Princeton Downs Football

Sounds familiar: a few big plays, a couple of questionable calls, another disappointing loss.

The no. 15 Harvard football team (5-1, 2-1 Ivy) lost to no. 21 Princeton (6-0, 3-0) Saturday at Princeton Stadium in front of 16, 284, after a combination of controversial calls from the officials and Crimson coach Tim Murphy swung the momentum into Tiger hands for good.

In last year’s 27-24 defeat, it was a poor fourth and one decision by Murphy, this season late in the fourth quarter Harvard led 28-24 on a Princeton third and four in Crimson territory. On the play senior free safety Danny Tanner broke up a pass to junior tailback Rob Toresco, and proceeded to turn toward his team and hit his chest.

Flags flew for unsportsmanlike conduct, and the Tigers got a much-needed first down that would lead to the game winning touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Brendan Circle with 4:37 remaining in the game.

“I’m not anybody who gets down on officials,” Murphy said. “They’ve got a tough job, but I haven’t seen that call in college football, in the Ivy League. I still don’t know, the kid just celebrated, it was a great play.”

But Harvard could not help its own cause.

Princeton began the drive after the questionable play call from Murphy, who decided to run a trick play, a reverse throwback to Sanders, which was picked off by Tiger linebacker Luke Steckel.

The Crimson also had two chances to win it after the Circle score, but junior quarterback Liam O’Hagan threw two interceptions on the final two drives to seal the deal.

Yet O’Hagan did give Harvard a new set of legs early, replacing junior Chris Pizzotti in the second quarter. The junior ran for 89 yards on ten carries and completed 13 of 27 passes for 168 yards.

“I just thought that we needed a spark,” Murphy said in regards to the switch. “I just thought that his combination of enthusiasm and mobility, and improvisational skills could give us a spark, and a dimension to our offense that we [didn’t] have [before].”

The game got off to a quick start minus O’Hagan.

After a three and out from both teams, the Crimson blocked its first punt in two years to set up a 20-yard screen pass to senior tailback Clifton Dawson with 3:32 gone in the first period.

Dawson would not continue his success.

Although he added his 53rd and 54th career rushing touchdowns to take over as the sole possessor of first in the category, Princeton held him to a mere 64 yards on 21 carries.

“They did an outstanding job,” Dawson said. “We knew coming in that they were a very tough defense… they’re a very physical defense, and my hat goes off to them.”

On the next drive senior quarterback Jeff Terrell led the Tigers 76 yards downfield to even the score at seven with 7:25 remaining.

The playcaller would burn Harvard for 223 yards in the air and 32 on the ground.

And the bleeding for the Crimson would not end there.

Two Harvard plays later Pizzotti threw an interception to sophomore cornerback Tom Hurley to give the Princeton great field position at the Crimson 29. His throwing miscue was one of four for the squad Saturday.

Although the Harvard defense would hold the team to a field goal, a botched fake punt by the Crimson led to another Tiger touchdown and a score of 17-7 at the end of the first quarter.

“The bottom line is they made more plays than we did and we made too many mistakes,” Murphy said. “That was the game in a nutshell.”

After a 14-yard Princeton punt, the Crimson lined up with O’Hagan on the Tiger 29 and capitalized, as Dawson scored his first rushing touchdown of the day.

But Princeton was not done yet.

Harvard knocked Terrell out of the game after a hard but clean hit from sophomore linebacker Eric Schultz, and junior backup Bill Foran took over and led the squad 50 yards for a score to with 0:58 remaining to end the half with a 24-14 lead.

“We ended up scoring when probably Harvard thought, ‘ah we got [Terrell] out of the game now,” Tiger coach Roger Hughes said. “Maybe they relaxed a little bit, I don’t know.”

The Crimson responded on both sides of the field after the break.

On Harvard’s first drive O’Hagan marched 93 yards downfield and Dawson punched it in from the one with 8:36 left in the third to bring the game within three.

The team had only two drives in the quarter, but it made them both count, when on the next drive O’Hagan connected to senior wideout Corey Mazza for a 15-yard score to take the lead with 3:55 remaining.

The Crimson would hold that lead for nearly 15 minutes, but the tough and controversial fourth led to Circle’s touchdown and the Princeton victory.

“There’s plenty of responsibility, starting with me, to get some things fixed,” Murphy said. “We didn’t play well enough to beat a really good team.”