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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Football Returns Home, Faces Another Potential Shootout With Cornell
October 25, 2011 | Football
For more than a decade, the Princeton-Cornell series has featured some memorable and, almost always, close contests. With the high-powered Princeton run game and the explosive Cornell pass attack both scheduled to take Powers Field this Saturday at 1 p.m., Princeton fans may be in store for another thriller.
PRINCETON GAME NOTES
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The Princeton football team is looking to maintain control of its place in the Ivy League championship chase when it heads to league unbeaten Harvard Saturday at 1 p.m. to start the second half of the 2011 season.
Game Information
| Date/Time | Oct. 29/1 p.m. |
| Field | Powers Field at Princeton Stadium |
| Location | Princeton, N.J. |
| TV | Verizon FIOS 1/GoPrincetonTigers.TV |
| Radio | GoPrincetonTigers.com/WPRB 103.3 FM |
| All-Time Series | Princeton 57-34-2 |
| Last Year | CORNELL 21, Princeton 19 |
| Last At Site | PRINCETON 17, Cornell 14 (2009) |
| Last Five Years | Princeton 3-2 |
| Current Streak | Cornell 1 |
Game Notes • Week 7
A Few Fast Facts To Get You Ready…
Close Calls
Princeton and Cornell have split their last 12 meetings, and 10 of the last 11 have been decided by seven points or fewer. Since a 28-6 Princeton victory in 2003, the last seven games have been decided by an average margin of 3.6 points per game.
You can read highlights of a decade's worth of thrillers on the next page.
Home Sweet Home
Princeton has won four straight home games over Cornell, its longest current home winning streak over any team in the Ivy League. Two years ago, Princeton overcame a late deficit with a 78-yard touchdown pass from Tommy Wornham to Trey Peacock.
This will also be Princeton's first home game in four weeks; following a 24-21 win over Columbia on Oct. 1, the Tigers have traveled more than 1,600 miles to compete against Hampton, Brown and Harvard.
Three's Company
Freshman running back Chuck Dibilio has earned three of the first six Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors, including one last weekend following his 135-yard, two-touchdown rushing effort at Harvard. No other Princeton player has ever won the award three times in one season, and only two others had ever won it twice.
Dibilio currently ranks fourth in the Ivy League in rushing and fifth in all-purpose yards.
Wild Rice
Chuck Dibilio was recently named to the Jerry Rice Award Watch List; this is the inaugural year for the award, which honors the outstanding freshman in the Football Championship Subdivision. The award is presented by The Sports Network and sponsored by Fathead.com.
Head Of The Class
Freshman Matt Costello was announced as one of five winners of the 2011 NFF National High School Scholar-Athlete Award, given by The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF). Costello is the second Princeton football player to win this award in as many years. Offensive lineman Max Coale earned the honor in 2010.
The Crystal Ball
Princeton will head to Penn to take on the two-time reigning Ivy League champion Quakers next Saturday at 1. The Tigers will play their final home game of the season Nov. 12 at noon in the 134th playing of the Princeton-Yale game. That game will be televised nationally on the YES Network.
The Recent History Of The Princeton-Cornell Series
Princeton's Brian Danielewicz completes a 24-yard TD pass to Chisom Opara with 11 seconds remaining, but Taylor Northrop slips on the icy turf and his PAT was blocked.
2001: Cornell 10, Princeton 7
Taylor Northrop's 57-yard field goal attempt with 5:53 remaining hits the crossbar and bounces back.
2002: Princeton 32, Cornell 25 (ot)
Princeton scores 22 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to rally from a 25-10 deficit. Jay McCareins forces overtime with a late INT and Blair Morrison catches the winning TD.
2003: PRINCETON 28, Cornell 6
Matt Verbit throws two touchdown passes in a 22-second span as Princeton rolls to the only lopsided win of the decade.
2004: CORNELL 21, Princeton 20
Cornell throws TD passes of 54 and 79 yards, and Derek Javarone's PAT with 6:48 left in the 4th quarter gets blocked.
