October 11, 2006: Sports

Dynamic debuts
Terrell, Tigers impress in road and home openers

On the road again
Men’s basketball searches for willing visitors

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Dynamic debuts
Terrell, Tigers impress in road and home openers

By Ashley Wolf ’08

When Princeton’s football team beat Lafayette Sept. 23 at home, head coach Roger Hughes explained the key to the Tigers’ 26­14 victory simply: “It’s about the ball: If you have it, keep it; if you don’t, take it away.”

After falling behind 14­13 early in the third quarter, Princeton executed both tasks to near-perfection to win its second straight game. Quarterback Jeff Terrell ’07 sparked the turnaround by converting on a third-down pass to wide receiver Brian Brigham ’07 and then rushing through the middle on the next play for another first down. Terrell capped the drive with a pass to wide receiver Will Thanheiser ’09 in the left corner of the end zone for Thanheiser’s first career touchdown and a 19­14 Princeton lead.

Moments later, a defensive stand and a short Lafayette punt gave the Tigers possession near midfield, and on the drive’s second play, Terrell slipped a sidearm pass to tailback R.C. Lagomarsino ’09, who dodged the defense on his way to the end zone for a 49-yard touchdown reception.

“Jeff did a good job of getting the ball out under pressure,” Lagomarsino said, “and I got there, and made some cuts, and I just ran.”

For the night, Terrell completed 20 of 31 passes for 261 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception.

While Terrell captained the offensive drives that put the Leopards away, it was defensive back J.J. Artis ’07 who killed Lafayette’s comeback hopes. Just two plays after Lagomarsino’s touchdown, Artis intercepted a long pass intended for Lafayette wide receiver Shaun Adair. After a Princeton fumble, Lafayette’s next possession also ended in the hands of Artis, who intercepted a second pass headed to Adair, this time in the end zone. “If you want textbook defensive-back play, watch those two interceptions,” Hughes said.

The Tigers’ offense powered through the first half of the game, tallying back-to-back field goals from the foot of Conner Louden ’09 to take a 6­0 lead early in the second quarter. The Leopards grabbed a one-point lead when Adair cut to the center of the end zone and caught a long pass from quarterback Brad Maurer. Princeton immediately responded with a touchdown reception by Brigham. Lafayette regained a one-point advantage in the third period before the Tigers began to dominate in the fourth.

Princeton’s win was its second against a Patriot League opponent. A week earlier, in the Tigers’ opener, they came back from a 10­0 first-quarter deficit on the road to top Lehigh, 14­10, by scoring two touchdowns in the third quarter. At a midweek press luncheon, Hughes joked that if the Tigers could defeat Colgate as well, they ought to earn a share of the Patriot League championship.

Though just two games into the season, Hughes already was impressed by the Tigers’ resilience. “It’s gratifying to see the culture change we’ve tried to induce around here come to fruition,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”

Ashley Wolf ’08 is a molecular biology major from Montville, N.J.

On the road again
Men’s basketball searches for willing visitors

By Jay Greenberg

Princeton has more than 80,000 alumni, spread across every U.S. state and several countries, and according to head coach Joe Scott ’87, more than a few wonder why they don’t get to see the men’s basketball team in person.

“We hear, ‘Why don’t you come here and play UCLA, Duke, or Tennessee?’” Scott said. “But there’s only so much of that you can do. You have to be good at home. ... If you want Jadwin to be crowded for conference games, you need to play four non-conference games there in November and December and win them.”

The Princeton coaches call their peers around the country to ask for home-and-home arrangements, in which two teams alternate home games over a two-year span, but they find few takers. Instead, schools from the major conferences offer to pay small-conference teams for one-shot “guarantee” games to fill their early-season schedules with winnable contests at home. “We’re Princeton,” Scott said. “We don’t need to come for a guarantee.”

NIT champion South Carolina begins a two-year home-and-home set with Princeton Dec. 20 at Columbia, S.C., but otherwise, this year’s schedule, which adds Seton Hall, Iona, and Manhattan while retaining Rutgers and Lafayette, reflects Scott’s plan to build regional rivalries with alternating visits. Frequent foe Monmouth will be back on the schedule in 2007­08.

Seton Hall, hosting Princeton for the first time since 1989, has been scheduled for Jan. 28, the same post-exams slot in which the 2005­06 Tigers traveled to Davidson. Princeton lost that road game but competed well, Scott said, setting up a turnaround from a 2­10 non-conference record — its worst in 26 years — to a second-place Ivy League finish. “You get better playing better programs,” Scott said. “I don’t want to play Division III teams [Princeton lost to Carnegie Mellon last season]. I’m happy Seton Hall needed the game [and] hope this will grow into a yearly thing.”

At Jadwin Gym on Dec. 9, Princeton will face Rutgers, whose former coach, Gary Waters, claimed that the Scarlet Knights had nothing to gain from playing the Tigers. “Rutgers may feel that way about us, but guess what, you had better beat us,” Scott said. “We’re up in the all-time series [including 13 Princeton wins in the last 24 meetings].”

The goal for non-league games is to prepare for the Ivy League while maintaining a national profile on a level with top “mid-major” programs — quality teams not affiliated with the major conferences. Scott said he would like to arrange a deal with other “mid-majors,” such as Kent State and Creighton, to start a four-team tournament that rotates its host.

“Neutral-court games are part of the balance we’re looking for,” said Scott, whose team will travel to tournaments at Ohio State and Marquette in November and December. “When we’re as good as we’re going to get, it might make sense to go play North Carolina or Kansas in a one-shot deal for television. But only when the time is right and the team is right.”

Jay Greenberg, a sports columnist at The New York Post, has two daughters who are Princeton graduates.

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At a luncheon Sept. 13, the Nassau Club honored JACK BALES ’34, left, a former club president and one of two surviving members of Princeton’s undefeated 1933 football team. Speakers included Bales’ son John ’62, former athletics director Royce Flippin ’56, Herb Hobler ’44, and football head coach Roger Hughes, who presented the 95-year-old Bales with a modern version of his number 2 jersey. Bales, who starred as a halfback and later became an executive in the cosmetics industry, said he enjoyed every minute of the tribute. “This is almost like being present at your own memorial service, I think,” he joked. “As they say, the older I get, the better I was.”

Princeton FIELD HOCKEY beat No. 17 William and Mary Sept. 10 on a late goal by Katie Kinzer ’09, who redirected a shot into the cage with 2:33 remaining. The win was the Tigers’ first against a ranked team since 2004.

MEN’S and WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY opened the new course at the West Windsor fields with victories in the Princeton Invitational Sept. 9. Alexa Glencer ’10 led the women in her first collegiate race, placing second individually.