Football: Culbreath caps comeback

Saturday’s game began as a question mark. The football team had not faced Lafayette since ending a six-year series in 2007, and the Tigers looked weakened after just one game, with the team’s defensive captain and top tackler — senior linebacker Steve Cody — on the sidelines with a broken leg. As it turned out, the outcome remained a mystery until the very end, when a second-overtime touchdown capped an emotional contest in Princeton’s favor, 36-33.

Senior running back and co-captain Jordan Culbreath was able to close out the home opener with the winning 2-yard touchdown, an inspiring chapter in his comeback from aplastic anemia. The score that cemented Princeton’s (1-1) victory over Lafayette (0-3) was Culbreath’s first since rejoining the Tigers after a year off.

“It felt great,” Culbreath said of scoring the winning touchdown. “We were working hard the whole game. A few things went wrong, but we kept our heads up, kept pushing forward, and that was a great way to end the game.”

Both teams were off to sluggish starts offensively, as the Tigers and Leopards swapped three-and-outs on their opening possessions. Sophomore linebacker Andrew Starks proved that he would be instrumental in slowing down Lafayette’s forward charge early in the first quarter, counteracting the offensive firepower of the Leopards’ tailback Vaughn Hebron.

Princeton eventually caught a lucky break. Shortly after Lafayette began a scoring drive on its own 10-yard line, on a second-and-1 play, senior cornerback Weston Palmer wove through two receivers to intercept a screen pass to the right side, bringing the ball from the Leopards’ 18 to their 15. It was Palmer’s first career interception.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the offense failed to convert on two touchdown opportunities opened up by the interception. An apparent end-zone completion to senior wideout Trey Peacock was called back for the first of two consecutive holding calls, and then a long pass to senior wide receiver Andrew Kerr for another apparent touchdown was ruled incomplete because his foot was questionably called out of bounds.

The six-play, 10-yard drive culminated in a 22-yard field goal by junior kicker Pat Jacob, tipping the score to 3-0 for the quarter.

The Leopards came back with a vengeance in the second period, thanks to quarterback Ryan O’Neil’s 22-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Kyle Hayes that gave Lafayette a 7-3 lead.

The offensive success was apparently contagious, as Princeton then translated its first drive of the period into seven points. The methodical 77-yard drive culminated in poetic justice, as Kerr was again dangerously close to the sidelines for the touchdown pass, this time coming away with the score.

Soon, though, an egregious defensive error by Princeton cost the team its momentum, as a wide-open Hayes ran away with an easy 78-yard touchdown.

If the first half was a skirmish, the second half was a war. A set of five consecutive carries by Hebron put the Leopards up 21-10 at the beginning of the half, but the Tigers answered back quickly. A 30-yard run by Culbreath and a 15-yard facemask penalty brought the Tigers up to Lafayette’s 25, and the hosts finished off the drive with a touchdown and a failed two-point attempt. Lafayette picked up a field goal to end the quarter 24-16.

Junior quarterback Tommy Wornham saw a clear difference between the first and second halves.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“We came out a little quiet, but we thought, ‘we need to win this game, and we can move the ball,’ and we finally clicked,” he said. “Our coaches have been telling us that this flurry of touchdowns is going to come, and it finally did. We started to believe it, and we’re coming together as a team. We were sick of the feeling that we had in the first half, and in the second half, it just all came together.”

The fourth quarter saw Wornham become the true double-threat he has been in the past. Following a 12-yard pickup to close out the previous period, Wornham rushed for 18 yards in one play and finished the drive on second-and-goal from the 5 by diving untouched into the end zone. A successful two-point conversion knotted the score at 24-24 with 13 minutes left in regulation.

The Leopards then grabbed a 3-point lead with a field goal, giving Princeton five minutes to change the tide of the game.

On third-and-8 from the Lafayette 25, Wornham lofted a pass over the middle to senior tight end Harry Flaherty, who made the catch and bounced off a tackler to bring the ball to the 13. After Culbreath picked up a yard, Wornham connected with Flaherty again for five yards to the 7. The Tigers brought in Jacob for a 24-yard field goal, and the ball sailed through the uprights to even the score once again with 45 seconds left on the clock.

Everyone in the stadium knew what Jacob’s conversion meant: overtime.

Princeton’s offensive crew was on first, starting at the Lafayette 25-yard line. A mere 3-yard gain followed by two incompletions heralded a 39-yard field goal attempt, in which Jacob did not let his team down. Jacob, who nailed a clutch 43-yard attempt last week, is 8-for-9 so far this season.

Lafayette kicker Davis Rodriguez soon forced a second overtime by making a 35-yard field goal.

Lafayette started with the ball this time. On third-and-goal from the 9, O’Neil hit wide-open receiver Mark Layton in the end zone with a perfect pass, which Layton promptly dropped. Lafayette had to resort to a field goal, and the 33-30 tally spelled opportunity for Princeton.

Sure enough, on the first play, Wornham took the ball himself down the right side for 12 yards. A Lafayette defender was called for a late hit, bringing the Tigers to within seven yards of victory. Three plays later, Culbreath took the handoff from the 2-yard line and forced his way up the middle for the game-winning touchdown, sealing the Princeton win. Culbreath was swarmed by jubilant teammates in the end zone as the Tigers celebrated their first win under first-year head coach Bob Surace ’90.