Midterm Week

This is midterm week at Princeton. 

Do you know what TigerBlog remembers about taking midterms way back when? Absolutely nothing. 

He's pretty sure he took them. How else to explain diploma they ended up giving to him? 

He does remember that the class schedule book — online, what was that? — listed the dates of the final exams for each class, and he did like to schedule classes that had earlier rather than later finals. Midterms? No memory, at least nothing specific. 

He does remember the blue books that he'd have to cram with answers to tests. He also remembers being a much bigger fan of essay questions rather than multiple choice or true/false or anything like that. He considered essay questions to be tests of what you knew, as opposed to the others, which were tests of what you didn't know. 

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The Princeton men's soccer team has moved into the No. 9 spot in the coaches' poll (and No. 1 in the more-important RPI). 

The Tigers will finish exams and head to Cornell for Saturday's game, which starts at 4. This one is a big one, with Princeton at 8-1-0 and Cornell at 7-1-1. Both are 2-0-0 in the Ivy race, something no other team can claim.

Cornell has played nine games and has scored three or more goals in seven of them. Princeton has played nine games and allowed three goals — that's three goals total. 

Only North Carolina State allows fewer goals per game than the 0.33 Princeton does in Division I. Only Duke, Delaware, Lindenwood and Portland average more goals per game than the Big Red (2.67). 

If you're wondering, there are 220 Division I men's soccer teams.  

These kinds of matchups fascinate TigerBlog, the kind that match a team with a lockdown defense against a team that scores in bunches. He should start to track which team does better in these situations.

That's just a subplot though. Obviously with the start its had, Princeton is looking beyond October in the big picture. There's no looking ahead for anyone in the immediate moment, of course. 

Saturday at 4. Make sure you watch it on ESPN+. 

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There are six schools who are ranked in the top 20 in both the Division I men's soccer and Division I field hockey polls. Can you name them? 

TigerBlog will spot you Princeton, No. 8 in field hockey and the aforementioned No. 9 in men's soccer. Why else would he have mentioned it, right? 

He'll give you a few paragraphs to think of the answer.

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The field hockey team, by the way, is at Dartmouth Saturday and then at Northwestern Monday. TigerBlog will be the team photographer for both. 

He can pretty much guarantee you he won't be taking any pictures as good as this one, snapped by Camryn Ley (a recent graduate of the College of New Jersey, where she played field hockey) at this past weekend's men's lacrosse scrimmages (that's freshman Thatcher Bernstein who went airborne):

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The Princeton women's volleyball team also heads to Dartmouth and then Boston. While the field hockey team will be stopping at Logan Airport for the flight to Chicago, the women's volleyball team will stay in town to face Harvard. 

The Ivy women's volleyball season is in its infancy, with three matches down and 11 to go before the league tournament, which will determine the NCAA tournament bid. Cornell, at 3-0, is the lone unbeaten, with Princeton, Brown, Yale and Harvard all at 2-1. 

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The women's soccer team is home against Cornell Saturday, with kickoff at 1. The Tigers are in the fight for the Ivy tournament spots, currently tied for fifth with the Big Red. 

There are four games remaining in the league, with 12 points still out there to be had. Dartmouth is in first with seven, with a three-way tie between Harvard, Brown and Columbia with six. Princeton and the Big Red have three each, so the math on this one is obvious.  

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And the trivia answer is: 

In addition to Princeton, you have Virginia (No. 2 field hockey/No. 8 men's soccer), Maryland (12/15), Rutgers (14/18), Duke (9/7) and Michigan (11/13).

The Wolverines, by the way, feature Patrick O'Toole, the younger brother of former Princeton Roper Trophy winner and current member of the NYCFC of Major League Soccer Kevin O'Toole.  

A Place To Call Home

You know what is one of the worst feelings in modern times, something that those who came before us could never imagine? 

You know. It's that feeling when you finish binging a show that you really, really liked. 

It creates a very bittersweet emotion. You're so invested in what happens and how it's going to wrap everything up, while at the same time you are dreading the end. 

This just happened for TigerBlog, who finished the 67-episode run of an Australian show called "A Place To Call Home." It definitely has "Downton Abbey" vibes to it, with an old-money aristocratic family clinging to its estate (Ash Park, in this case) while the world around all of them changes. 

This show is set in the 1950s and mixes in some pretty intense themes, with the main character of the show a Holocaust survivor, several members of the local community still working through their own traumas and a gay community at a time when it was illegal.

