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In the sport of football, perhaps nothing is more romanticized than a game played in snow. Since the Ivy League season ends in mid-November, the nation’s oldest football program rarely gets to have that experience, save for possibly a few flurries during a year-ending game in Hanover, N.H. But when the Tigers lined up to kick off on Saturday afternoon, two inches of snow covered Powers Field and much more swirled around Princeton Stadium, instantly providing a scene that was as memorable as it was bizarre.
“Before the game and during the game, we were excited to play in the snow – it’s just a fun atmosphere,” junior linebacker Andrew Starks said. “A lot of guys were comparing it to Bears-Packers postseason weather.”
The surprising snowfall did not help the Tigers (1-6 overall, 1-3 Ivy League), however, as Cornell pulled away in the second half for its first Ivy League win, 24-7. After the wind and snow died down during intermission, the high-octane offense of the Big Red (3-4, 1-3) was nearly unstoppable in the better conditions.
Without traction on offense, both teams struggled to move the ball early on, going three-and-out on the first possession and punting after one first down on the second. Cornell caught the first weather-induced break midway through the opening quarter – Princeton lined up to punt, but the snap to senior punter Joe Cloud was low, and Cloud went to a knee to control the ball before kicking. Under NCAA rules, the ball was dead when Cloud’s knee touched the ground in the backfield, giving the Big Red possession at the Princeton 17-yard line.
The visitors gained only six yards on three plays, but Brad Greenway booted a soft 28-yard field goal off of the snowy surface, giving Cornell a 3-0 lead.
As the snow picked up further in the second quarter, neither team scored until Princeton got a short field of its own late in the half. Freshman tailback Will Powers got into the backfield and partially blocked Greenway’s punt, sending it straight out of bounds at the 20-yard line. On third down, senior quarterback Tommy Wornham rolled right and then threw back to freshman tailback Chuck Dibilio on the other side of the field. Dibilio hauled in the pass and fought through a defender to reach the end zone, scoring his fifth touchdown of the season.
Dibilio did even more damage on the ground, running for a season-high 158 yards. He was worked particularly hard early in the game, taking the ball on 12 of Princeton’s first 13 official plays and getting 21 carries in the first half. The rookie finished with 32 carries, the most for a Tiger since 2003.
“He’s got a chance to be a pretty good workhorse,” head coach Bob Surace ’90 said. “It’s hard for freshmen to make it through the year playing every play, doing what he’s doing, but I think he’s strong enough physically and mentally to do it.”
The momentum from Dibilio’s reception was erased within 14 seconds, however. Rashad Campbell took the ensuing kickoff, broke a few tackles near midfield and sprinted down the left sideline, leaving the remaining orange jerseys in his wake for a 78-yard touchdown. Cornell took a 10-7 lead and the Tigers trailed for the remainder of the game.
Wornham led the Tigers to two first downs to open the third quarter, but the Tigers punted the ball away. On the final play of the series, the quarterback injured his non-throwing left hand and was pulled out of the game. The X-rays on Wornham were negative, according to Surace, who said that Wornham will start against Penn next week if he is healthy.
Freshman Quinn Epperly, who took some snaps in the first half, replaced Wornham for the rest of the game. A bruising, 48-yard run from Dibilio was followed by a 21-yard rush from the powerful Epperly, setting up a first down at Cornell’s seven-yard line. But as Epperly prepared to run the ball again, a Big Red defender poked the ball loose, sending it flying above the linemen and into the end zone. Cornell players fell on the ball first for a touchback.
Epperly played to his strengths, running the ball more often than he threw it. The rookie consistently fooled Cornell defenders with the ball tucked under his arm, gaining six yards per carry in 16 tries. But he completed only four of his 10 passes and was picked off twice, often throwing deep passes that were particularly risky in the poor conditions.
“It was definitely something new – I haven’t played that much this year,” said Epperly, who had previously only played three series under center. “The thing that sticks out is definitely too many turnovers. I was minus-3 in that department, so that has to get fixed.”
On the other side of the field, quarterback Jeff Mathews looked more like a veteran than his class year of 2014 indicated. He picked his spots carefully in the first half, but when the wind died down after the break, Mathews threw more freely, completing 19 of 28 attempts for 224 yards in the snow. He completed three consecutive tosses for first downs on a third-quarter drive before powerful running back Ryan Houska finished it off with a three-yard rush, giving the Cornell defense some breathing room at 17-7.
Houska was the only Big Red running back to gain positive yards, but he provided more than enough power, rushing for 108 yards. He and the Cornell offensive line, like Mathews, improved as the game went on, netting 83 yards after halftime to keep possession and kill clock.
“I don’t think it was anything they were doing differently,” Starks said. “Houska’s a tough back, but in the first half, we had them under control. In the second half, we didn’t execute the same way.”
After a Princeton drive stalled in opposing territory, Mathews completed five of six passes on a 73-yard drive, completing it with a beautiful fade to Kurt Ondash from 10 yards to the back of the end zone. Cornell extended its lead to 24-7 with seven minutes left, all but ending the game.
“The first half, [the weather] was horrendous – it was whipping in the guys’ faces, hard to see signals on both ends,” Surace said. “There wasn’t as much snow, there was no wind [in the second half] – in weather conditions like that, you really want to be able to throw it.”
Princeton nearly had its first game with two 100-yard rushers since 1989, but a late sack counted against Epperly’s rushing total, dropping him to 96. The Tigers topped 200 yards as a team for the fourth time this season.
Each team fumbled four times in the slippery conditions, but Epperly’s was the only one recovered by the defense.
“It was a weird day,” Surace said. “We didn’t adjust to the conditions as well as we would have liked.”
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