By Bill Alden

Before the Princeton University football team even took the field against visiting Cornell last Saturday, it was fighting an uphill battle.

“We went out to practice Tuesday and we had 38 guys on the injured list,” said Princeton head coach Bob Surace. “We lost five from the last play on Tuesday through Wednesday. We got one back so we had 42 on Thursday. I just had to make decisions. Some guys were playing hurt, it is can they perform better than some inexperienced guys.”

The Tigers didn’t perform well against the Big Red as they fell behind 28-0 with Cornell star quarterback Jameson Wang passing for two touchdowns and rushing for another in the early onslaught.

“We got off to a bad start obviously,” said Surace. “I look at the first half — we didn’t get the fourth and one and we didn’t get the fourth and three. We had some chances. We didn’t convert and we put our defense in some tough spots on those.”

The Tigers showed some toughness as they responded with touchdown runs by quarterback Blaine Hipa and Dareion Murphy to trim the Cornell lead to 28-14 with 3:17 left in the first half. The Tigers then got an interception by Evan Haynie and looked poised make it a one-score game going into intermission. But Hipa fumbled two players later and Cornell went on to get a third TD pass from Wang as it went ahead 35-14 at the half.

“We had the pick, we have got a chance to try to get the ball down to the two-minute warning and we had the fumble at the end of the first half,” lamented Surace. “That touchdown was a tough one because it looked like it could be a pick.”

Cornell never looked back, building a 49-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter on the way to a 49-35 triumph before a homecoming crowd of 7,626 at Princeton Stadium, dropping the Tigers to 2-5 overall and 1-3 Ivy League.

Princeton junior QB Hipa acknowledged that the Tigers misfired in the first half.

“I think we game-planned very well, we just have to execute a little better on the early downs,” said Hipa.

Princeton failed to execute in the key sequence late in the first half.

“It is a game of momentum sometimes,” said Hipa. “We got the ball back and we tried to make something out of it. It was the ebbs and flows of the game. It is just football, it is unfortunate.”

Hipa helped the Tigers gain some momentum in the fourth quarter as he threw a touchdown pass to Luke Colella and two scoring strikes to Charley Rossi.

“We had guys make plays,” said Hipa, who connected on 26 of 40 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns on the day. “We have got a good offense, it is just putting the pieces together at the end of the day. It showed we can do it.”

While the result stung as Princeton fell into the Ivy cellar along with Yale and Penn, Surace credited his players with battling through adversity.

“The guys have been fighting all year,” said Surace. “I told them I appreciate it. We had guys that were limited participants all week in practice that fought through and played. They are doing the best they can. I have to decide whether a guy who is 80 percent is  better than an inexperienced guy that is closer to 100 percent.”

With the Tigers hosting Dartmouth (6-1 overall, 3-1 Ivy), who is in three-way tie for first place with Harvard and Columbia, on Friday night, Princeton is facing another tough battle.

“I told the team, they are a very violent team, they play very physical,” said Surace. “We have got to get our bodies refreshed on a short week and come out with whoever is healthy, playing physical because that is how they play.”

Hipa, for his part, is confident that the Tigers will play well against the Big Green.

“Dartmouth is a great team, they are doing well this year,” said Hipa. “We are going to take it like any other opponent. We will start tomorrow, watch the film, see what we have got to fix and get better throughout the week. We will come out here Friday and try to get a win.”