Strong Princeton Passing Offensive Defeats Crimson

PRINCETON, N.J., Nov. 11-There just was no contest out at Palmer Stadium yesterday. A Princeton football team, two-strong at every position, and taking amazing advantage of Harvard's long-standing pass-defense weakness, smashed the Crimson, 35 to 20, and extended its undefeated streak to nine games over a two year period. The loss was the fourth in six games for Harvard.

The point spread of 15 points, within a point of the pre-game prediction, belied the true outcome of the game, moreover, for there never was a time when the Crimson had a chance of winning, and one had the uncomfortable feeling that Princeton could have rolled up the score higher if it had wanted.

Coach Jordan has been a "November coach" in the past, getting his team "up" for the traditional games which fall late in the season. But unless he is a true miracle man, the Crimson may have seen its last victory two weeks ago in October against Dartmouth. Brown, which held the Tiger's line in check for most of its game before losing 21-7, and which beat Cornell yesterday, will be ready for Harvard. And Yale will be too much for the Crimson.

Against Penn the week before, the Crimson forward wall just crumbled, but Saturday it did a surprisingly strong job. The Tigers, without the services of fullback Hewes Agnew after the first period, found it difficult to gain much rushing, but once again the Harvard pass defense made a hero out of a comparative unknown--this time, substitute Jim Mottley. Mottley completed nine out of ten passes, including two for touchdowns. He also scored one himself, on a 20-yard run.

By the time the Crimson scored its first touchdown, mid-way through the third period, the score was 28-0 against the varsity, and the game was well beyond its reach. And ironically, the Crimson scores came, not from the ground, but through passes. Two were on tosses into the end zone to end Tom Hooper, and one was directly set up by passes.

The first score of the game took exactly four plays. After the kickoff, the Crimson was forced to punt from its own ten, and Matt Botsford's kick carried to the 40, where Princeton wingback Bill Danforth took it, cut to the sidelines and went to the six-yard line before being hit.

Fullback Agnew tried the wedge play three times, bringing the ball to the one, and tailback Tom Morris cut off tackle to score. Paul Nystrom's conversion was good.

The second touchdown took five plays, with Mottley on fourth down passing to quarterback John Sapoch from the Crimson 17-yard line. Sapoch was hit by Bots-ford on the five, but broke away and fell into the end zone.

Tigers Lead at Half, 21-0

As the second period came to a close, Mottley, on a fourth and three situation, went back to pass, found no one clear, and broke into the open up the middle. He cut to the outside and raced untouched into the end zone for the touchdown. These three early scores, all on fourth down attempts, gave the Tigers a 21-0 halftime lead.

But with only 58 seconds gone in the period, the score was 28-0. Nystrom kicked off to Jim Joslin who fumbled on the Crimson 21-yard line, and recovered by Nystrom himself on the 23. Morris carried to the 15, and on the next play substitute fullback Al Manzier was sprung free up the middle for a touchdown. He was hit hard on the three, but was able to hold his feet.

The Crimson's first score was engineered by quarterback Botsford. Starting from its own 40 after the kickoff, the Crimson moved in ten plays to the Princeton 10-yard line. Sandy Dodge did the bulk of the running, filling in for Walt Stahura, who made only a token entrance at the end of the half.

Botsford Fools Defenders

From the ten, on first down, Botsford faked two hand-offs, and with a perfect boot-leg motion, fooled the whole Tiger defense. He then lobbed a pass to Hooper, all alone in the end zone. Joslin's kick was wide.

With incredible speed, the Tigers came back to pick up their final touchdown. Three plays after Phil Haughey's kick-off, Mottley faded back on the Harvard 37 and lofted a pass to end Charlie Disbrow on the 16. He was hit by a Harvard man, but escaped, and behind some good blocking scampered into the end zone.

At the start of the last period Babe Simourian completed a 12-yard pass to Hooper in the end zone, climaxing a 16-play march, covering 80 yards.

And with the clock ticking off the final minutes, third string quarter back Dick McLaughlin, after a couple of long passes to Jim Damis, sneaked over for the final touchdown of the game. Harvard, all told, completed 12 out of 28 passes, a large number of attempts for the Crimson, good for 157 yards. Princeton completed 10 out of 16 for 258 yards.

The Crimson picked up 17 first downs, while Princeton gained only 12; the Tigers punted only once.JIM JOSLIN (43), Crimson halfback, fumbles Princeton's second half kickoff and PAUL NYSTROM (59) recovers. Two plays later, Al Manzler scored the fourth Princeton touchdown of the game.