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Princeton University Athletics
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Seven Wins And A Sawhorse In Sight Of Football Seniors
November 15, 2005 | Football
Nov. 15, 2005
The roller coaster ride that has been the 2005 football season has had more highs than lows, and the Princeton Tigers are looking for one more exciting turn when they travel to Dartmouth for a 12:30 showdown this Saturday with the Big Green. Seven wins and the 1917 Sawhorse Dollar are on the line. And maybe something else.
First, there is the certain. Princeton hasn't ended a football season with more than six victories since the Ivy League championship year of 1995, but a win would give the 2005 squad a remarkable 7-3. That would be a far cry from what was predicted of this squad by the media, which relegated Princeton to the bottom half of the standings before the season started.
There is also the individual glory of this game, and the "1917 Sawhorse Dollar" that goes to the winner (more on the actual dollar can be found in the notes .pdf file). The Sawhorse Dollar goes to the winner of the annual showdown between Princeton and Dartmouth, which has played its fair share of dramatic contests over the years.
Of course, there is the finality of the game, and what it would mean to everybody involved. The seniors want nothing more than to rid the taste of last week's loss from their mouths and end their careers with their 20th victory. The underclassmen want to win for those seniors, but they also want to springboard into the offseason with some positive momentum.
Yes, there is certainly plenty to play for. But the uncertainty is just as intriguing. A win and a Brown loss at Columbia would give Princeton a share of the 2005 Ivy League championship. It isn't the most likely scenario out there, but considering what football fans have witnessed in both the college and pro ranks over the last few days, it's safe to say that anything can happen between the white lines.
Princeton-Dartmouth Game Packet in PDF Format
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Game Notes
The Amazing Race • Princeton enters the final weekend of its 2005 season with a chance to clinch a share of its first Ivy League title since 1995. The Tigers need to win against Dartmouth and hope for Columbia to end its winless streak in Ivy play with a home victory over Brown.
Seventh Heaven • Even if Brown wins and clinches the outright title, Princeton can still win seven games in a season for the first time since that 1995 campaign. In the last 38 years, Princeton has recorded six seasons with at least seven wins, and three of those came with Keith Elias.
Two Much • A win against Dartmouth would give Princeton a two-win improvement from last season, which was a three-win improvement from the season before. The last time a Princeton football team improved by at least two wins for two straight seasons was 1962-1964, when the Tigers started 5-4, then went 7-2 and 9-0.
A Hughes Success • The win against Penn two weeks ago guarantees Princeton its second winning record since 1995 and also guarantees an improved winning percentage from last season. Under head coach Roger Hughes, Princeton has improved its winning percentage from the previous season five of the last six years, an unprecedented feat in the 136-year history of Princeton football.
Back On The Sawhorse • The winner of the Princeton-Dartmouth game will win the "1917 Sawhorse Dollar" for the upcoming year. Princeton earned the first Sawhorse Dollar by topping Dartmouth 17-10 last season. A description of the award can be found in the .pdf file of the game notes.
Home Sweep Home • The home team has won this game six of the last eight years, including each of the last three.
Block Party • Princeton's winning touchdown last season came on a blocked field goal by Dartmouth. Holder Colin McDonough scooped the ball and tried to gain the first down, but was stripped by teammate James Williams, who ran it in for the winning score and his second TD of the season.
Justin Time • Senior linebacker Justin Stull will be making his 30th and final consecutive start this weekend. Since that streak started, he has made 300 tackles, including a season-high 15 last weekend. The next closest active player in the Ivy League during that time is Dartmouth's Josh Dooley, who enters this weekend with 225 career stops. Stull has averaged 13.0 tackles per game in two starts against Penn.
On Second Thought • Justin Stull enters the weekend with 306 total tackles in his career. He needs nine against Dartmouth to tie Aaron Harris '93 for second-place on Princeton's all-time list. David Patterson, the Bushnell Cup winner in the Tigers' 1995 Ivy championship season, holds the career record with 352 stops.
