Football: Princeton prepares to battle Bears on road

The football team will play in Providence, R.I., this weekend, facing off against Brown in its second Ivy League game of the season. Brown has dominated the rivalry for the past four years, but this Saturday the Tigers are looking to change that and get an early-season boost to push them through the packed conference schedule that lies ahead.

The Tigers (1-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) won their Ivy League opener for the first time in three years, taking a 24-21 victory over Columbia two weeks ago. Princeton is one of four undefeated teams in the Ivy League so far, along with 2-0 Harvard and Yale and 1-0 Penn. But after losing all three non-conference games, most recently with a 28-23 defeat at Hampton, the Tigers’ overall record is less impressive.

Although the Tigers may not have as many wins as they had hoped for in the early part of the season, they were able to pull out a close and rewarding victory in their most important game so far. “Being 1-0 in the Ivy League does give us confidence,” junior defensive lineman Matt Landry said. “Yet there is still a full schedule of Ivy League opponents ahead.”

Brown (3-1, 0-1) comes in with the inverse record of the Tigers’, having defeated three teams from the Northeast in non-conference play but losing 24-7 at Harvard in its only Ivy League contest.

While Brown has won the last four games between these two teams, the Tigers hold a 51-26 edge in the all-time series. In last season’s meeting at Princeton Stadium, the Tigers took a 13-0 lead into halftime, but then-junior quarterback Tommy Wornham could not return for the second half — or the rest of the season — due to a collarbone injury. Without Wornham, the Tigers’ offense stalled, allowing Brown to come back for a 17-13 win.

The Bears were missing a starting quarterback of their own in that game, 2009 first-team All-Ivy passer Kyle Newhall-Caballero. Newhall-Caballero and Wornham will both be back under center for this weekend’s game; while Wornham has leaned heavily on an improved rushing attack, Newhall-Caballero ranks second in the league with 248 passing yards per game.

The star senior will test a Princeton defense that has allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 67.9 percent of their passing attempts, the second-worst mark in the conference.

Landry and the rest of the team are looking to come out strong and aggressive to break the painful four-game losing streak to Brown. Landry emphasized that “every man must do his 1/11th and play with plenty of fire and passion.”

“All week we have emphasized the importance of turnovers, winning individual battles and being great on third downs,” Landry said, explaining what head coach Bob Surace ’90 has focused on in practice for Saturday’s game.

If the Tigers accomplish these goals and come out with a win, they would improve to 2-0 in the Ivy League for the first time since 2006. The Tigers, just two weeks removed from a 10-game losing streak, could use some momentum heading into the final half of the season, which includes only Ivy League opponents.

“I believe the key to winning on Saturday is for every player to be a six-second competitor for 60 minutes,” Landry said.

If the team can remain confident through tomorrow’s matchup, then Princeton just might be off to an early Ivy League surge.