Defense Wipes Out Cornell In 14-3 Princeton Win As Tigers Remain In First Place

Saturday, October 28

Ithaca, N.Y.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

Cornell

Luke Collela catches a pass that became a 33-yard TD in Princeton's 14-3 win over Cornell.

Photo by: John O'Donnell

Defense Wipes Out Cornell In 14-3 Princeton Win As Tigers Remain In First Place

October 28, 2023 | Football

Box Score

The whole idea of relaxing in the fourth quarter of a Princeton football game in 2023 is ludicrous. No matter how in control the game seems to be, there are the memories of weeks past to keep the anxiety level up until the final whistle.

Memories? Like the ones of Princeton's two previous games, where a two-touchdown fourth quarter lead evaporated and became an overtime loss (to Brown) and then another two-touchdown second-half lead became a tie game requiring a late touchdown drive for a win (against Harvard). Actually, you could pretty much pick any game you wanted this season and see how nothing was certain until it was.

And with that backdrop, there was Princeton Saturday afternoon at Cornell, once again with a two-score lead into the fourth quarter. This time, though, if the score didn't make Tiger fans feel like things were safe, the defense certainly did.

Princeton threw a blanket around Cornell's offense all day and never let the Big Red back into the game. For that matter, the D didn't let Cornell into the end zone either. Add to that some big plays on offense, and the result was a 14-3 win for the Tigers.

The victory guaranteed that Princeton would be tied for first at the end of Week 7, with the same 3-1 Ivy record that the winner of the late game between Harvard and Dartmouth would have. Behind the two first place teams sit five 2-2 teams: Cornell, the Harvard-Dartmouth loser, Penn, Yale and Brown. Yeah, this is a crazy year in the league.

Princeton is at Dartmouth Friday night, followed by a home game against Yale and a trip to Penn.

In situations like this, it's great to have a defense that is capable of putting up the kind of performance that Princeton's did yesterday, when it simply overwhelmed the Big Red. Cornell was coming off a game where it put up 36 points (holding Brown to 14) and 434 yards.

Against Princeton, those offensive numbers three points and 330 yards. As far as those 330 yards go, 91 of them came on the first and last Cornell drives of the days, neither of which ended with points. In between, Cornell picked up 239 total yards on its other nine drives. That's winning defense.

What else is winning defense? No Princeton player had double figures in tackles, but six had seven, eight or nine. Marco Scarano, Nasir Hill, Ozzie Nicholas and Jack DelGarbino had nine each; Jalen Newman had eight and Liam Johnson had seven. Big Red QB Jameson Wang, who threw for 330 yards against Brown last week, was held to 26 for 42 passing for 234 yards (39 on that last drive) and one Mason Armstead interception.

It also meant that the 14 points that Cornell allowed this time were plenty. Those 14 points came courtesy of two long pass plays, one of 77 yards from Blake Stenstrom to Tamatoa Falatea on the first play of the Tigers' second possession, after a three-and-out on the first one, and then a 33-yard catch-and-run from Stenstrom to Luke Collela with just eight seconds left in the first half, making it 14-3 at the break.

Stenstrom was 20 for 32 for 299 yards and the two scores, without an interception. Falatea caught five passes for 105 yards, and AJ Barber caught three for 62.

Cornell's last chance came after a Tiger punt went into the end zone with 3:34 to play. Would there be drama to end this one? Would Cornell score and get the ball back, making this another crazy finish?

Nope. The Big Red drove against a Tiger defense that was in a prevent, but in the end, there was no end zone. Not on that drive. Not in the game.