John Lovett Wins FCS National/Ivy Player Of The Week Honor; Relive All Seven Touchdowns Here

Here are the Week 7 Monday Notes following the 56-7 overtime win over Cornell:

• You can watch the Monday Rewind highlight package here.

• Junior John Lovett earned his first FCS STATS National Offensive Player of the Week honor, as well as his third Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week award, after catching his first touchdown pass of the season in Saturday's 56-7 victory at Cornell. OK, the four touchdown passes he threw and the two touchdown runs he added probably factored into the decision. He now leads the FCS with 14 rushing touchdowns — five short of Keith Elias' Princeton record, and no Princeton player has ever accounted for seven touchdowns in a game prior to Lovett's effort on Saturday.

Lovett — also named the GoPrincetonTigers.com Athlete of the Week, presented by Suburban Transit — is Princeton's first National Offensive Player of the Week since Quinn Epperly won the honor following his performance in a 51-48 triple-overtime win at Harvard, when he threw for six touchdown passes.

While GoPrincetonTigers.com will turn its attention to Saturday's crucial showdown against Penn (noon, American Sports Network/Ivy League Digital Network) Tuesday, we did want to give one last look back at Lovett's historic performance on Schoellkopf Field last weekend. Let's relive all seven touchdowns from that win, since we may not see this opportunity ever again. (Of course, with Lovett, who knows?) The highlight package at the bottom of this page, taken from the TV broadcast over the weekend, includes all seven scoring plays.

3rd and Goal at the Cornell 3.
This was the most basic Lovett TD of the game. He was in shotgun in an empty set, took the snap and followed the block of a pulling Erik Ramirez to go off right tackle for his 13th rushing touchdown of the season.
Princeton 7, Cornell 0

2nd and 17 at the Cornell 35.
Lovett had thrown only one career pass longer than 35 yards at Princeton — and that one went 36 — so you can understand why Cornell played this one tight. It just didn't work out. Senior Trevor Osborne beat his defender badly on a deep inside post, and Lovett lofted the ball enough to allow Osborne to run under it and score untouched. There was an element of surprise to the play, because it was Lovett's longest career touchdown pass by quite a bit.
At least, it was at that point.
Princeton 14, Cornell 0

1st and Goal at the Cornell 2.
This one was set up by Lovett's first score, as well as pretty much every other game film from Princeton this season. Once again in shotgun, he took the snap and took two steps toward the line, basically forcing the linebackers and safety to commit to the run. That left James Frusciante in a one-on-one matchup, and he established inside position on a slant. Lovett fired a laser toward the back of the end zone, where it would either be a touchdown or incomplete.
Like most times Lovett touched the ball that day, it was a touchdown.
Princeton 21, Cornell 0

1st and Goal at the Cornell 10.
Arguably the most impressive touchdown run of the season came here, when the Big Red actually got one of its better pushes against a Tiger offensive line that dominated the majority of Saturday's game. Lovett's original run was to go off left tackle, but there was no opening. He cut back to the middle, found a hole behind the Cornell surge, and took off back down the left side. Fullback Cody Smith sealed off two linebackers, and Lovett scored untouched.
Princeton 28, Cornell 0

1st and Goal at the Cornell 7.
This was the one that brought the most joy to head coach Bob Surace after the game. Chad Kanoff was in shotgun and Lovett went in motion from right to left; Kanoff took the snap and took one step forward, again forcing the linebackers to hold their position.
It didn't really matter. Kanoff immediately turned left and fired a pass to Lovett that led him towards the sideline. Lovett powered to the 3, planted his feet and dove toward the pylon. It was an impressive athletic play, especially his ability to keep his body off the ground until he stretched the ball over the line.
Princeton 35, Cornell 0

2nd at 15 at the Princeton 5.
No, that isn't a misprint. The ball was at the Princeton 5. Lovett may be a specialist inside the 10, but that wasn't supposed to cover both sides of the field. Cornell had just scored on the first possession of the second half, and there was a bounce to the Big Red sideline for the first time. The Tigers were pinned back close to their goal line, and Cornell went all-out in attempt for a safety or turnover. When you gamble like that, though, you have very little help in the back.
That would be the case here, as Isaiah Barnes beat his man on a quick inside post, and Lovett hit him on stride at the 20. The only player who came close to Barnes over the next 80 yards was Jesper Horsted, who was looking for anybody to block, but settled to be the first to celebrate the 95-yard score.
Princeton 42, Cornell 7

1st and Goal at the Cornell 6.
Lovett's seventh started with him rolling to the right and waiting for somebody to break free. He bought enough time for tight end Graham Adomitis to cut inside and then back outside, where he made one of the most athletic grabs of the season, somehow keeping one foot inbounds for the seventh Princeton touchdown of the game.
Princeton 49, Cornell 7

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