It also has one of the absolute most villainous characters you'll ever see in any movie or show (and hopefully not in real life). Her name is Regina, and unlike TB's late, great Aunt Regina, she is not sweet and loving in any way. 

TB watched the first two seasons on BritBox, home of most of the TV shows he watches. This time, though, the show was first cancelled after its second season, and Season 2 ended with all of the loose ends tied up. And then? 

It was picked up by a different network, which first filmed a different ending to Season 2 and then had four more seasons after that. TB had to subscribe to Acorn TV to watch the rest, but it was worth it. 

So now what to watch? Well, he'll find something on BritBox or Acorn. He always does. 

Of course, with 10 players from England on the Princeton field hockey team, TB has a front-row seat to something of a British reality show. The episode this past Friday was a great one. 

The Tigers played six of their first seven games this year at their own place to call home — Bedford Field — but they are now in a stretch of four straight road games. It began with a 2-1 win at Maryland two Sundays ago and then continued with another 2-1 win, this one at Yale Friday night.

Up next will be an interesting road trip, with a bus ride to Dartmouth for a Saturday afternoon game and then a plane ride to Chicago, where a game with No. 1 Northwestern awaits Monday. 

Princeton is currently ranked eighth in the NFHCA coaches' poll and sixth in the RPI.

It's certainly a fun group to be around. Here's an example:

The team went up and back to Yale Friday, with a 5 pm start time in New Haven. The team got back onto the bus for the ride home around 7:45, or shortly after the Princeton-Columbia football game began on ESPNU.

The team would end up rolling into the Caldwell parking lot (the place it calls home) around the time the game ended. In between, TB sat in the third row of the bus with the game on his laptop, while a large group of the players gathered around another one in the back of the bus. 

From his seat, TB could hear a mixture of English accents who were asking questions about the rules of football and American accents who were explaining. One of the highlights came after a fair catch on a punt, which led to this actual exchange:

English accent: Why didn't they tackle him on that punt?
American accent: Well, if you know you're going to get tackled right away, you can raise your hand and then they can't hit you if you catch the ball.
English accent: Whose idea was that? 

It was like that for pretty much the entire ride back. At one point, TB asked one of the English players if she liked American football, and she said that it moved too slowly for her. She also added that her family consists of big rugby fans. 

The P.S. of the story is that TB ran into Princeton head football coach Bob Surace Monday and told him the story. Surace's response: "That's okay. I don't know the rules to field hockey either."

Well played, Coach Surace.  

Staying Current

Okay, kids, how many of you can identify this? 

And for the rest of you, when was the last time you used one?  

This little bit from the Museum of Used To Everywhere But It's Shocking To See One These Days was known as a "pay phone." When TigerBlog was a kid, you would put a dime into that little slot on the top left, and you'd be able to make a telephone call. 

Eventually, that went up to a quarter. And then came the calling cards, which allowed you to dial a 16-digit number and then the number you wanted to call and have the call billed to your account.  

Somehow, TB and everyone in his age range and a few decades younger managed to get all the way through childhood without being tethered to a cell phone at all times. You can argue, correctly, that smartphones have made significantly positive contributions to society, and you can also argue, correctly, the opposite. 

When TB sees a pay phone, it takes him back to when he was covering high school sports and would have to call in to the newsroom if there was a looming deadline. He'd actually have to dictate his story to someone on the copy desk, and if you've never tried doing that off the top of your head, it's not easy at all. 

Jadwin Gym used to have, if TB is remembering correctly, four pay phones, two on each side of the lobby. There were also these things called "phone booths;" if you don't know what that was, look it up. 

Ah, those were the days. And with that bit of nostalgia, TB segues into some current events. 

Speaking of which, currently the Princeton men's soccer team is still the No. 1 team in the RPI. That's No. 1 in the entire country. 

Here's a question for you: How many of the top 11 teams in the current RPI are from Power 4 conferences? If you said "three," you'd be correct: No. 2 Virginia, No. 7 Stanford and No. 8 Indiana. There's a bit of an asterisk there, since West Virginia is No. 5, but it competes in the Sun Belt in men's soccer.

The rest of the top 11 has No. 3 Vermont (America East), No. 4 Bryant (America East), No. 6 High Point (Big South), No. 9 Portland (Big West), No. 10 San Diego (Big West) and No. 11 Georgia Southern (Sun Belt). That's pretty fascinating. 

