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 (Photo by Anya Allen/NJSportAction) caption: |
Javarone Boots His Way Into History; Lifts Tiger Football Into Tie for Ivy Lead
By Bill Alden
Derek Javarone has been just about automatic in his placekicking this fall for the Princeton University football team.
Coming into Saturday's clash with visiting Cornell, the 5'9, 180-pound senior from Imperial, Pa. had hit all 11 of his field goal attempts this season and 14-of-16 extra point attempts.
So when Javarone missed a 29-yard chip shot on the last play of the first half Saturday that would have added to a 14-6 Princeton lead, he jogged into the locker room with his head down.
During the break, the Tiger coaches and several players told the disappointed kicker to keep his chin up as they were going to need him to win the game.
Those words proved prophetic as Javarone kicked a 32-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 17-17 and force overtime.
Then in the extra session, Javarone connected on a 35-yarder that gave Princeton a dramatic 20-17 win before 9,315 at Princeton Stadium.
The game-winning boot was Javarone's 42nd career field goal, an Ivy League record. More importantly, it lifted Princeton to a 5-2 overall record and 3-1 in Ivy play, thereby placing it in a four-way tie atop the league with Yale, Penn, and Brown.
While Javarone wasn't shell-shocked by the first half miss, he appreciated the support he got from his coaches and teammates.
"I was fine, I've missed kicks before and I've come back from that," said Javarone, who starred as a kicker for a state championship team at West Allegheny.
"But it felt good to have your team behind you. I think every coach came up to me and said don't worry about it. Justin Stull and Ben Brielmaier and about 10 other guys came up to me."
Although Javarone was a bit fuzzy on his thoughts at the moment of victory, he had no problem assessing the importance of his effort.
"I can't remember the kick that much," said Javarone. "It was a blur and I was in the zone. The fact that the last kick broke the record and won the game makes it real special."
For Princeton head coach Roger Hughes, seeing his team rally yet again was special.
"We've come from behind a number of times this season," asserted Hughes. "The guys have showed great resiliency, including Derek after missing that one in the first half."
The Tiger defense was a major factor in the Princeton rally as it held Cornell to 150 yards rushing, well below the 249 yards per game average the Big Red brought into Princeton.
"We came up with a great defensive effort when we needed to," said Hughes. "I thought our front three played very well and our linebackers closed very well."
One of Princeton's defensive stalwarts, senior linebacker Abi Fadeyi, who led the Tigers with 14 tackles, credited trust for the team's superb effort in containing the Cornell ground attack.
"The coaches prepared us well," said Fadeyi, a 6'0, 220-pound native of Centennial, Colo.
"They showed us that we had to trust the guy next to us to fill the gap. This game was about football but it was also about relationships."
The Tigers needed to stick together in order to overcome a gritty Cornell team that threw everything it had at Princeton.
In the early going, however, it seemed like the Big Red were going to be easy pickings for the Tigers. Midway through the first quarter, Princeton grabbed a 7-0 lead after an 11-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Terrell to Jon Dekker.
Princeton built the lead to 14-0 early in the second quarter when Rob Toresco scored on a one-yard plunge to culminate an eight-play, 72-yard drive.
Cornell responded with an A.J. Weitsman field goal to narrow the Princeton lead to 14-3. Then on the ensuing kickoff, the Big Red pulled an audacious trick play as Weitsman tripped on purpose and then another Cornell player booted an onside kick. The element of surprise led Cornell to recover the ball. Fired up by the special teams trickery, Cornell drove 32 yards and cashed in with another Weitsman field goal.
After a scoreless third quarter, Cornell got on the board early in the fourth period on a 25-yard field goal by Weitsman which tightened the Princeton margin to 14-9.
The Tigers stalled on their next possession, going three downs and out. Building on the momentum of that defensive stand, Cornel marched 70 yards on eight plays and took the lead on a Luke Siwula eight-yard scoring run. Siwula proceeded to bull in for a two-point conversion, giving Cornell a 17-14 advantage and leaving a nervous Princeton crowd eerily quiet.
With the game slipping away, Princeton got the crowd buzzing again as it went on the crucial 18-play, 63-yard march that was capped by Javarone's first field goal of the afternoon. Princeton converted three third down plays to keep the march alive as it forced overtime.
In the extra session, the defense came up with a clutch play as Tim Strickland ended Cornell's possession by picking off a Ryan Kuhn pass. Princeton then ran three rushing plays to set up Javarone's historic game-winning kick.
While Hughes acknowledged that his team's offense wasn't quite in sync, he pointed to the fourth quarter scoring march as emblematic of the team's special spirit this fall.
"We weren't as crisp as we needed to be offensively," conceded Hughes, whose club was outgained 317 yards to 308 on the afternoon.
"But the thing that this team has shown time and time again is that when the chips are down and our backs are to the wall, they're not panicking. When it's time go, they say let's go. I think that's what happened on that last drive."
With the post-game euphoria heightened by the news that Princeton had ended the day in a first-place tie, Hughes sounded a note of caution with a trip to Penn on the horizon for November 5.
"We've got a lot of work to do, clearly," asserted Hughes, mindful of the fact that Princeton hasn't beaten Penn on the field since 1995 (Penn had to forfeit a 1997 win over the Tigers due to the use of an ineligible player). "Penn is an outstanding team, especially at home. If you're saying we're in first place three weeks from now, it will sound great."
Javarone, for his part, believes the senior class has developed a special bond that will help Princeton meet the challenges ahead.
"I think the fact that we've been through so many close games and been through so much adversity has culminated in a really strong senior class," maintained Javarone, who now has 55 points on the season.
"We understand that as seniors, we're together to lead everybody else. We're definitely stepping up in our leadership."
If Javarone keeps stepping up with key field goals, Princeton could finish the season in the Ivy lead.
