Princeton Edges Cornell 21-20 as Josh Smith's Third Touchdown Wins It Late

Cornell had the ball for more than 39 minutes. Cornell piled up 462 yards and 27 first downs. Cornell ran for 183 yards against a team that ran for 14. And Cornell went home from Princeton Stadium on Halloween with a loss, which tells you just about everything about how cruel this sport can be.

Princeton beat Cornell 21-20 at Powers Field on Saturday, scoring the winning touchdown with about a minute and a half left on an 8-yard pass from Ty Ciongoli to Josh Smith. It was Smith's third touchdown catch of the afternoon. He finished with four receptions.

The Tigers improved to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the Ivy League, which drops them right into the scrum at the top of the standings. Cornell fell to 3-4 and 1-3, and this one is going to sting for a long time.

Cornell controls the clock, Princeton controls the big play

The first half went the way Cornell wanted, at least in terms of style. The Big Red leaned on Jordan Triplett and a deep group of short-area receivers, moved the chains in small bites and kept the Princeton offense off the field. Caden Lesiewicz opened the scoring with a 29-yard field goal in the first quarter, and Brendan Lee capped a 22-play, 98-yard drive that took 12:05 by plunging in from a yard out in the second quarter to make it 10-0.

Princeton's answer came in one swing. Ciongoli found Smith for a 44-yard touchdown, and just like that a game Cornell had been dominating on the stat sheet was 10-7. Lesiewicz added a 24-yard field goal before the break, and Cornell took a 13-7 lead into halftime.

The pattern was already set. Cornell would grind. Princeton would wait for one shot and take it.

The third quarter trade

Cornell came out of the locker room and did exactly what a good team should do with a lead. The Big Red marched down the field, and Triplett finished the drive with a 7-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter. Alan Zhao's extra point made it 20-7.

Princeton's offense needed something, and it got it from an unlikely source on a fourth down. Facing fourth-and-1 at its own 37, the Tigers handed the ball to quarterback Eli Friend, who picked up 8 yards and the first down. Three plays later, on third-and-8, Wyatt Becker launched one deep down the right side and Smith ran under it for a 53-yard touchdown. That made it 20-14 with a little over four minutes left in the third quarter.

Yes, that was three different Princeton quarterbacks touching the ball in a single drive. Head coach Bob Surace also rotated Becker, Ciongoli and Friend at Harvard last Saturday, and that day the approach produced exactly seven points. This time it produced enough.

The turning point: two empty trips

Here is where Cornell lost the game, and it lost it more than once.

Garrett Bass-Sulpizio drove the Big Red back into Princeton territory on the next possession, hitting Lee for 41 yards on third-and-11 from the Cornell 14 and converting a fourth-and-6 with an 8-yard throw to Jaxon Long. The drive stalled at the Princeton 24, and Cornell went for it on fourth-and-1 to open the fourth quarter. Kyler Ronquillo and Chris Oliver met Triplett in the backfield for a 1-yard loss. Turnover on downs.

Princeton punted it right back, and Cornell went on another long march, this one 10 plays and more than six minutes, helped by a Princeton offside penalty on fourth-and-2. With 4:07 to play, Lesiewicz lined up for a 49-yard field goal that would have made it a two-score game. Casey Etienne Jr. got a hand on it. Blocked.

Two straight trips deep into Princeton territory, zero points. That is how you give a big-play team an opening.

Ciongoli, Robinson and the final drive

Princeton took over at its own 32 needing a touchdown. Ciongoli went to work underneath, hitting Ethan Clark for 10 yards on third-and-10 and Josh Robinson for 7 more. Then a pass interference penalty on a deep shot to Smith moved the ball 15 yards to the Cornell 36.

On third-and-7 from the 33, Ciongoli dropped a 31-yard throw to Robinson at the Cornell 2. It nearly unraveled from there. On the next snap Clark was hit for a loss and fumbled, and Princeton was fortunate that Becker fell on the ball at the Cornell 8. One play later, Ciongoli found Smith in the end zone. Esteban Nunez Perez's extra point gave Princeton its first lead of the day, 21-20.

Cornell still had a chance. It lasted one play. Starting deep in its own territory after a fair catch, Bass-Sulpizio threw his first pick of the afternoon, and Evan Haynie came down with it near midfield. Princeton knelt three times and the Halloween crowd got its treat.

The players who decided it

Smith is the headline. Four catches, 107 yards, three touchdowns, and the scores came from 44, 53 and 8 yards out. He did not need volume. He needed the ball in the right place at the right time, three times, and he got it.

Robinson was the engine on the other end of the spectrum. The sophomore caught 11 passes for 122 yards, including the 31-yarder that set up the winning score. Ciongoli completed 14 of 23 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns, and Becker went 8 of 13 for 124 yards and the long score. Neither threw an interception.

On defense, Chase Christopher had 11 tackles and Nate Stohl added 10. Torian Roberts had nine tackles and a pass breakup, and Jake Moore had a sack. Etienne's block and Haynie's interception were the two plays that will live on the highlight reel.

Cornell got a big afternoon out of Bass-Sulpizio, who completed 26 passes for 250 yards. Triplett ran 21 times for 94 yards and a touchdown. Samuel Musungu had five catches for 92 yards and Blaine Zoller caught six for 53. Lee scored on the ground and completed a pass.

The numbers that matter

Cornell won almost every number on the sheet. It had 27 first downs to Princeton's 15, 462 total yards to 313, and a time of possession edge of 39:09 to 20:51. It converted 8 of 17 third downs. Princeton finished with 14 rushing yards on 17 carries, a number dragged down by the closing kneel-downs but not by much.

The numbers Cornell lost were the ones that count. Princeton had zero turnovers and Cornell had one, and it came on the final meaningful snap. Cornell went 1 of 2 on fourth down while Princeton converted the one it needed most. In the second half, Cornell's last two trips deep into Princeton territory ended with a fourth-down stop and a blocked field goal. Princeton averaged better than 8 yards per pass attempt and scored three touchdowns on throws. The full numbers are in the box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

For Princeton, this was a season-saver. The Tigers were coming off a 35-7 loss at Harvard that raised real questions about the offense, and they spent most of this afternoon looking like those questions had no answers. Instead, they are 3-1 in league play. Harvard lost at Dartmouth on Friday night, which leaves the Crimson and the Big Green at 3-1 as well. Next up for Princeton is a home game against Dartmouth on Nov. 7, and that suddenly looks like one of the biggest games on the Ivy calendar.

It also flips a recent trend. Cornell had won the last two meetings, including a 20-17 game in Ithaca last November that Princeton's own site called a heartbreaker.

For Cornell, this is the second straight week the Big Red had a game in hand and let it go. Last Saturday, Cornell led Brown 31-17 entering the fourth quarter and lost 38-31 in overtime. This week it led from the first quarter until the final two minutes. At 1-3 in the league, the title race is gone. Next up is a home game against Penn on Nov. 7.

The last word

You can outgain a team by 149 yards, hold the ball for two-thirds of the game and still lose by a point if you keep coming up empty on the drives that matter. Cornell found that out the hard way on Saturday. Princeton found out something too: it only takes three throws to Josh Smith to win an Ivy League football game. The Tigers will take that formula into November.

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, Cornell Athletics, Princeton Athletics, Undrafted's previous Ivy League coverage. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Ryan Griffith/Cornell Athletics.