2005: PRINCETON 20, Cornell 17 (ot)
Jeff Terrell engineers an 18-play, 63-yard drive to set up the tying field goal, and Derek Javarone breaks the Ivy League record with his 42nd career field goal to win it in overtime.
2006: CORNELL 14, Princeton 7
Despite being outgained 328-274, the Big Red hands Princeton its only loss of the season when Matt Grant's late interception ends the final Tiger drive.
2007: PRINCETON 34, Cornell 31
Princeton RB Jordan Culbreath, recording his breakout game on ESPNU, runs for 145 yards and two touchdowns, and Cornell kicker Peter Zell misses a 47-yarder in the final seconds.
2008: Princeton 31, CORNELL 26
Despite trailing by 12 with 45 seconds remaining, a late touchdown and an onsides kick allows Cornell to attempt a 20-yard pass into the end zone on the final play, but it falls incomplete.
2009: PRINCETON 17, Cornell 13
With Culbreath returning to the sideline for the first time since his aplastic anemia diagnosis, Princeton threw 2 TD passes to Trey Peacock, including the 78-yard game winner in the 4th quarter.
2010: CORNELL 21, Princeton 19
Princeton scores two TDs in the fourth quarter to cut a 15-point deficit to two points, but a late throw into the end zone is picked off by Cornell's Emani Fenton to preserve the win.
Offensive Notes & Anecdotes
Fresh(man) Face
Freshman Chuck Dibilio, who was recently named to the watch list for the Jerry Rice Award, given to the top freshman in the NCAA FCS, has already rewritten the Princeton record book in his first five games. His 147-yard rushing performance three weeks ago was a single-game rushing record for a Princeton freshman, and his 536 yards is already a freshman single-season record.
Since the 2006 season, Dibilio's current total of 536 is the second most for a single season at Princeton, behind only Jordan Culbreath's 2008 total of 1,206 yards. With 106 more yards, Dibilio would have the third-highest single-season rushing total in a decade, behind only Culbreath and Cameron Atkinson (1,028, 2002).
Ground Chuck
Freshman Chuck Dibilio ranks fourth in the Ivy League with 89.3 rushing yards per game. His 6.2 yards-per-rush average is the second highest of any player in the Top 10. Dibilio is the only freshman running back in the Ivy League Top 10, and he is the highest-ranking underclassman on the list.
Catch-22
Princeton scored 22 points in the third quarter against Harvard. Prior to that game, its highest point total for any game this season had been 24.
Princeton also recorded 556 yards of total offense against Harvard. Only two Ivy League teams recorded as many as 400 against the Crimson in the last 47 Ivy League games.
On The Run
Harvard came into last weekend leading the nation in rushing defense, allowing only 55.4 yards per game, and it had allowed only two rushing touchdowns. Princeton ran for 267 yards and four touchdowns in the 56-39 loss.
Princeton has now rushed for more than 200 yards in three of the last four games. Chuck Dibilio became the first individual runner to rush for more than 100 yards against Harvard all season.
Catching On
Junior Shane Wilkinson had the best game of his career last weekend, catching eight passes for 108 yards and a touchdown at Harvard. He was Princeton's first 100-yard receiver since the 2010 Cornell game, when Trey Peacock caught seven passes for 136 yards and two scores.
Fountain Of Youth
Like Chuck Dibilio, freshman Matt Costello is having a record-setting season for Princeton. Costello leads Princeton with 24 receptions and 291 receiving yards. Both totals are freshman single-season records, eclipsing totals set by Blair Morrison during the 2000 season.
Five Alive
Senior quarterback Tommy Wornham moved to fifth on the all-time Princeton passing list last weekend with his 277-yard effort against Harvard. With four games left in his career, Wornham has thrown for 3,853 yards, 191 yards more than Ron Beible.
Wornham needs 313 yards to move past 2006 Bushnell Cup winner Jeff Terrell for fourth on the all-time Princeton passing list, and he needs 421 to move past current Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett for third on the list.