As an aside, Princeton will host Bryant on Tuesday, Oct. 21.  

Princeton improved to 8-1-0 with a 1-0 win over Brown at home Saturday, a shutout that earned Tiger goalkeeper Andrew Samuels his third straight Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week Award. Samuels and his Princeton defensive teammates have allowed only three goals all season.

Next up is Cornell, who is 7-1-0 overall and the only other 2-0-0 Ivy team besides Princeton. That game will be Saturday at 4 in Ithaca.

The world of Princeton Athletic current events also includes Pru Lindsey of the field hockey team, who was named the Ivy League Co-Offensive Player of the Week. Lindsey scored what proved to be the game-winning goal in the Tigers' 2-1 win at Yale Friday night in the team's only game last week. 

Lindsey's goal was her first of the year, and it also ended up on SportsCenter as the No. 9 Play of the Day Saturday morning. That's pretty good stuff for the sophomore from Nantwich, England (her hometown defies today's theme as it dates back to the Roman era).

Princeton is at Dartmouth Saturday and then Northwestern Monday. Princeton is currently No. 6 in Division I RPI, while Northwestern, the defending NCAA champ, is No. 3 (though unbeaten at 10-0).

Another current note: Princeton freshman Josh Robinson was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week after his four-catch, 73-yard effort in the Tigers' 17-10 win over Columbia in its Ivy League opener. Robinson had two catches in the first two games combined. 

If you watched the game, you certainly wondered who No. 86 was. Turns out it was Robinson, who came to Princeton from Tampa, Fla., and Carrollwood Day School, whom he helped to three district titles while also running track.

Princeton will host No. 25 Mercer Saturday at noon.  

What's Your Pick?

The No. 1- and No. 2-ranked teams in the AP preseason college football poll are no longer ranked. 

That would be Texas and Penn State by the way. When is the last time neither of those two was ranked?

Penn State nine days ago was unbeaten and thinking national championship. Then the Nittany Lions lost 30-24 in two OTs to unbeaten Oregon, at home. Okay, Oregon is a legit national championship contender. 

What followed was shocking. Penn State flew across the country to take on a winless UCLA team, one that had just fired its head coach and was in complete chaos. And what happened? 

UCLA 42, Penn State 37. 

Congratulations go out to TigerBlog's colleague Andrew Borders, a proud UCLA alum. 

Meanwhile, the Arch-Manning-will-roll-to-the-Heisman-and-No.-1-pick thing has ground to a halt as well. Manning hasn't been bad, not by any means. He just hasn't been otherworldly. Or maybe the expectations have been too insane. 

Manning, in his first full year as a starter, has completed 60 percent of his passes for 1,151 yards, with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions. Is that good? Is that good enough? 

Ah, college football. Do you know who is ranked fourth? That would be Ole Miss, which has had a few other Mannings as quarterback through the years. 

As for Princeton Football, the Tigers opened their Ivy League schedule Friday night with a 17-10 win over Columbia on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. Columbia led 10-0 after the first quarter before the Tiger defense clamped down. 

Columbia had 147 yards in the first quarter and then 168 for the next three quarters combined. That's an average of 56 yards per quarter for the last three. 

Here is Columbia's drive chart: 

FG, TD, punt, interception, interception, half, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, end of game

That's great defense. And it's the two interceptions that TigerBlog would like to mention now.  

One of those two picks is probably the greatest single interception TigerBlog has seen from a Princeton defender. It was perfectly timed, wildly athletic, momentum swinging and pretty much any other superlative you want to mention. 

The only problem is TB isn't sure which one he thinks it was. 

There was the Marco Scarano interception, the one where he came over the top of a Columbia receiver to steal the ball, without committing pass interference in the process. That play made SportsCenter's top 10 plays of the day.

Yes, but then there was the one from A.J. Pigford. This one came after the Tigers, still down 10-0, had come up short on a fourth-down play at the Columbia 2 with three minutes to go in the first half. The Lions then got a first down, so it was looking all the world like at worst it would be a 10-0 game at the break.

Instead, Columbia attempted a pass that was thrown from its end zone, and Pigford timed it perfectly, tipping it and then diving to control it at the 1. Asher Weiner punched it in two plays later, and it shockingly it was 10-7.

It stayed that way into the fourth quarter before Ethan Clark finished an eight-play, 71-yard drive with a two-yard run and Estaban Nunez Perez kicked a 38-yard field goal. 