Jaywalking • With his two interceptions last weekend, Princeton defensive back Jay McCareins took over the national lead in interceptions with 0.89 per game. He is tied for the national lead with two interception returns for touchdowns and leads the nation with 218 interception return yards.
Jaywalking II • Jay McCareins is close or at the top in every major interception record at Princeton. He tied the single-game record when he picked off three passes in the 20-17 win over San Diego earlier this season. His eight interceptions this season ties him with Damani Leech (1995) for second on the single-season list behind Dean Cain (12 in 1987). McCareins has 17 career interceptions, third best all-time at Princeton. He is three behind Leech for second and five behind Cain for first.
Jaywalking III • Jay McCareins has scored five career touchdowns, three on defense, one on a kickoff return and one on offense. His lone offensive touchdown came last season against Dartmouth, a 5-yard pass from Matt Verbit just before halftime of an eventual 17-10 win.
The Buck Stops Here • Jay McCareins was added to the official Buch Buchanan Watch List following the victory over Penn. The Buck Buchanan Award goes to the top defensive player in Division I-AA. McCareins leads the Ivy League in interceptions, passes defensed and kickoff returns.
Five Alive • In his only career game at Dartmouth, senior placekicker Derek Javarone set a league record with five field goals in an Ivy League game. Javarone, who holds the Ivy career record with 42 field goals, tied that record this year with five field goals against Columbia.
Something Special • Princeton has won the Special Teams Player of the Week award in three of the last four weeks. Jay McCareins won it after his game-winning 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Harvard three weeks ago. Two weeks ago, placekicker Derek Javarone tied and surpassed the Ivy career record for field goals, with his record-setting 42nd kick giving Princeton a 20-17 overtime win. Tim Strickland's two interceptions and blocked field goal earned the award against Penn.
Margin For Error • Princeton is a +7 in turnover margin in games it wins and -6 in games it loses. In its six wins, quarterback Jeff Terrell has thrown a total of four interceptions. In the three losses, Terrell has thrown seven interceptions.
Double Trouble • Senior wideout Derek Davis became the first Princeton wide receiver to catch touchdowns in consecutive games since Blair Morrison (2003 vs. Harvard and Cornell) when he caught a 60-yard touchdown pass against Penn and a 28-yard touchdown pass against Yale.
Double Dekker • Derek Davis wasn't the first Princeton player with touchdown catches in consecutive games since Blair Morrison; that honor went to tight end Jon Dekker, who leads Princeton in catches this season and scored against Cornell and Penn.
Five For Fighting • Junior quarterback Jeff Terrell has thrown five touchdown passes in Princeton's last two games. The last Princeton quarterback with as many scoring passes in two games is Matt Verbit, who threw for six in consecutive games against Harvard and Cornell in 2003.
Close Calls • Since the Class of 2006 began their Tiger careers, 24 of 38 games have been decided by a touchdown or less. Princeton is 11-13 in those games, but it has won five of its last eight (the 17-10 win over Dartmouth in '04 and this year's Lafayette, San Diego, Harvard and Cornell games).
D+ • Princeton leads the Ivy League and is ranked 13th nationally in scoring defense. The Tigers have allowed 18.1 points per game this season.
Seeing Red • Princeton ranks first in the Ivy League in both red zone offense and red zone defense. The Tigers score on 86.7% of their trips inside their opponent's red zone (14 TD/12 FG), and they allow their opponents only a 64.0% success rate (11 TD/5 FG).
The Crystal Ball • Princeton's next game will come Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006 at Lehigh. Princeton hasn't played Lehigh since 2003, the year before the Tigers began a two-game series with the University of San Diego. Princeton's first home game of the season will be Sept. 23 against Lafayette.
