LOUD & ROAR
Undefeated Princeton keeps piling up points in win over Brown
PRINCETON >> Change the quarterback. Same result.
Kevin Davidson threw for four touchdowns in relief of injured starter John Lovett and No. 21 Princeton romped over Brown, 48-10, to remain undefeated on Saturday afternoon.
“You just got to step up,” Davidson said. “Nothing changes much and that comes from our coaches. When your name is called you have to step up.”
Making his first career start, Davidson, a junior with 18 career pass attempts, completed 26-of39 attempts for 304 yards. He connected with senior wideouts Jesper Horsted and Stephen Carlson a combined time receptions for 296 yards.
“I saw the same stuff (in practice) that you saw tonight with putting balls on target and making plays with his legs,” Horsted said. “We know even if Kevin went down, we have guys after that, too. All of our quarterbacks are looking awesome. We have a lot of confidence in all of them.”
Horsted finished with 13 grabs for 169 yards and two scores, while Carlson hauled in eight passes for 127 yards and touchdown.
“They’re two of the best in college football, so you have to give them a shot,”Davidson said. “They’re going to go up and fight and it’s awesome.”
The Tigers set the tone by going deep to Carlson for 39 yards on their first offensive play. That led to the first of Davidson’s four TD tosses when he hit Ryan Quigley from two yards out.
“He has such a strong arm,” head coach Bob Surace said. “I was standing with John (Lovett) and he was like, ‘Kevin is going to play great. He’s got the strongest arm of anybody we’ve had.’ Kevin did a good, we didn’t turn it over on offense, and I thought we managed the plays well. He didn’t try to do too much outside of the offense.”
Charlie Volker carried the ball 13 times for 108 yards and a pair of scores.
Princeton (5-0, 2-0) came into play averaging an FCS best 53 points and 607.2 yards per game, but hurt that average after racking up only 48 and 556 total yards. The Tigers have also won their first five contests for just the second time in the last 23 years (2006).
Princeton travels to Harvard next week before Dartmouth visits Princeton Stadium for what could be a clash of Ivy unbeatens.
Surace said Lovett is day-to-day after getting dinged during last week’s victory over Lehigh. Lovett, the 2016 Bushnell Cup winner, missed all of 2017 with a shoulder injury.
If Lovett can’t go, the coach knows he can count on Davidson.
“There’s a lot of confidence we have and fortunately we’ve gotten out to some big leads, so there is a comfort level when (Kevin’s) gotten in,” Surace said. “It wasn’t a 14-10 (game) where he has to play. It’s one of those situations where he can be nice and loose and he had a terrific week of practice.”