Princeton receivers Josh Robinson (four catches, 73 yards), Roman Laurio (two catches, 67 yards) and  Paul Kuhner (one catch, 51 yards) all made huge contributions as the Tigers again went with their two-quarterback rotation. 

If you add up those three totals, you get seven catches for 191 yards. If you add up their three career totals prior to the game Friday night, you get eight catches for 95 yards. 

Right now, every Ivy team has played three games, with two non-league games and one league game. Your four 1-0 Ivy teams are Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Penn. 

Next up for Princeton is a tough one, at home against nationally ranked Mercer. The Bears are 4-1-something, after starting the season with a game that was halted in the fourth quarter due to weather and therefore counted as a no-game, a loss to Presbyterian and now four straight wins. 

The most recent was this past Saturday's 45-21 win over Samford. 

Kickoff Saturday on Powers Field will be at noon. 

Friday Night Lights

So things seem to be going well in the WNBA.

The league has achieved an unprecedented level of interest in the last two years, driven of course by the Caitlin Clark phenomenon. And now? 

There are labor issues, with a potential player strike before next season. On top of that, one of the league's five best players, Napheesa Collier, went scorched earth on Cathy Engelbert, the WNBA commissioner, after Collier watched her Minnesota Lynx team get eliminated by the Phoenix Mercury in the fourth game of the semifinals in a boot after being injured in Game 3. 

Is this a good thing for one of your biggest stars to say about you? 

“We have the best players in the world, we have the best fans in the world, but right now we have the worst leadership in the world." 

Another person who wasn't able to participate in that Game 4 was Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who was suspended for her own rather direct comments about the league leadership and the officiating after Collier's injury (torn ankle ligaments). 

All in all, not exactly a great look. 

Lost in most of this is how incredible the Indiana Fever were to withstand the loss of half its roster due to injury, including Clark and Sophie Cunningham. The Fever went to Game 5 and OT against Las Vegas before falling, hanging in there even after losing another star, Kelsey Mitchell, during the game. It was a truly inspiring performance the last few months by the Fever, and it showed what cohesion and effort can do in sports. 

The WNBA Finals begin tonight at 8 Eastern, when Las Vegas and Phoenix play Game 1 of the best-of-seven. 

You won't be watching, of course, since you'll either be at Powers Field at Princeton Stadium or watching on EPSNU s Princeton football kicks off against Columbia at 7:30 in the Ivy League opener for both teams. 

The Tigers and Lions are both 1-1 on the season, with an opening day loss followed by a Week 2 win. In Columbia's case, that was a 38-14 loss at Lafayette followed by a 19-10 win over Georgetown at home. 

For Princeton, it was a 42-35 home loss to San Diego followed by a 38-28 win at Lafayette. 

Princeton has gotten out to blazing starts in both games. Against San Diego, the drive chart started out this way: Touchdown, Touchdown, Touchdown. Against Lafayette, it was this: Touchdown, Touchdown, Touchdown.

That's a lot of early touchdowns. 

This is the part of a Friday look at the weekend's football game where TigerBlog would see what the stats said about the upcoming matchup. After two weeks, it's a bit soon to draw any conclusions from the numbers though. 

For instance, right now Columbia ranks second in defensive passing efficiency, while Princeton is second in offensive passing efficiency. Is that significant at this point? 

What's more important is what you actually see. Through two weeks, Princeton has blended its two quarterbacks — Kai Colon and Blaine Hipa — well together, and both have moved the offense well. 

Princeton's Brady Clark leads the FCS in average yards per punt at 51.0. Will he continue to lead the country? Will he threaten the Princeton single-season record of 44.0 yards per punt, a record that has stood since Matt Evans set it in 1998?

It's too early to tell. In the meantime, he's clearly a field position weapon. 

There are five players in the league who have at least three touchdowns through two games, and Princeton is the only team with more than one — Ethan Clark and Dareion Murphy, with three each. 

Stats? They'll start to matter more in the next few weeks. 

Right now it's about which team gets off to a 1-0 league start, especially with another non-league game next weekend (Princeton will host No. 22 Mercer at noon; Columbia will host Lehigh). Already Harvard and Yale have won their league openers, last weekend with wins over Brown and Cornell. 

On top of all that, Powers Field always looks great under the lights. The weather will be perfect for football. 

Friday Night Lights. Tonight at 7:30.

The WNBA will have to wait.  

Welcome To October

It was a bit breezy yesterday morning.

