the results it hoped for at the beginning of the year. The Tigers (1-4 overall, 0-2 Ivy League) kicked off their Ivy season with two painful losses and a wide slate of injuries.

But when it comes time for the Harvard game, all else is forgotten.

Senior defensive back and co-captain Wilson Cates called Saturday’s matchup in Massachusetts the team’s “Super Bowl,” underscoring the importance the Tigers are ascribing to the game. Even though the Crimson (3-2, 2-0) has kicked off its Ivy League play in impressive fashion, Cates and the Tigers are excited to attack it.

Still, though the Tigers are preaching confidence heading into Saturday’s game, the statistics don’t tell a promising tale.

The Tigers are tied for last place in the Ivy League with lowly Dartmouth, while the defending co-champion Crimson sits atop the standings in a first-place tie with Penn. Each team has played two Ivy games so far this season -— Harvard beat Brown and Cornell, while Princeton lost to Brown and Columbia.

The teams have played each other 101 times in the past, and though Princeton has won 10 more overall, Harvard won three of the last five matchups. In recent years, the teams have played particularly close games in Harvard Stadium. With the exception of the Tigers’ 17-point loss in 2007, each Princeton-Harvard game in Cambridge, Mass., has finished with a final margin of seven or less since 1997.

Needless to say, the Tigers want to come out on top this time. Five games into their season, they have suffered injuries and misfortune. First, they lost All-Ivy senior running back and co-captain Jordan Culbreath for the season against Lehigh in September. Then, senior inside linebacker and co-captain Scott Britton went down for the year against Brown last Saturday. Britton had been ranked 10th nationally and third in the Ivy League in tackles per game, with 11.2.

Now, with only five games left, Princeton’s goal is to begin salvaging its season by overpowering a talented Harvard squad.

Quarterback Collier Winters’ efficiency rating of nearly 113 is a testament to the Crimson’s impressive offense thus far this season. Harvard has averaged 23.6 points per game this season, compared to Princeton’s 11.

On defense, the Crimson has faltered at times, allowing 35 points in Saturday’s loss to Lafayette. Defensive end Chucks Obi will lead Harvard’s charge, having racked up three sacks this season. Collin Zych, the defensive back with two interceptions on the year, will join him.

Cates insisted the Tigers had not been keying in on any particular Crimson faults in this week’s practices. “We aren’t necessarily focusing on their weaknesses more than we’re just focusing on our strengths, which is, as a defense, continuing pursuit of the ball and securing tackles with that group tackle mentality.”

Head coach Roger Hughes echoed this sentiment, noting that the defense’s goal in practice had also been to concentrate on the fundamentals.

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“We have to come up with fumbles,” he said. “And the focus of our defense is to create a short field [for the offense].”

Still, Cates acknowledged that the loss of Britton would affect the team.

“Losing Scott is, of course, pretty big for us, considering he was one of the biggest vocal leaders we had on defense,” he said. “But we aren’t … expecting any drop off. We have guys behind him with some experience … but we have to have everyone stepping up.”

Much of the pressure will be on Princeton’s junior inside linebacker Steven Cody, who is leading the Ivy League with 13.3 tackles per game, which is good enough for third in the nation.

Hughes said that he expected multiple members of the defense to step up, adding that Cody likely felt added pressure.

“We don’t like to put all the pressure on one guy,” he explained. “But Steve clearly feels like he’s the guy who has to pick it up.”

While Cates and Cody have prepared their defense for Winters’ attack, sophomore quarterback Tommy Wornham has readied his offensive troops.

As Wornham has grown more comfortable in his role as the starter, the team has worked hard to support him. Without Culbreath in the lineup, junior running back Meko McCray took the bulk of the workload against Brown, piling up 93 total yards on offensive with one touchdown.

The offense will rely heavily on Wornham and McCray, along with junior receiver Trey Peacock, to pound at the Harvard defense. Against Lafayette on Saturday, the Crimson allowed 343 total yards, 210 of them in the air. Though Wornham has proved himself an impressive rusher, he will likely be distributing the ball more than usual this weekend, aiming to exploit Harvard’s reeling secondary.

Last week against Brown, Wornham completed 28 of his 35 passing attempts, which Hughes noted was an indication of Wornham’s rapid progression as the starter.

Still, Harvard will certainly be out to prove its mettle after last week’s 35-18 drubbing at the hands of Lafayette.

Though trekking to Harvard Stadium in the middle of the season to face the league-leading Crimson may seem an imposing task, Cates maintained the Tigers were up for it. “[Harvard is] under more pressure, if anything,” he said. “I think it adds anticipation to the game. We’re all excited to play Harvard, one of our biggest rivals, and we see this as an opportunity to turn our season around.”

He said the team was still aiming to win Princeton a bonfire by beating Harvard and Yale, despite the success of the Crimson and Bulldogs (3-2, 1-1) this year.

“Unfortunately, things haven’t turned out the way we might have wanted [this season],” Cates said. “[But] we are extremely confident going into this week, and our goal, of course, is to win the game. We won’t settle for anything less.”

Correction

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Harvard has an 0-2 record in Ivy League competition so far this season.