Princeton slips up late in loss to Columbia
PRINCETON » As Columbia’s Ronald Smith II broke away from a tackler and sprinted toward the end zone with a record-breaking reception, Princeton’s season all of a sudden was up against a wall.
Smith’s 63-yard catch and run with 1:12 remaining rallied the Lions to a stunning, 28-24, victory over the Tigers on Saturday afternoon at Powers Field.
Columbia (3-0, 1-0) won for just the 16th time in 87 all-time meetings and snapped a six-game losing streak against Princeton (21, 0-1).
“We’re not better than that team,” Princeton coach Bob Surace said. “We got a bunch of freshmen out there playing that made some mistakes. It’s my fault. We made some mistakes in discipline that I got to correct. We took them seriously and we just didn’t make enough plays. Fell a little short.”
Smith set a single-game Columbia receiving record, hauling in 10 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns. None was bigger than his 63yard
First quarter PRIN —
Horsted 9 pass from Kanoff (Rice kick), 11:42.
Smith II 46 pass from Hill (Milstein kick), 6:29.
CLMB — Second quarter PRIN —
Horsted 12 pass from Kanoff (Rice kick), 8:21.
Thomas 11 run (Milstein kick),
CLMB —
3:16.
Third quarter CLMB —
12:09.
PRIN — Fourth quarter PRIN —
FG Rice 26, 3:27.
Carlson 27 pass from Kanoff (Rice kick), 2:48.
Smith II 63 pass from Hill (Milstein kick), 1:12.
CLMB —
Bean 2 run (Milstein kick),
First downs Rushes yds Passing Comp-Att-Int Return yards Punts-Avg. Fumbles-lost Penalty-yards Time of poss.
Rushing —
Columbia, T. Thomas 15-58, C. Schroer 7-19, J. Bean 2-0, J. Wainwright 1-(minus 1), A. Hill 11-(minus 25). Princeton, C. Volker 19-71, C. Eaddy 7-62, C. Kanoff 2-8, K. Davidson 3-7, J. Lewis 1-2.
Passing —
Columbia, A. Hill 27-40-1-400. Princeton, C. Kanoff 24-40-3-312, K. Davidson 0-1-0-0.
Columbia, R. Smith II 10236, J. Wainwright 7-78, E. Kabus 4-34, C. Schroer 3-23, K. Castner 1-11, C. Everett 1-10, K. Pitts 1-8. Princeton, S. Carlson 8-146, J. Horsted 8-96, T. Bech 4-34, C. Smith 2-34, J. Argue 1-4, G. Adomitis 1-(minus 2). sprint to the end zone on a 3rd-and-11 play that ended up the winning score.
Receiving —
CLMB 19 38-48 400 27-40-1 73 7-37.3 0-0 13-139 36:26
PRIN 24 33-150 312 24-41-3 32 3-16.7 1-1 2-31 23:34
Benjamin McKeighan picked off Chad Kanoff for the second time at the Columbia 28 to end Princeton’s threat.
“I was trying to throw it away,” said Kanoff, who finished 24-of-40 for 312 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. “Obviously, I didn’t put enough on it.”
The Tigers took a 24-21 lead with 2:48 remaining when Kanoff hooked up with Stephen Carlson for a 27-yard score.
Carlson (8 for 146, TD) and Jesper Horsted (8 for 96, 2 TDs) combined to grab 16 balls for 242 yards and three touchdowns.
“I love throwing to them,” Kanoff said. “We talked about that all camp that we’re going to do it, and we did it. That was great. We needed to do it again.”
The Tigers faltered with four turnovers, including a fumble by backup quarterback Kevin Davidson on a 1st-and-goal play from the Columbia three yardline with 5:32 remaining.
Davidson also misfired on a jump pass on 4th-and-goal that ended Princeton’s previous possession inside the Lions’ five yardline.
“We got to do a better job executing down there,” Surace said. “We didn’t get any push. There’s a number of things that happened when we got down there. Not only the turnover, we had four today, but we didn’t get any push. He’s got to protect it better, and he knows that. We got to go back to square one and get that done.”
With senior linebacker Mark Fossati and senior defensive end Khalil Bryant both banged up, Columbia quarterback Anders Hill completed 27-fo-40 passes for 400 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Surace felt like his young defense wore down, especially on the final drive.
“We didn’t do a good job stopping them on third down,” the coach said. “We were on the field way too much on defense and it affected our pass rush immensely.” Princeton hosts Georgetown next week before backto-back Ivy road games at Brown and Harvard.
There is no more margin for error in the league.
“We lost our third game last year,” Kanoff said. “It’s not the end of our season. I don’t think anybody thinks that. We’re going to keep playing and practicing hard.”