Mounties top Princeton by just 4 points

The sprint football team continued its steady improvement despite a loss to previously winless rival Mansfield on Friday night, coming as close to victory as it has in years. The Tigers ultimately fell to the Mountaineers 10-6.

The margins of defeat are slowly diminishing as the Tigers (0-3 overall, 0-2 Collegiate Sprint Football League) came within a touchdown of beating Mansfield (1-2, 1-1). The team has not had an official league win since 1999.

As the Tigers have come closer to victory, their defense has clamped down.

“The defense has been playing phenomenally well,” senior linebacker co-captain Adrian Colarusso “They are really getting better every week at stagnating our opponents’ offensive attack.”

Head coach Thomas Cocuzza credited defensive coordinator Stephen Everette for the defense’s improvements.

“Coach Stephen Everette has done a great job of getting the most out of our team so far,” Cocuzza said in an e-mail. “He is a great coach with unparalleled enthusiasm, and the players have responded well to his schemes.”

The Tigers' only defensive error of Friday's game came early in the first quarter, when Mansfield running back Michael Wallace found a gap in the middle of the field and ran for a 57-yard touchdown.

“Although they let a long touchdown run slip by on the second play of the game, it is obvious that the defense wasn’t particularly rattled,” Colarusso said. “They kept Mansfield out of the end zone for the rest of the game.”

Unfortunately for the Tigers, their offense did not contribute in the same impressive manner: They only put one touchdown on the board. Sophomore wide receiver John Moffatt lined up as quarterback and ran the ball in himself for a 2-yard touchdown late in the first quarter. The team stuck with its wildcat formation on its two-point conversion attempt but failed to convert.

Both teams’ defenses dominated the rest of the game: The only other score came off Ryan Lose’s 22-yard field goal, which gave the Mountaineers a four-point lead.

The second half was largely a game of field position, as neither team put together a single long drive. With just over two minutes left in fourth quarter, sophomore quarterback Jaison Zachariah led the offense on the field for a potential game-winning drive. Just four plays later, though, the Tigers watched Mansfield quarterback Spencer La Mountain run out the clock after his team regained possession.

The Tigers’ final home game of the season will be on Friday at 7 p.m. It will be a clash of old versus new: The oldest continually running sprint football program in the country (Princeton's) takes on a team in its rookie season. In their short history the Post University Eagles have only played two games, both of which were losses. Even with the Eagles’ relative inexperience, the Tigers are not taking this game lightly.

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“If our players think they can just show up and Post will hand them the game, they are mistaken,” Cocuzza said. “This will be a battle, and our guys will treat it as such.”

The Tigers may be without junior running back Kevin Infante, who sustained a concussion in the late stages of the game on Friday.

“As with all players, we treat concussions very seriously. We will proceed with extreme caution,” Cocuzza said. “We have the best medical staff in the country. When they say he can play, he will play.”

Princeton is prepared for the worst, but losing a player of Infante’s caliber will likely effect its game plan. Infante has rushed for 115 of the team’s 177 yards this season.

“We have a few other guys who are ready to step up into the running back position,” Colarusso said. “But of course, it always hurts when you lose a key player like Kevin.”

The Tigers' slow ascent has proved that they should no longer be taken lightly. Still, players said they know that they must put more points on the scoreboard if they want to get their first win in 11 years.

“Next week we have another shot to do that,” Colarusso said. “And we plan on taking full advantage of the opportunity.”