Sprint Football: Team once again falls to rival in home game

The team once again fell short, though, as Cornell (2-0 overall, 1-0 Collegiate Sprint Football League) kicker Alex Perilstein hit four field goals to top the Tigers (0-2, 0-1), 33-12.

“I thought we had a shot to win the game today,” head coach Thomas Cocuzza said. “If we would have played as well in the second half as we did in the first half, we could have had a chance to beat them, a very good Cornell team.”

In the first quarter, the Tigers’ defense gave no ground and left the Big Red scoreless with only incomplete pass after incomplete pass to look back on. The tie was broken in the second quarter when Cornell broke through with two field goals and an interception return for a touchdown.

Sophomore wide receiver Kees Thompson soon brought Princeton back to the red zone, and with only 20 seconds to spare, sophomore quarterback Jaison Zachariah completed a 12-yard pass to sophomore Ned Moffat for the Tigers’ first touchdown.

“I saw the ball in the air from the line of scrimmage and just remember thinking that there was no way that Ned was going to drop that pass — he’s too much of a competitor,” senior co-captain Adrian Colarusso said of the touchdown.

Despite Princeton’s decent start, the sheer size of Cornell’s team came into play in the second half. The Big Red constantly switched in fresh players, while the Tigers could not.

“They came out during pregame warm up and I thought ‘Oh, their team’s not that much bigger than ours,’ but then I realized that half their team was in the locker room,” Cocuzza explained.

With just a little over 30 players on the roster, compared to Cornell’s 60, the Tigers had to build up higher endurance and adapt by playing a variety of positions for longer times on the field.

“We know that our 11 guys on the field can compete with their 11 guys, but when our 11 guys are also playing on the other side of the ball for a lot of the game, it becomes a battle of attrition,” Colarusso said.

Still, some of the tired gridders stood out.

“Besides Moffat and Thompson, who have been putting on a show on offense, we have a few underclassmen on defense who are really stepping up and playing well,” Colarusso said. “I watched our mild-mannered [sophomore] linebacker Mike Howard on film this morning and saw how hard he was filling gaps, punishing runners and hustling around the field,” Colarusso said.

Zachariah played with a broken left hand — sustained during a recreational basketball game — that slowed him down.

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“I don’t think I can ban guys from playing basketball over the summer, but I’m considering it,” Cocuzza joked.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, even Moffat’s last-minute touchdown in the fourth quarter wasn’t enough to save the game.

Cornell’s fourth-quarter touchdown and Perilstein’s consistent kicking overwhelmed the squad.

“We didn’t do a good job of moving the ball on offense,” Cocuzza said. “I think the defense played well until the end, [considering] they were on the field for so long.”

Colarusso said the team understands the effort required to keep up the momentum for all four quarters.

The Tigers will have another opportunity to prove themselves this Friday at home against rival Mansfield.

“If we play like we played in the first half, we have a chance to win, and if we play like we played in the second, then we won’t,” Cocuzza said of the upcoming matchup. “If we just generate some more on the offense Friday night then it should be a pretty interesting game.”