Sprint expects win on trip to Princeton

The Penn sprint football team hopes to shake off any bye-week rust when it travels across the Delaware to take on Princeton Friday night at 7:30 p.m. The Quakers are coming off a 20-0 shutout of Cornell at home two weeks ago. In that game, the Penn defense was immovable, holding the Big Red to a mere 57 total yards of offense and an unheard of minus-21 yards on the ground. The defensive effort was led by senior linebacker John Clarke, whose nine tackles, one sack and late fourth-quarter interception earned him Collegiate Sprint Football League Defensive Player of the Week honors following the game. Tonight, the Quakers cannot afford to look past the Tigers to the meat of their schedule. This holds especially true given that the Quakers haven't seen live action in two weeks. "[The bye week] gave us time to group up and get the offense and defense in sync," sophomore defensive lineman Michael Doyle said. "We're really starting to gel nicely." The Tigers (0-1, 0-0 CSFL) are coming off a 16-13 loss to Cornell in overtime last week -- a loss that can be attributed to five costly turnovers. The Quakers (1-0, 0-0 CSFL) -- who play the Tigers twice a year -- have beaten Princeton 10 consecutive times over the last five seasons. "We're gonna romp them," Doyle said. "That's the attitude that we have to take in to this game." And for good reason, as Penn ran out of Old Nassau with a 49-12 rout in the final game of last season. Then-senior Tim Ortman ran for 226 yards and four touchdowns as the Penn offense was running on all cylinders, outgaining the Tigers in total yards (504-214) as well as on the ground (351-58). The numbers that Penn put up against the Tigers last year are quite impressive. In its two losses to the Quakers, the Princeton defense gave up a total of 377 yards and eight touchdowns -- to Ortman alone. Granted, Ortman is gone, but most of the Quakers' attack from last season is still in tact. When these two programs meet tonight at Weaver Stadium, they will be renewing the oldest rivalry in lightweight football history. Penn and Princeton -- two of the original members of the Eastern 150-pound football league -- first met on the playing field in 1931. Since that initial clash, the two teams have met a total of 77 times, with Princeton holding the overall advantage, 41-34-2. Assuming that the Quakers leave Princeton with a win, they will then have another bye week to prepare for a tough test at Navy. "Navy's a big one, but we've gotta handle what this week brings us," Doyle said. "We don't play at home again until November," senior defensive back Brad Gusich said. "That's a lot of time on the road." Playing on the road is something that Penn will have to deal with, as they will be tested with three straight games in hostile environments over four weeks. They face the first part of that test tonight.

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