Volume LXVVIII, No. 9
November 11, 2017
YALE FOOTBALL NEWS Published by the Yale Football Association by Chip Malafronte
Bulldogs Earn Ivy Title at Princeton, With 35 - 31 Win They overcame a shaky start that allowed Princeton to take a 17-point lead with fewer than two minutes until halftime by making adjustments, executing a couple of gamechanging plays and, above all else, a belief that the game was never out of hand. The result cements the legacy of Yale’s 145th team. The Bulldogs, after a thrilling comefrom-behind win at Princeton Stadium, are Ivy League champions. At 8-1 overall, 5-1 in the league, Yale clinched at least a share of its 15th Ivy championship and first since 2006. The 11-year drought had been the longest between Ivy League titles in program history, completing a remarkable oneyear turnaround. Things looked grim at this time last season, Yale having won just two of nine games leading into the annual showdown with Harvard. The stunning return to glory began with an upset of the Crimson last November, with the opportunity to add one more line to an already impressive resume in “The Game” on Saturday. Yale hasn’t won an outright Ivy title since 1980. “It’s the best feeling in sports I’ve ever had,” said freshman running back Zane Dudek, who led Yale’s offensive attack with 180 yards and three touchdowns. “I’m still speechless. It’s been a long season, and we do this all together. So to win it for the guys beside me, that’s the best feeling. To be able to send (injured senior running back) Deshawn Salter out with a championship ring, to send (captain) Spencer Rymiszewski out the way he’s supposed to be sent out. That’s what we do it for, and that’s a great feeling.” Even after Yale’s furious comeback, the outcome was in doubt until the final minute. When senior linebacker Foye Oluokun intercepted Princeton quarterback Chad Kanoff’s pass on fourth down with 1 minute, seven seconds left and the Tigers’ lethal offense driving, Yale had clinched at least a share of first place for the first time since 2006. “That’s when it kicked in and I started crying on the sideline a little bit,” Oluokun said. “We didn’t know what to expect this year. We came
a long way from being 3-7 last season. All we did was work and work and work. We’re happy now, but we have one more game and want to cap it off with a win.” Yale appeared to be heading into halftime trailing 24-7, a problem confounded by the fact that Princeton was getting the ball to begin the second half. Kanoff shredded the Bulldogs for much of the day, finishing with a school-record 454 yards and four touchdowns. Three came in the first half, when the senior continually beat Yale’s secondary with the deep ball. Jesper Horstead caught an 88-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. Stephen Carlson caught one from 18 yards out before Tiger Bech, in what appeared to be the knockout blow, hauled in a 58-yarder with 1:51 left in the half. Two huge plays helped turned the tide for Yale. The first came just 29 seconds after Bech’s touchdown catch gave Princeton a 24-7 lead. Kurt Rawlings threw a perfect pass and hit tight end Jaeden Graham in stride for a 58-yard touchdown, cutting the deficit to 10 points at halftime. The next occurred on the second play from scrimmage in the second half. Princeton running back Collin Eaddy was hit by defensive end Earl Chism, fumbling the ball. Spencer Matthaei recovered on the Tigers’ 35. Four plays later, Dudek, Yale’s brilliant freshman, scored on a 33-yard run to make the score 24-21. “We created an extra possession with the fumble,” Yale coach Tony Reno said. “At the end of the day, that was a huge turning point in the game.” Things got wild from there. Yale scored again, on a 1-yard run by Dudek, to take its first lead of the game, 28-24, with 3:58 to play in the third quarter. Another touchdown pass by Kanoff briefly regained the lead for the Tigers at 31-28. Yale promptly marched downfield and scored again, a 4-yard run by Dudek, to make the score 35-31. The Bulldogs, who’d struggled to contain the Princeton passing attack all game, made a pair
of huge defensive stops to thwart potential goahead drives in the fourth quarter. Hayden Carlson broke up a pass on 4th-and-3 from the Yale 31 to get his team the ball back. A time-consuming Yale drive ended when Alex Galland missed a 41-yard field goal attempt with 2:20 remaining. Kanoff’s 31-yard completion put the ball in Yale terrirory. But on 4th-and-8, linebacker Matt Oplinger pressured Kanoff into a hurried throw, which was picked off by Oluokun to preserve victory. For now, Yale — which, until this drought, had never gone longer than 10 years without winning the Ivy League — will bask in the afterglow of this long-awaited championship. Though it will be short-lived. Title or no title, losing to Harvard would be a blemish on the season. “We have a 24-hour rule around here,” Reno said. “Good, bad, we say enjoy it for 24 hours. A little less for the coaches. By the time we get in tomorrow, we start talking about adjustments and get on to game No. 10.”
“We have a 24-hour rule around here, good, bad, we say enjoy it for 24 hours.” Tony Reno, Joel E. Smilow ‘54 Head Coach of Football