Smith Bounces Back To Lead No. 24 Princeton Past No. 25 Monmouth 31-28

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Football

October 11, 12PM

vs #19 Mercer

Princeton, N.J.

Football

October 18, 12PM

at Brown

Providence, R.I.

Football

October 25, 12PM

vs Harvard

Princeton, N.J.

Football

November 1, 1PM

at Cornell

Football

November 8, 1PM

at Dartmouth

Hanover, N.H.

Cole Smith went from running out the clock to trying to beat the clock. In the end, he showed a great deal about himself, as did the rest of his Princeton football teammates.

Smith rebounded from throwing a game-tying pick-six with 2:53 left to lead the Tigers on a game-winning drive that ended with a 35-yard field goal from freshman Jeffrey Sexton with 10 seconds left into a 21 mile per hour wind to give No. 24 Princeton a thrilling 31-28 win over No. 25 Monmouth Saturday afternoon in West Long Branch.

Update: 36-yard game-winner! https://t.co/WSv62wN0u8
— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) October 9, 2021

Princeton improved to 4-0 with the win and will now play six Ivy League games in the next six weeks.

Almost lost in the way the game ended was the fact that Princeton rallied from a 21-6 third-quarter deficit for its largest comeback since the epic 2012 win over Harvard that featured a comeback from 24 down in the fourth quarter.

This time, Princeton scored three touchdowns, all by Collin Eaddy, after getting huge plays from wide receivers Dylan Classi, Andrei Iosivas and Jacob Birmelin along the way. What had been a 15-point Monmouth lead after the first drive of the third quarter was now a 28-21 Princeton lead with 7:42 to play. When the Princeton defense once again came up with a stop and forced a punt, Princeton had the lead and the ball for the first time all day, with a little more than three minutes to play. One first down and the game would be over.

Monmouth called a timeout after an Eaddy run on first down was stopped for no gain. On second down, Smith threw a pass over the middle that instead was picked off by Anthony Budd, who returned it 22 yards for a TD. Stunningly, it was 28-28 after the extra point.

So what did Smith do? He did what winning quarterbacks have to do. With all the momentum with the home team, Smith completed 4 of 7 passes for 48 yards and had two big carries mixed in, the last of which avoided a sack and gained five crucial yards on the play before the field goal into the wind. Along the way, The Charles W. Caldwell Jr. '25 Head Coach of Football Bob Surace boldly went for it on a fourth-and-1 on his own 34 that Eaddy just was able to convert.

After Sexton, who had kicked a 46-yard field goal with the wind at his back to end the first half, drilled this one as well, Monmouth's last chance ended with a seven-lateral play that made it across midfield but not much further.

Smith had redemption, and Princeton had a huge win.

On a team that prides itself on its depth, the contributions at the "we-need-you-now" time will come from more than one person. Princeton would never have been in position to pull it out at all had it not been for so many different players, but it was the wide receiver corps that made the biggest splash.

There was Classi, for instance. First he caught a two-point conversion to make it 21-14 in the third quarter. Then he accounted for 51 of the 67 yards on the next drive, with a 17-yard completion to Birmelin to get things started and then catches of nine and then 25 more to the Hawk one to set up Eaddy again, tying it at 21-21. Classi finished with five catches for 64 yards, the last of which was an 18-yard grab on a fourth-and-six that set up the Tigers at the Monmouth 21 in the final minute.

There was Iosivas, who caught four passes for 76 yards, including a 30-yard acrobatic reception near the sideline that set Princeton up for first-and-goal at the six before Eaddy's third touchdown and an earlier 38-yard catch and run that at first was called a TD before review placed it at the one, where Eaddy punched it in, prior to Classi's two-point catch that made it 21-14.

And there was Birmelin, who caught nine for 109 yards, including a 22-yard catch on the game-winning drive. It was his third 100-yard receiving day of his career.

Smith finished 27 for 41 for 282 yards. Eaddy registered three rushing touchdowns in a game for the third time in his career (11/10/18 - Yale, 10/11/19 - Lafayette). His 24 career touchdowns are tied with Walter A. Snickenberger, Jr. '75, for 10th all-time.

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