Box Score O'Connor Breaks School Record with 465 Yards
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - When you face an undefeated team whose average margin of victory is 37, you can't afford to give up early points or turn the ball over. Yale gave up the ball early and the points came fast in a 59-43 loss to No. 11 Princeton today at Yale Bowl on the Class of 1954 Field.
Princeton RB Collin Eaddy (25-266, 3 TDs) went 75 yards for a TD on the game's first snap and then followed up an interception on Yale's first possession with another scoring run to build an insurmountable lead.
Yale's first two possessions ended with interceptions and resulted in Princeton TDs as the visitors built a 21-0 lead that became 42-14 by halftime.
The Tigers (9-0, 6-0 Ivy), who clinched a share of their 12th Ivy title today, accumulated 634 yards of offense.
Yale first-year QB Griffin O'Connor, making his second start, overcame the early picks to eclipse the school record for passing yards in a game with 465. He came within two yards of the Yale standard last week against Brown. O'Connor, the Yale offense and a fired-up defense enabled the Bulldogs to outscore Princeton 29-17 in the second half and come within two scores late in the game.
Junior RB Alan Lamar led Yale with 102 rushing yards and a pair of TDs, while Reed Klubnik, Yale's junior WR, had a game-high 8 catches for a career-best 234 yards and one score.
The Bulldogs (5-4, 3-3) conclude the 2018 season with a noon kickoff against Harvard in the 135th edition of The Game next Saturday at Fenway Park. The Nov. 17 contest airs live on ESPN2.
BULLDOG BITES
The combined 102 points are the most scored in a Yale-Princeton game… Griffin O'Connor has now played two games and has 902 yards and 7 TDs combined. He had 3 TD tosses today. The most amazing thing about his 465 yards are that they came on just 20 completions (23.2 avg)… Sophomore LB Micah Awodiran had a career-high 10 solos and 13 overall stops to lead the Bulldogs.
COACH RENO
"We really just dug ourselves a hole. Coming into the game, we knew they were averaging 55 points per game and giving up 9. There's not a lot of room for error against Princeton. We knew we had to score and minimize mistakes on both sides of the ball. We got into a trap defensively until the fourth quarter, for a variety of reasons... Offensively, we didn't play well... We had the opportunity to come back with four minutes left in the game to go down and score, and we just couldn't quite finish," said Tony Reno, Yale's Joel E. Smilow '54 Head Coach.
COZZA TRIBUTE
A crowd estimated over 800 attended a memorial service for hall of fame Yale Football coach Carm Cozza this morning at Coxe Cage. Some of his family, players and colleagues shared thoughts on the legendary coach after Yale President Peter Salovey began the ceremony…. See Cozza Video Montage
By Steve Conn, Yale Associate AD/Sports Publicity