At one point, TigerBlog looked up and saw a large leaf float peacefully on the wind until it settled on the ground, alongside dozens of its brothers and sisters. It was very calm and very picturesque — and also very ominous. 

Summer is over. Winter, it said, is on the way. 

Welcome to October. The end of the month will bring Halloween, which brings with it the annual sprint to Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year. 

The last day of September brought temperatures in the 80s to the Princeton area. By the end of the October, those hot days will only be a memory. More leaves will have fallen. Jackets and sweatshirts will be required. 

And crossover season will have begun. In fact, the college women's hockey season actually has begun, and the college men's hockey season faces off this weekend. With real games. 

For now, it's still only fall events at Princeton. This weekend has some intriguing ones. 

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The Princeton and Yale women's volleyball teams have combined to win five Ivy League championships in the last three years. How's that? 

The teams have shared the Ivy League championship twice in the last three years, while Yale has won it outright once. Between them they have 34 all-time Ivy titles of the 58 that have been awarded (Princeton with 20, Yale with 14).

Only twice in the last 15 years has a team other than Princeton or Yale represented the league in the NCAA tournament. 

It's very early in the Ivy season for 2025, obviously. Each team has played just one league opponent, with Princeton, Yale, Harvard and Cornell all at 1-0.

This weekend is the first back-to-back, and Princeton hosts Brown tomorrow (7) and Yale Saturday (5). Obviously any Princeton-Yale matchup is big, even if it is the second weekend. 

First, though, there is Brown. The Bears are the last team other than Princeton or Yale to win the league championships, something they did in 2021. There is no looking past anyone.

If you've never seen volleyball in Dillon Gym, it is electric. Admission is free. 

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There will be a soccer doubleheader on Myslik Field at Princeton Stadium, though with different opponents. 

It starts at 4, when the men's team takes on Brown. The women then play Yale at 7.

The men's team is the top-ranked team in the RPI in Division I. The team also entered the United Soccer Coaches' poll this week at No. 13.

Princeton took down Army-West Point Tuesday night on the road 2-0, improving to 7-1-0 with a sixth-straight win and fifth-straight shutout. Princeton won the Ivy League tournament a year ago, as you recall. 

Brown is one of three teams, along with Princeton and Cornell, who won its league opener a week ago, with a 2-1 win over Dartmouth. The Bears are 5-2-1 overall and 3-0-1 in their last four, with wins over Rhode Island and UMass-Lowell and a tie with Providence. 

The women's race had a week head start on the men, so this will be the third Ivy game for the teams. There's a long way to go, though the Ivy tournament field will be starting to take shape. Hey, three out of seven league games will be a significant barometer of where everyone stands. 

Right now, Princeton is one of four teams at 1-1-0. The only 2-0-0 team is Columbia, while Dartmouth is next at 1-0-1. 

Yale is 0-2-0, 2-7-0 overall.

Admission for all regular season soccer games is free.

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The field hockey team is on the road tomorrow at 5 in New Haven for a big one at Yale. The Tigers are 5-3 and ranked eighth in the country in the coaches' poll and seventh in RPI.

Yale is ranked 16th by the coaches and is 11th in RPI. The Bulldogs are 6-1 overall and, like Princeton, 1-1 in the league. 

The Tigers bounced back nicely from a 3-1 home loss to Harvard with a 2-1 win at No. 11 Maryland Sunday. This is the first weekend of the season where Princeton only plays one game. 

It's also the first of three straight on the road, with a road trip to Dartmouth next Saturday followed by a flight from Boston to Chicago to take on Northwestern a week from Monday.   

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Okay, this isn't actually a fall sport, but there will be six lacrosse games on Sherrerd Field Saturday. 

It will start at 9 am when Princeton's women take on Fairfield, followed in order by Fairfield-Albany and then Princeton-Albany. 

The Princeton men will play at 2 against Syracuse in a rematch of last year's epic 19-18 Orange win in the NCAA quarterfinals, followed by Syracuse-Army and then Princeton-Army.

Admission is free and open to the public.  

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The entire weekend schedule can be found HERE.  

Photo Day

TigerBlog took this picture on his way into Princeton Monday morning.  

That's pretty cool, no? 

By the way, he doesn't recommend taking pictures while driving. This was a rarity. 

Hey, how about today's theme will be something along the line of photos. Like this one:

That, of course, is Gary Walters, the point guard on the 1965 NCAA Final Four men's basketball team, a member of the Class of 1967, an assistant coach on the 1975 NIT championship team and the Ford Family Director of Athletics from 1994-2014. 