Last Year: Princeton 17, Dartmouth 10
Box Score
Finally, the break went Princeton's way. A blocked field goal touched three players' hands, including James Williams, who carried in the game-winning touchdown late in a 17-10 victory over the Dartmouth Big Green.
The win ended Princeton's season at 5-5, which marked a three-game improvement from 2003 and gave Princeton possession of the "1917 Sawhorse Dollar," which will be given annually to the winner of the Princeton-Dartmouth game. It also ended the careers of 20 seniors, all of whom will remember the wild final game of their careers quite fondly.
The winning score came with 5:25 remaining in the fourth quarter. With the score tied 10-10, Derek Javarone lined up for a 42-yard field goal. Javarone, who had made seven field goals in the last three weeks of the season and who was a perfect 5-for-5 against Dartmouth in 2003, watched a leaping Clayton Smith block the kick with his right hand. The ball deflected to holder Colin McDonough, who tried to run the ball two yards for a first down. Two Dartmouth players jumped on him at the 24-yard-line, which was one yard short of the first down. While nearly everybody in the stadium thought the play was complete, Williams came out of the pile with the football and ran towards the end zone.
"At first, I just wanted to give him a push to get the first down," said the junior defensive end, who scored a touchdown on a fumble return at San Diego earlier in the season. "Then two guys went for him, and I saw the ball. He says he gave it to me, but I think I took it."
The incredible play gave Princeton a 17-10 lead with slightly more than five minutes to play. Dartmouth followed with a 10-play, 47-yard drive that ended on back-to-back drops in the end zone, including the final one on 4th-and-10 at the 24-yard line.
The Big Green exhausted their timeouts on Princeton's following drive and got the ball back at its own 34-yard line with 2:27 remaining. The senior members of the defense made sure their final stand would be a memorable one. Sacks by Peter Kelly, Keasey and, on 4th down, Chris Browne, ended the Dartmouth drive 21 yards behind the original line of scrimmage.
Keasey ended his final season as the Ivy League leader in tackles. His 22 tackles gave him 127 for the season, the third-highest single-season total ever at Princeton. Keasey also had four tackles for loss and two sacks in the win. Justin Stull chipped in with 10 tackles and a sack, while Tim Strickland added his team-best fourth interception of the season.
On the offensive side of the ball, quarterback Matt Verbit completed 20 of 26 passes for 153 yards and a touchdown. His touchdown, the only one for the Princeton offense on the day, came late in the second quarter. With no timeouts remaining and 12 seconds left in the half, Verbit scrambled right and found eventual first-team All-Ivy selection Jay McCareins, who broke free of his defender and caught a five-yard touchdown pass. It was the final of 24 career touchdown passes thrown by the No. 2 passer ever at Princeton; those 24 touchdowns were thrown to 14 different teammates.
Princeton opened the scoring with a 33-yard field goal from Javarone in the second quarter, but Dartmouth evened it with a 31-yard kick from Erik Hinterbichler. That score would hold until McCareins' late touchdown, but Dartmouth again evened it when Charlie Rittgers lofted a 22-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Hall in the back of the end zone with 11:16 remaining in the third quarter.
Tale of the Tape
Dartmouth Princeton 14.0 Points Per Game 23.9 25.6 Points Allowed Per Game 18.1 143 First Downs 154 44/85/14 Rushing/Passing/Penalty 68/80/6 45.1 Rushing Yardage Per Game 162.6 10 Touchdowns Rushing 12 214.1 Passing Yardage Per Game 191.6 325/182/15 Att./Comp./Int. 247/134/11 10 Touchdowns Passing 10 52/49.0 Penalties/Yards 69/65.8 62/33.9 Punts/Avg. Per Punt 43/40.0 29:33 Time of Possession 30:16 11/66 Sacks By/Yardage 18 for 93 17/8 Fumbles/Fumbles Lost 19/8 6/11 Field Goals/Attempts 13/15 34 for 131 (26%) Third-Down Conversions 54 for 130 (42%)