Sprint Football: Squad sees game as big opportunity to grab win

Last Friday against Mansfield, the sprint football team came the closest it has come to winning in more than a decade. The Tigers (0-3 overall, 0-2 Collegiate Sprint Football League) lost to Mansfield (1-2, 1-1) in a close 10-6 game.

But all is not lost for Princeton. The Tigers’ last home game of the season is tonight at 7 p.m. against the Post University Eagles (0-2), a team in its first season of existence. The Tigers took some specific lessons from their last game, which they will hope to apply going into tonight’s game. Most prominently, they know that they must create more offensive opportunities and maintain their defensive intensity.

“I thought defensively our guys played really, really well,” head coach Thomas Cocuzza said of the loss to Mansfield. “Every game this season, the defense has done what we asked them to do.”

The Tigers defense held the Mountaineers scoreless in the second half, but the offense could not capitalize. The Tigers hope that they will be able to put more points on the board this week, as they have not scored more than 12 points in any game this season.

“We were a couple missed blocks away on the offensive line from springing some big runs,” senior offensive lineman and co-captain Adrian Colarusso said. “We needed to score more on offense.”

The Tigers will have to make these offensive adjustments against a tough Post defense that forced three turnovers against Cornell in its last game. Junior running back Kevin Infante, who suffered a concussion near the end of the game against Mansfield, has not been cleared for Friday’s game against the Eagles, making the offense’s job even more difficult.

“Post is a really athletic team,” Colarusso said. “It’s going to be tough for us to ... keep up with them athletically, because they are quick.”

“They’re good,” Cocuzza said of the Eagles. “If we don’t block our assignments, we’re going to have a problem.”

Cocuzza said he was confident that sophomore quarterback Jaison Zachariah will be able to step up in Infante’s absence. “[Zachariah] is taking big steps every week. And he needs to take a big step this week,” Cocuzza said.

The close game against Mansfield was disappointing for the Tigers, but it also showed that they can compete in tight games. “I think with the Mansfield game, we really saw the potential that this team has when we play almost at our best,” Colarusso said. “I think it shows us that we can be in a close game that actually has a score that very well reflects how the game went.”

For Cocuzza, there are two keys to the game against Post: turnovers and big plays.

“We have to get turnovers, and we have to not turn the ball over,” he explained. Princeton did a good job of not turning the ball over last week: Its only turnover came on a Zachariah interception. Still, the defense did not force any turnovers, something it looks to improve upon in the upcoming game.

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Against Mansfield, the Tigers gave up a big 57-yard touchdown run to Mounties’ running back Michael Wallace in the first quarter. The Tigers themselves did not have any plays longer than 15 yards.

“We have to make big plays and keep them from making big plays,” said Cocuzza.

The Tigers know what they need to do to win. Now they just need to execute.

But, as Colarusso pointed out, a large part of winning is mental. “Nobody in the program has experienced a win thus far,” he said. “Getting our minds to wrap around the concept of winning the game is definitely the key to winning.”

The Eagles are in their first year as a team and are still looking for their first win. The Tigers are a team that has not won in years and seems to be getting closer and closer to that big victory.

“As a whole team, we need to think, ‘We will win this game,’ ” Colarusso said. “If we have any self-doubt, we won’t win.”