The occasion was, as TB said last week, Gary's 80th birthday. By contrast, here is Gary on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a senior:

Moving along, TigerBlog was pressed into service as the photographer for Princeton's field hockey game at Maryland Sunday afternoon. Here is a picture of the opponent, whose rallying cry is "Fear The Turtle":

Wait. That's not a Maryland Terrapin. That's just a visitor TB had outside his house. Here are the actual Terps: 

This wasn't TB's first attempt at sports photography. He likens it to golf: He's not horrible at it, but he has a lot of respect for those who are really good at it. 

Also, he doesn't own his own clubs or an actual camera (other than the one on his phone).

The game started out with a great chance for Maryland, only to have Princeton goalie Olivia Caponiti come up to make a big save. Yeah, TigerBlog missed that. He did get a good picture of the turf next to Caponiti. You could even see some of the goal post. 

Princeton's first goal in the 2-1 win came from Beth Yeager. TB didn't get the goal or much of the celebration, though he did get a few with hugs that were obscuring Yeager's face. Ironically, he got a good one of Yeager after the second goal, from Ella Hampson. 

And this one of Yeager, which didn't come out too badly. 

You can add photography to the list of things that have changed radically since TB first started in this business. You can also put it close to the top of that list, actually. 

Back then, you needed one or two good action shots of each player over the course of a season to use in the following year's media guide. Most of the pictures that were taken were in black and white, since you could only use color on the covers. 

Now? Photography is huge, since social media is, in many ways, the biggest connection between teams and those who follow them. 

The Instagram numbers for the field hockey team, for instance, are astonishing. There were 2.1 million views of the content on the team's feed in the month of September. That's 2.1 million. 

How many page views did TigerBlog get during that same time? He had a good month — 61,000 views. 

In other words, Princeton field hockey Instagram got 35 times as many views as this blog (regardless of how well written it is, right).

And so there was TB, with the office camera, as he did his best to come up with enough photos that were passable for social media purposes. The numbers suggest he did a good enough job.

He's learned enough about taking celebration pictures to put himself in the right place at the right moment. This one wasn't bad, especially with the final score on the scoreboard:

And that's today in pictures. 

TB will be back out there Friday evening with the office camera again, this time with the field hockey team at Yale. 

The goal, again, is to get enough for social media. Oh yeah. He'll also write a story after the game. His pictures will get way more eyeballs.  

 

No. 1 In RPI

The Major League Baseball playoffs will be starting today with four opening games in the best-of-three Wild Card series.

In this round, TigerBlog will be rooting against the Tigers, something he's not used to doing. Of course, he doesn't mean the Princeton Tigers. He means the ones from Detroit, who play Cleveland today at 1 to get it all started. 

Why the Guardians? Loyalty, to Derek Griesdorn, Princeton's Senior Assistant Equipment Manager — and the most dedicated Cleveland sports fan TB knows. 

TB is also rooting for the Reds, in this case because of TV play-by-play man John Sadak, the former voice of Princeton men's and women's basketball. 

Once the next round begins, TB will also be rooting for Tom McCarthy, another former Princeton voice who is now the play-by-play man for the Philadelphia Phillies. This would become more challenging if the Divisional Round matches the Phils and Reds. 

There's also a Red Sox-Yankees series. TB remembers back to 1978, when those two played a one-game playoff to break the AL East tie, when there was still just an East and a West. The Red Sox had been up by as many as 14 games on the Yankees in July, before one of the greatest comebacks sports has ever known.

New York won the playoff game — and ultimately the World Series — after trailing 2-0 into the seventh, when non-power-hitting Bucky Dent (known ever since by Boston fans with a little addition to that name) hit a three-run home run over the Green Monster. 

By comparison, this year's Guardians trailed Detroit by 15.5 games in July, and even by 10.5 in September, which makes it statistically the biggest comeback in baseball history.

You know who isn't in the playoffs? The Mets, who back in July had the best record in baseball. 

You know who is bothered by this? Princeton head men's soccer coach Jim Barlow, one of the biggest Mets' fans TB knows (his colleague Jon Kurian is another one).

On the other hand, perhaps Jim Barlow has been too caught up in the start of his team's season to really feel that badly about his Mets (or his favorite NFL team, the Dolphins).

