Ivy Champs: Senior Class Leads Princeton Past Penn For Fourth Title in Eight Seasons

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Matthew Winston timed it perfectly, stepped in front of the pass from Penn's Aidan Sayin and saw nothing in front of him other than the championship that he and the rest of the Princeton football seniors came back to make happen.

On a day when Princeton needed a win to earn a share of the Ivy League title, it was Winston who made the biggest play, intercepting a pass and returning it 34 yards for a second-quarter touchdown that ended much of the suspense of the day. By the time it was over, the Tigers had a 34-14 win over the Quakers – and a fourth Ivy League championship in eight seasons.

Princeton 17, Penn 7 | 13:12 2nd@matthewwinston9 RING THE BELL!

A 34-yard house call for the senior as the Tigers go up double-digits!

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— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) November 20, 2021

Princeton finished the season at 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League. The Tigers will celebrate the Big Three title, with their wins over Harvard and Yale, Sunday night at 7:30 with a bonfire.

As the celebration unfolded on Franklin Field afterwards, it was easy to forget that Penn led 7-3 after the first quarter and that it was just 10-7 Princeton when Winston made his play. A loss to Penn would have denied Princeton its championship, and the Quakers were playing like what they were, which is to say a team that wanted nothing more than to spoil the party for its biggest rival. In fact, Princeton came into the game knowing it had to win if Dartmouth also won, and the Big Green, starting 30 minutes before the Princeton game, pulled away steadily from Brown before winning 52-31. Even before that went final, it was clear that the Tigers needed to hold serve as well.

Winston changed any chance of an upset with his interception return, on which he stepped in front of the Penn receiver, tiptoed the sideline and then sprinted straight into the end zone. It was the first pick-six for the Tigers since CJ Wall's interception return for a touchdown vs. Georgetown in Oct. of 2017. Any Penn momentum was gone after that. It would soon become a 28-point second quarter for Princeton and a 31-7 lead at intermission, setting up a second half that was low on drama but high on emotion, which was just the way the Tigers wanted it.

If last week's win over Yale was senior day at Powers Field at Princeton Stadium, the game against Penn was the day the seniors all hoped for when the 2020 season was postponed. Determined to have one more shot at a championship, it was those seniors who made it happen.

There was Samuel Wright II, who had three sacks. There were linebackers Jeremiah Tyler and James Johnson, who had 11 tackles between them for a defense that allowed only one Penn scoring drive before the game was salted away. There was an all-senior offensive line in front senior quarterback Cole Smith, who completed 20 of 28 passes for 214 yards while running for 69 more and a touchdown and dropping a perfect pooch punt at the Penn 2. There was Jacob Birmelin, who caught six more passes, and Dylan Classi, who threw a TD pass to John Volker (a freshman, but it still counted) off a double reverse.

Princeton 24, Penn 7 | 7:29 2nd

A great receiver - ?
A great quarterback - ?

What can't @Dylan_Classi do?

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— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) November 20, 2021

There was Christian Brown, who set up another touchdown with his own interception.

In short, it was a total team effort, one driven by the seniors.

George Triplett, another senior, started the scoring with a 31-yard field goal – a play that began with yet another perfect long-snap from Ryan McNeil, who finished his career by long-snapping in every game for four years and never once having a bad snap on a punt or placekick. Penn answered the field goal with an eight-play, 75-yard march that created a bit of a feeling of uneasiness for Princeton, who answered in championship fashion, with an eight-play, 75-yard drive of its own that ended with a five-yard Blake Stenstrom TD run to make it 10-0.

Would Penn answer? Would this be a tight shootout? Not after Winston made his statement. Suddenly it was 17-7, which became 24-7 on the Classi-to-Volker pass and then 31-7 on the Smith TD run.

"It's been such a journey," said Princeton head coach Bob Surace. "Going through the good, keeping the faith when we didn't know what would happen. It's just a testament to their character and resilience."

"This is crazy," said Tyler postgame when speaking with the media. "This is why we took the whole year off. I'm just glad our hard work has come to fruition. All the time, all the sweat, blood and tears that we shared have paid off. There's no better feeling that right now."

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