Let's Play Two
Entering last weekend's game, Princeton hadn't recorded a 2-point conversion since Week 6 of the 2005 game. The Tigers scored on 2-point conversions on back-to-back drives last weekend, first on a pass from Tommy Wornham to Shane Wilkinson, and the second on a pass from Wornham to Matt Costello. The latter came at the end of a 10-play, 87-yard drive; it was the longest scoring drive, in terms of yardage, for Princeton this season.
Point, Counterpoint
Princeton's 39 points last weekend was its highest offensive output since scoring 42 in a Week 3 win over Columbia in 2007.
Huston, We Have A Starter
Junior tackle Kevin Mill could miss Saturday's game with an injury, which would move freshman Spenser Huston into the starting lineup. He would be the first freshman to start on the offensive line this season; sophomore center Joe Goss started eight games on the offensive line as a freshman last season. Seniors Matt Allen, Mike Muha and Kevin DeMaio have started every game on the offensive line this season, and both Allen and DeMaio started each game last season.
Defensive Notes & Anecdotes
Reid It And Weep
Junior Caraun Reid has been one of the most disruptive forces in the Ivy League this season. He ranks third in the league with five sacks this season, and he shares the top spot in the league with 10 tackles for loss. The league co-leader is Cornell's Zach Imhoff.
Reid had one of his best games at Harvard last weekend, recording five tackles, including 3.5 for losses, and sacking Crimson quarterback Collier Winters twice.
He has recorded at least 2.5 tackles for loss in each of the last three games, and he has recorded at least one sack in four of the last five.
Quick As A Cat
Senior Mike Catapano is also having a terrific season on the defensive line. He is second on the team with six tackles for loss, which ranks fifth in the Ivy League. Catapano had six tackles and a sack last weekend against Harvard.
Sparks By Starks
Junior linebacker Andrew Starks led Princeton with 10 tackles last weekend against Harvard. He currently ranks fourth in the Ivy League with 9.2 tackles per game; Cornell's Brandon Lainhart leads the league with 9.8 tackles per game.
Starks leads Princeton with 46 total tackles this season (24 solo), despite the fact that he missed the Brown game with an injury.
Tackling The Issue
Senior Steven Cody didn't get to play in the 2010 Cornell game because of his broken leg, but he has good memories of playing the Big Red. In a tight home win in 2009, Cody made 15 tackles and an interception to preserve a 17-14 victory. The previous year, Cody made 11 stops in a 31-26 road victory.
Cody currently ranks second on the team with 43 tackles, including 15 solo stops.
Cross My Heart
Senior safety Chance Cross recorded a career-best 10 tackles last weekend and had two forced turnovers three weeks ago at Hampton.
Very Special
Princeton has had several special teams highlights through the first half of the season, including:
• Patrick Jacob leads the Ivy League with 1.7 field goals per game. He is the reigning first-team All-Ivy placekicker and made 14 field goals last season. For his career, he is 24 for 31 in field goals (77.4%), and he has never missed two kicks in one game, or two kicks in a row.
• Joe Cloud leads the Ivy League with a punting average of 43.7 yards per punt; he was a
second-team All-Ivy pick last season after leading the Ivy League in punting average.
• Ivan Charbonneau recorded Princeton's first kickoff return for a touchdown since 2005 with a 92-yard score against Lehigh. The last kickoff return for a touchdown was by Jay McCareins, and it provided the winning margin in a 27-24 victory at Harvard Stadium.
• Caraun Reid blocked a field goal attempt in the season opener against Lehigh, while Mike Catapano blocked one three weeks ago against Hampton.
Head Inside
Princeton radio voice Dan Loney is part of the new “Inside Ivy League Football,” an in-depth look at both the on-field action and all the news and notes surrounding Ivy football. The 10-episode show airs Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on BlogTalkRadio.com, and features interviews with players and coaches, as well as analysis on each of the Ivy teams.