Princeton men's soccer is off to a 6-1-0 start to the season, with a five-game winning streak that includes a 1-0 win over Harvard in the Ivy opener this past Saturday in Cambridge. If you go back to last season, Princeton has now 13 of its last 16 games, including both to win the Ivy League tournament last November. 

The Tigers are at Army-West Point tonight, with a home Ivy game Saturday against Brown. There are still two other non-league games, at James Madison (Oct. 14) and Bryant at home (Oct. 21).

That Princeton-Bryant game? That will be a matchup of two teams who are currently in the top five in Division I in RPI. That's "top five," as in 1-2-3-4-5. 

Princeton's sizzling start has vaulted the team into the No. 1 spot in the country in RPI. Bryant is currently No. 5.

If you're wondering, teams 2-3-4 right now are Vermont, Indiana and North Carolina State. 

Army-West Point is 64th in the RPI. James Madison is No. 90. As for the rest of the Ivy League, Harvard is 45th and the next-highest league team. Beyond that you have Saturday's opponent at 52, Penn at 88 and Cornell at 99. 

That's a lot of top 100 opponents still to be played. That's also the kind of schedule that keeps your RPI way up there. 

Princeton goalkeeper Andrew Samuels was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week for the second straight week after his shutout of Harvard. That effort included turning aside a penalty kick attempt. 

Samuels and Princeton have allowed only three goals all season. Princeton ranks eighth in save percentage, 10th in goals allowed and 18th in shutout percentage in Division I.

No game is easy. Being No. 1 in RPI as September ends is great. As Barlow would undoubtedly say, "that's nice. Check back in November."

What September has done is put Princeton in position to play huge games in October and November. 

Sadly, Barlow's beloved Mets cannot say the same thing.  

 

Week 2 Win

Did you see the end of the Florida State-Virginia game Friday night? 

If you missed the game, it's likely you saw video of the aftermath. UVa won the game 46-38 in two overtimes, and yet the real drama didn't start until after the Seminoles' last chance ended up with an interception in the end zone.

That's when the field went from 22 players to thousands and thousands of rowdy, happy fans in a matter of seconds. As court/field stormings go, this one was overwhelming. 

Was it festive? Was it a wild sight? Were the students loving every second of the win? 

The answer to all of that is yes. Still, you know what it really was? 

Dangerous. 

It's extraordinary that nobody was killed, especially the Florida State receiver (and UVa defensive back for that matter) who were on their backs in the end zone when it all happened. It's extraordinary that none of the Florida State players threw a punch, especially quarterback Tommy Castellanos when a UVa student flipped the bird right in his face.

There was really nothing anyone at UVa could have done to hold back thousands of students at that moment. On the other hand, common sense suggests that there has to be something other than a fine, no matter how large, to deter these situations. 

And that's not cranky TigerBlog the "get off my lawn" old man. Like he said, he'd like to think that's common sense. 

It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of it. If nothing else, risk management should get involved before the lawsuits fly, no? 

Anyway, that's TB's take on the situation.  

Meanwhile, closer to home, Princeton football did what football teams do — which is to say that the Tigers made a jump from Week 1 to Week 2. In this case, Princeton took down Lafayette 38-28 on the road in what was a very, very good win. 

Victory Count No. 1! @NasirHill4 | #JUICE 🍊🥤 pic.twitter.com/nY8N46maR9

— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) September 27, 2025

Princeton opened its season a week earlier with a 42-35 loss to San Diego in a game that the Tigers led 35-21 at the half. This time, it was a 28-14 Princeton halftime lead, which means that Princeton has scored 63 of its 73 points to date in the first half. 

This time, though, Princeton made all the plays it needed to come away with a win. It was a hot and humid day Saturday, which sort of helps the point TigerBlog was making last week, that there's a difference between being "in shape" and "game shape."

Princeton's second half touchdown came via a Kai Colon to Jackson Green pass. You may know that Green also plays lacrosse at Princeton, and he scored four goals last spring as a shortstick defensive midfielder. Has anyone else ever scored at least one touchdown in football and scored at least one goal in lacrosse before? 

TB knows of two who definitely did: Dan Sachs, the 1960 winner of the Roper Trophy as the outstanding senior male athlete, and John Heyd, the 1959 winner of the same award. Sachs scored a bunch of both, by the way. 

Back in the present day, Princeton again got great efficiency from two quarterbacks, Colon and Blaine Hipa, who between them went 21 for 32 for 205 yards and one touchdown, without an interception. Princeton ran for 121 yards as well. 

