Football Heads To Dartmouth For Friday Night Action At Dartmouth On ESPNU

By Craig Sachson
PrincetonTigersFootball.com

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Two holding calls had pushed Princeton back to its own half of the field. The Dartmouth defense geared up for a 3^rd-and-21 play, ready to put its offense back on the field for a potential go-ahead score. Instead, Princeton scored on a 53-yard touchdown pass, which would stand as the winning score in a 16-10 Tiger win.

The connection came from Joel Sharp to Tommy Haan. Unfamiliar with those names, Tiger fans? That's understandable. It happened on Sept. 16, 1989.

That is the last time Bob Surace left Memorial Field with a smile on his face. If he can relive that moment this weekend, Princeton will be one step closer to achieving a championship season — just like it did in 1989.

Princeton (4-3, 3-1 Ivy) heads to Hanover, N.H., Friday night for a nationally televised showdown with Dartmouth (3-4, 2-2). The game has massive implications on the Ivy League championship race. Of course, so do all the other games … that's what happens when seven teams could be in first place by the end of the weekend.

Princeton has put itself in this position with one of the nation's top-ranked defenses and timely offense throughout the Ivy season. After dropping an overtime game at Brown, the Tigers scored a late touchdown to defeat Harvard 21-14 and then limited Cornell to one field goal in a 14-3 road win.

Road victories have become a hallmark of this latest era of Princeton football. The Tigers have won thrillers at the likes of Harvard, Yale and Penn en route to past championship seasons, and they have claimed victories in California, Indiana and Washington, D.C.

Dartmouth, however, has been a House of Horrors for Princeton since Surace arrived for the 2010 season. The Tigers have lost six straight road games to Dartmouth (five at Memorial Stadium, while the 2019 game was played at Yankee Stadium), including a 31-7 loss there in 2021. The home team has won each of the last nine matchups, including a 17-14 Princeton win last year.

Surace would like nothing more than to break that streak this weekend and keep in front of the Ivy pace with two weeks to go.

Week 8 Game Notes
History Lesson • Dartmouth leads the all-time rivalry 51-46-4 in a series that dates back to October 30, 1897. The teams have split the last six meetings; overall the home team has won each of the last nine (the 2020 Princeton home game was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic).

The Race Is On • More than halfway through the Ivy League season, seven of the eight teams are within one game of first place. Princeton and Harvard are both 3-1, while five other teams (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn and Yale) are 2-2. Princeton's final three games of the season come against teams in that 2-2 group — Dartmouth, Yale and Penn.

On The Road Again • Princeton has lost six straight road games to Dartmouth, dating back to the 2011 season. The Tigers last road win over the Big Green came in the 2009 season finale; since then, Princeton has won games at 14 different road stadiums, including multiple wins at each of the other Ivy facilities.

National Defense • The Princeton defense continues to be ranked among the best in all of FCS. The Tigers currently have the #2 rushing defense (78.4 yards/game) and scoring defense (13.14 points/game), and the #3 total defense (270.7 yards/game).

Point It Out • The Princeton defense has held six of seven opponents to 14 points or fewer in regulation this season. The only team to score more than 14 in regulation was Brown, who got to 21 on a last-minute 53-yard touchdown pass.

Wizard of Oz • Senior co-captain Ozzie Nicholas leads the Ivy League and ranks 14th nationally with 10.3 tackles per game. Prior to his Week 8 game against Dartmouth last season, Nicholas had never made more than eight tackles in a single game. Starting with that game, an 11-tackle performance in a 17-14 win, Nicholas has made MORE than eight tackles in every game.

Tackling The Issue • Ozzie Nicholas may stand atop the Ivy tackles list, but teammate Liam Johnson isn't far behind. The reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year is sixth in the league with 55 stops, including seven apiece in the last two games.

Moving Up • Senior quarterback Blake Stenstrom completed 20 of 32 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns in last week's win over Cornell. That performance moved Stenstrom into fourth place on Princeton's all-time passing list with 4,393 yards. He needs to average 202.3 passing yards over the final three games to become the 31st Ivy League quarterback with at least 5,000 passing yards.

Cool Hand Luke • Junior Luke Colella ranks eighth in the Ivy League in both receptions and receiving yards, and he has had two of the biggest catches of Princeton's season over the last two weeks. He caught an 18-yard pass on 3rd-and-9 in the eventual game-winning drive against Harvard, and he caught a 33-yard touchdown pass just before halftime last weekend in Princeton's 14-3 win at Cornell.

Long Shot • Six of Princeton's last nine touchdowns have come outside the red zone:
Jiggie Carr 53 run (Brown)
AJ Barber 45 pass from Blake Stenstrom (Brown)
Tyler Picinic 21 pass from Stenstrom (Brown)
Carr 34 run (Harvard)
Tamatoa Falatea 77 pass from Stenstrom (Cornell)
Luke Colella 33 pass from Stenstrom (Cornell)

In Memoriam • This will be the first meeting between Princeton and Dartmouth since the death of longtime Big Green head coach Eugene F. "Buddy" Teevens. While Teevens may have been his competitor on the gridiron, Surace held the multiple-time Ivy champion (both as a player and a coach) in the highest regard.

"Buddy was a friend, a mentor and incredible competitor," he said. "He never let the intense competition get in the way of his values. His impact on the game itself will last just as long as his exceptional legacy as a player and coach."

Read more about Buddy Teevens' impact, and a special moment he shared with Surace following a memorable 2018 showdown, in a recent TigerBlog.

Home Sweet Home • Princeton will welcome Yale on Saturday, Nov. 11, at noon for the 2023 home finale. The game, which will be televised nationally on ESPNU, will be part of the Salute for Service Day, and it will also be Senior Day for the Class of 2024.

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