Eaddy, Tyler, DeMarco Lead Princeton Past Lafayette 28-3

Friday, October 11

Princeton, N.J.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

4-0

Lafayette

0-6

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Lafayette

Princeton Tigers

Collin Eaddy is congratulated after one of his three rushing touchdowns in the 28-3 win over Lafayette.

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Eaddy, Tyler, DeMarco Lead Princeton Past Lafayette 28-3

October 11, 2019 | Football

Box Score

If you're looking for one word to sum up the final non-league game of the season for the Princeton football team, you could try "swarming." Or "pounding."

It depends on which side of the ball you wanted to mention.

Collin Eaddy ran for three touchdowns and, well, pounded Lafayette with 53 rushing attempts, and the Princeton defense, well, swarmed the Leopards all night long to lead the 19^th-ranked Tigers to a 28-3 win in the 51^st meeting between the teams. The victory improved Princeton to 4-0 on the season, with six straight Ivy League games remaining to be played, as well as 44-3-4 all-time against Lafayette.

Princeton has now won 14 straight.

"It was a very solid win for us," said Princeton head coach Bob Surace. "We did the things we needed to do. We controlled the ball for most of the second half. Our defense was great. We have things we need to work on if we're going to reach our goals, and we know what is in front of us the rest of the way."

Princeton's offense had the ball for more than 10 minutes more than Lafayette did, and much of that time was spent running right at the Leopards. The Tigers ran it those 53 times after averaging 34.7 rushing attempts in their first three games, and the result was 203 yards on the ground.

All four Princeton touchdowns came on the ground, with the last one courtesy of Trey Gray. Eaddy became the first Princeton running back to rush for three touchdowns in a game since, oh yeah, Collin Eaddy, who did it a year ago at Yale.

And those four rushing touchdowns don't even include the 11-minute drive that wiped out pretty much the entire fourth quarter, even if it didn't end in points.

As for the defense, the Tigers were pretty much everywhere all night long. Jeremiah Tyler was particularly dominant as he set the tone with six tackles, three for loss, in the first half.

"The overall defensive effort was there tonight," Tyler said. "We had a lot of guys flying to the football. Everybody was doing his job. We were very disciplined. I was proud of our defense. It was a great collective effort."

Tyler was definitely spot on about the collective effort. Princeton had no player with more than six tackles but 13 with at least two. Joey DeMarco joined Tyler and Delan Stallworth finished with six each, and DeMarco also had two sacks. Sultaan Shabazz had his second interception of the season, and freshman Jayden Wickware's first career pick sealed things in the final minute.

Lafayette came into the game averaging 383 yards of total offense per game, including 282.6 through the air. Against Princeton those numbers were 162 total yards and 129 passing yards, and the Leopards averaged 1.5 yards per rushing attempt.

Princeton took a 14-0 lead as Eaddy scored TDs in the first and second quarter, and it was 14-3 at the break after a Lafayette field goal. Eaddy made it 21-3 after another TD after the Tigers took the second half kickoff and went 63 yards in nine plays, six of which were running plays.

Gray's touchdown came after an 11-play, 65-yard drive, with seven of those on the ground, making it 28-3 with 5:41 left in the third. The Tigers then kept it for a 15-play, 55-yard drive that took 10:55 off the fourth quarter. That drive featured 13 rushes, one pass and one sack.

Next up for Princeton will be a game next Saturday at Brown. Kickoff in Providence will be at 12:30.