Defensively, Princeton held Lafayette to 126 rushing yards, which was 98 yards below the Leopards' average coming in. Chase Christopher led the defense with 15 tackles, 13 of which were solo. Torian Roberts picked off a pass and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown. 

And just like that, the first two weeks of the season have come and gone. Next up is the Ivy League opener, which comes up against Columbia Friday night on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. The Lions had their own bounceback, following up a 38-14 opening loss to Lafayette on the same field where Princeton played Saturday with a 19-10 win at home against Georgetown. 

It'll be a much different week at practice for Princeton. The uncertainties of last week were answered decisively in Easton. 

Plus, it's the opener for the Ivy League. 

A Week 2 win has done wonders for Princeton football.  

Princeton At du Motier

There will be more than a football game that kicks off tomorrow afternoon in Easton. 

It will also be the official kickoff of the Bicentennial Celebration of Lafayette College. You know how much TigerBlog loves history. 

While it wasn't until 1829 that the school first admitted students — four of them — Lafayette College was founded in 1826 and named for the French Revolutionary War General. Imagine if the original board members had opted for his actual name.

If that had been the case, then tomorrow's football game would be between Princeton and Gilbert du Motier College, instead of Princeton-Lafayette. 

The original Lafayette teams were simply called "the Maroon," after the uniform color. In the 1920s, the school decided to adopt a more ferocious nickname, something that might rival other schools who were competing with the more vicious mascots — such as the Princeton Tigers. 

By the way, like Princeton five years earlier, Lafayette's first intercollegiate athletic event was a baseball game, this one in 1869, one month before Princeton and Rutgers met in the first football game. The final score of that Princeton-Rutgers game was 6-4 Rutgers; the final score of that first Lafayette baseball game was 45-45.

Any guesses on the opponent? Yes, Lehigh is correct. Who was the first non-Lehigh opponent any Lafayette team ever played? Yes, Princeton is correct, also in baseball, a game in 1874 that Princeton won 26-11.  

For all of that, it could have been the Princeton Tigers at the du Motier Maroon tomorrow. Kickoff at 3:30. 

Whatever the name and nickname, Lafayette presents a tough opponent for Princeton, who is now in Week 2. As you know, Princeton opened its season last week with a tough 42-35 loss to San Diego in a game in which the Tigers scored all 35 of their points in the first half. 

What is this week's challenge? 

Lafayette comes into the game at 3-1, with an opening loss at FBS opponent Bowling Green and then wins over Stonehill (42-26), Georgetown (42-37) and Columbia (38-14 last week). There's lots of Ivy League overlap with those scores. Stonehill lost to Penn last week 24-21, while Georgetown lost to Brown 46-0. 

If you happened to glance a little further down the Lafayette schedule, you'll see this in the next few weeks: home games against Princeton, Fordham and Bucknell and then back-to-back road games at Oregon State and Holy Cross. 

Oregon State? Yes. The Beavers, who had to piece together a schedule for this season when the Pac 12 fell apart and before it built itself back up, has a fascinating set of opponents. Ah, but TB digresses. 

Lafayette's strength so far has been running the ball, with an average per game 224.5 yards per game on the ground. That number ranks seventh out of 126 FCS teams. 

Kente Edwards leads the FCS with 559 rushing yards, and his 139.8 per game rank fourth. The junior has been the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week each of the last three weeks. 

Princeton hopes that linebacker Marco Scarano makes himself very acquainted with Edwards tomorrow. Scarano made 18 tackles last week, 10 of which were solo tackles. Both of those numbers rank No. 1 in the FCS. 

Princeton has another player who is leading the FCS in an individual category. That would be punter Brady Clark, who averaged 53.8 yards per attempt last week. 

Kai Colon and Blaine Hipa split the quarterback position last week and between them threw for nearly 300 yards, with completions to 10 different receivers. Charley Rossi, one of those receivers, averaged 39.5 yards per reception, which puts him second in the FCS. 

What will this week bring? Teams traditionally make a huge jump from Week 1 to Week 2. Week 3 for Princeton will bring the Ivy opener, against Columbia a week from tonight (that's a Friday ESPNU game).

First, though, there is the short trip to Easton, where the opponent is a good one. And where the locals are starting a more-than-year-long celebration of their founding. 

By the way, who is the greatest Lafayette alum of all time? That would be a member of the Class of 1952. Perhaps you've heard of him? 

Went by the name of Pete Carril.