Patriot Shames: Loss to Colgate drops football to 0-3 against Patriot League

The football team's offense executed with near-perfection on two drives against Colgate. The first resulted in no points. The second had no effect on the result.

The offense was on the move during the game's first possession, but came up empty when junior kicker Taylor Northrop missed a 35-yard field goal wide right. Then freshman David Splithoff, who stepped in to replace an injured senior Jon Blevins at quarterback, led the offense on an 80-yard touchdown drive at the beginning of the fourth quarter that finally put the Tigers on the board.

The result had long since been decided, however, as Colgate rolled to a 34-6 victory.

Early in the game, and especially on the first drive, the momentum seemed to be with the Tigers. Senior running back Kyle Brandt, who finished with 80 yards on 11 carries, was dominating the Red Raiders on the ground behind an offensive line that vastly outweighed its opponents. But when Princeton reached the Colgate 12, the Red Raiders' defensive line sacked Blevins twice to stall the drive.

After giving up 63 yards in 10 plays, the Tiger defense kept the momentum going. On fourth down and two at Princeton's 17-yard line, the Tigers stopped Colgate quarterback Tom McCune to regain possession.

Then the Tigers gave it back, and the game started to get out of control.

Blevins fumbled the snap at the Princeton 40-yard line, and Colgate converted the turnover into a touchdown on a four-yard run by McCune.

The Tigers responded by going three-and-out on their next series, and Colgate began to pour it on.

Facing a third and 29 from its own 23, McCune found Ryan Ojeda for a 35-yard completion. Four plays later McCune found Joe Parker wide open for a 28-yard touchdown.

Then things went from bad to worse.

The ensuing kickoff was fumbled by sophomore running back Cameron Atkinson and recovered by Colgate on the Princeton 39. Four plays later, McCune let the Tigers know just how long of an afternoon they were in for with an amazing 26-yard touchdown run. Overall on the day, the Red Raider quarterback hung four touchdowns on the Tigers — two in the air and two on the ground.

The back-to-back-to-back touchdown drives by the Red Raiders were more than they would need, as the Princeton offense would not recover until late in the third quarter. When the 20-point second quarter was over, Colgate led 27-0.

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Things had to get even worse, however, before they got better for the Tigers. On the first drive of the second half, Blevins was sacked by Mark Herman and limped off the field to the sidelines. The ankle was badly sprained, and Blevins was done for the day.

After another Colgate touchdown ran the score to 34-0, Splithoff took control.

"I was excited for the opportunity to be out there. It's what I'm here for," Splithoff said. "I just wanted to step into the role and show the guys I was going to perform."

Perform he did. He found sophomore Chisom Opara for 13 yards on a third and six. On the next play, he found fullback Marty Cheatham for 32 yards to the Colgate 31. A one-yard run by Cheatham capped the drive, and ended Colgate's shutout.

"I think the team wanted to have pride in themselves and prove we were here to play," Splithoff said. "We weren't just going to roll over and take it."

Splithoff started the second drive of his college career on his own one-yard line, where Colgate had just downed a punt. He showed the fearlessness of a rookie, diving into two defenders to convert a fourth and 11. The drive reached the Red Raiders' three-yard line before Brandt was stopped on a fourth and goal.

The freshman was 5-for-8 for 99 yards on the day, and had five rushing attempts for 30 yards.

"He was a bit shook up and nervous about everything, but I was pleased with how he handled everything," Hughes said.

But his performance was not enough to turn the game around. The Tigers were beaten soundly, and now have to regroup and move on.

"Our challenge as a team and coaching staff is to respond to this," Hughes said, "and so far this team has responded to all sorts of adversity."

"I think we put this game behind us," senior captain Mike Higgins said. "Once we watch film tomorrow, we're done with this game. We'll learn from the mistakes, but we need to focus on Brown."

While the loss may make the Tigers' pride sting, it does nothing to their ultimate goal of winning the Ivy League championship. While their record against Patriot League teams is 0-3, their Ivy League mark is still 1-0 heading into a home game against Brown this weekend.