TOUGH GOING: Princeton University running back John Volker gets corralled in a game earlier this season. Last Friday night, junior Volker rushed for two touchdowns in a losing cause as Princeton fell 23-21 at Dartmouth. The Tigers, now 4-4 overall and 3-2 Ivy League, host Yale (5-3 overall, 3-2 Ivy) on November 11. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Playing at Dartmouth last Friday night, the Princeton University football team outgained the Big Green 356 yards to 197 and outscored then 21-13 over the last three quarters.

But committing some key miscues in the first quarter and falling behind Dartmouth 10-0, the Tigers fought an uphill battle all night.

While the Tigers rallied to take leads of 14-10 in the second quarter and 21-17 in the third quarter, they ultimately fell 23-21 on a 47-yard field goal, moving to 4-4 overall and 3-2 Ivy League.

“The way our league is, the margin of error is really thin,” said Princeton head coach Bob Surace. “You have to take advantage when you have opportunities and we didn’t and Dartmouth did at the end of the day. We had a one point game (28-27 overtime loss to Brown on October 14) and a two-point game in the two league losses. It has come down to us not taking that margin of error out.”

While first quarter was discouraging as the Big Green scored on an interception return and got a field goal after a Princeton fumble, the Tigers weren’t hanging their heads.

“Obviously it wasn’t the start we wanted, it is not a perfect game and some really reliable players made mistakes,” said Surace. “It was still really good on the sideline, there was no ‘woe is me’ or ‘oh my goodness,’ ‘long trip,’ all of the excuses that you can make. I thought the mentality was really good.”

The Tigers produced a really good second quarter as John Volker scored on a one-yard touchdown plunge as the Tigers narrowed the gap to 10-7. Late in the quarter, Volker struck again with a nine-yard TD run as Princeton took a 14-10 lead into halftime.

“It is a weird game, sometimes some balls don’t go your way; in the first quarter they didn’t,” said Surace. “In the second quarter they fumbled a punt, we recover it and we got a break. The breaks evened out in that first half and we settled down. I thought we did a good job.”

After Dartmouth regained the lead at 17-14 on a touchdown pass midway through the third quarter, Princeton responded with its biggest pass play of the evening, a 62-yard scoring strike from Blake Stenstrom to Luke Colella as it went ahead 21-17.

“We did the double move to Luke, it was a great throw by Blake,” said Surace. “That is a hard throw to make and it was a really good route by Luke. We did a good job with that. I felt like after that point, we were moving the ball really well.”

Leading 21-20 heading into the fourth quarter, Princeton made some miscues down the stretch, including a lost fumble, some untimely penalties, and getting a field goal blocked as the game slipped away. Dartmouth ended up getting a 47-yard field goal from Owen Zalc with 1:29 left in regulation to pull out the win.

“We would get a penalty or just a mistake on drives between the 50 and the 30,” lamented Surace.

“We just couldn’t sustain, partly because they have a terrific defense and those were big plays to not keep the drives going. We have an error in technique and we have a field goal blocked. When we got inside the 50, there was a fumble. We had a few mistakes that hurt us. There was a false start before the fumble so instead of being second and five, you are second and 10 and now you are in a more throwing situation. We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. Credit them, they made two long field goals.”

While the stellar Princeton defense produced another strong effort, it wasn’t enough.

“We had 356 yards on offense but it is complementary football,” said Surace. “We didn’t force any turnovers on defense. We forced one on special teams.”

While Princeton fell out of first place in the Ivy standings with the defeat as Harvard stands atop the league with a 4-1 Ivy mark, the title race is still wide open. The Tigers are in a four-way tie for second place along with Penn, Yale, and Dartmouth.

In order to stay in the hunt, the Tigers will have to play sharper as it hosts Yale (5-3 overall, 3-2 Ivy) this Saturday.

“You are only still in it if you win this week; the focus has to be on this game in terms of that,” said Surace. “It is seeing if we can play a little more precise, a little more disciplined, and coach a little better. Obviously that is a big piece. It is a lot of little things. You can get away with some of these things when your talent level is significantly better. We had 10 seniors playing the game. I don’t know how many they played but they had fifth-year seniors. We have to do a better job with the inexperience.”

With Yale coming into the clash having won five of its last six games, Surace knows his team can’t afford to dig an early hole against the Bulldogs which are led by star quarterback Nolan Grooms.

“They are playing well; they are a really fast team, including Groom,” said Surace.

“They are going to take their shots down the field offensively. If you are not having great responsibilities they are going to hit you with deep shots that way. Grooms is basically a three-year starter, he is very mature and he is not making mistakes. We are going to have to be really exact defensively, this will be a big challenge. Offensively, we are going have to just tighten some things up. We can’t have a quarter where our protection is not good or we have drops. Those little things that we have got to be reliable on, we have got to do a better job. You can’t give away a quarter against Yale; that will be really hard.”