Good Game

TigerBlog was walking down the stairs back to E level yesterday in the middle of the day when all of the sudden he felt like he was on a postgame handshake line.

You know. It's one of those where the players on one team say "good game, good game, good game, good game" as they high-five the members of the other team, who counter with "good game, good game, good game, good game."

This almost always applies regardless of how the good the game actually was, by the way.

As for TigerBlog yesterday, it wasn't so much "good game, good game, good game, good game" as it was "excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me."

TB was walking down as the Maryland field hockey team was walking up. As they came up the stairs, he paused on the landing in between D level and E level, to a chorus of "excuse me" after "excuse me" as they all walked by pleasantly.

This happened presumably after the Terps went through a walk-through in the pit prior to last night's game against Princeton. At least that's what TB surmised.

Apparently, it rained pretty heavily yesterday during the day. TigerBlog didn't see a drop of it, since his office has no windows. By the time he went upstairs later, it was nice out.

As for the game, well, this one really was a good game. Princeton would end up falling 5-4 in the second overtime, after the Terps tied it with just 15 seconds left in regulation.

Even though No. 5 Princeton didn't get the outcome it would have hoped for, this was definitely a game that screamed what it was - a matchup of two of the top five teams in the country. Princeton has bitten off a really tough schedule, as always, and the Tigers have come through it with some huge wins, as well as one-goal losses to No. 1 North Carolina and now No. 3 Maryland.

For their part, Maryland stayed unbeaten, by the slimmest of margins.

The Princeton field hockey 11 lost to Maryland last night. The Princeton football 11, or more than 11 but you get the point, host Monmouth Saturday in the home opener. Kickoff is at 4:30.

When TB finally made it back to the office after all of the "excuse mes" from the Maryland field hockey players and staff, he listened to the "Original 11" podcast, which his colleague Craig Sachson does each week during football season. The current episode can be heard HERE.

There are actually two football podcasts available each week, with the "Original 11" and "The Bob Surace Show." If you live in the Princeton area and want to go to the head coach's show, you can see it at the Alchemist & Barrister in town, each Thursday at 7.

The "Original 11" features a discussion with Sachson and Princeton radio play-by-play man Cody Chrusciel to start out and then an interview with a player. This week, that player is offensive tackle Reily Radosevich, a second-team All-Ivy League selection a year ago.

If you're a Princeton football fan, it's certainly worth your 15 minutes to listen. The title refers, of course, to Princeton's place of having played in the first-ever football game, against Rutgers, back in 1869.

It was Sachson who introduced podcasting to Princeton Athletics a few years ago. Now the lineup has grown to include various weekly episodes during each season, and coming next week will be the second edition of "A Few Minutes With Mollie" - featuring Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan.

TigerBlog would like to continue to expand the podcast offerings, since they have been so successful. Certainly the numbers suggest that, at the least.

As for the football team, the game against Monmouth is the first of six home games. Princeton opens its Ivy season next Friday at Columbia on ESPNU, and then after that, there are only two more away games for the remainder of the season.

Those, by the way, are at Harvard and at Yale.

First, though, is Monmouth, who is 2-1 with two straight wins, over Hampton and Lafayette. Monmouth reached the NCAA playoffs last year.

In short, this should be a good game.