PRINCETON, N.J. — In a matchup between two sputtering offenses, one big play, a 78-yard touchdown pass to junior receiver Trey Peacock, handed the Tigers the 17-13 victory at Princeton Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Cornell’s offense put up 400 yards, but could not break through Princeton’s banged up defense when it counted most — junior Brad Greenway missed a 28-yard field goal and two rushing attempts failed to net the one yard needed to extend Cornell’s drive with less than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

“It was a tightly contested game, as we knew it would be,” said head coach Jim Knowles ’87. “These two teams are pretty evenly matched. I thought we did a lot of good things, we ran the ball well, we did a nice job on defense, for the most part, keeping the big plays down. And then we managed to bust a coverage, just two guys not on the same page, and that seems to have plagued us the past few games.”Get a grip: Senior quarterback Ben Ganter completed exactly half of his passes, 16-of-32 for 181 yards, and threw two picks in Cornell’s 17-14 loss to Princeton on Saturday.

Peacock had 113 receiving yards on just three receptions, none bigger than the 78-yard touchdown strike from sophomore quarterback Tommy Wornham, which was Princeton’s (2-5, 1-3 Ivy) longest play in five years and one day.

“We had a play called, just four vertical in a cover-two situation,” Peacock said. “Their corner was pressed up covering the flat zone, I just streaked down the sideline and hoped that [Wornham] would see me.”

Cornell’s big play threat, senior receiver Bryan Walters, was contained for most of the day. Walters finished with three receptions for 62 yards, and just one punt return for eight yards. The Tigers’ special teams were a question mark heading into the game, but it did the trick. Princeton kicker Ben Bologna aimed all four of his kickoffs away from the Red’s return specialist and connected on his only field goal attempt, a 40-yarder.

“[Bologna] placed the ball very well on his kickoffs today,” said Princeton head coach Roger Hughes. “[Cornell’s] kick return is very dangerous, we didn’t want to give it to [Walters]. Ben placed it exactly where we wanted to. We knew we were going to give them the ball on the 30-35 [yard line], but we felt like that was better than giving them a chance to get a long one.”

With Walters well-covered for most of the game, senior quarterback Ben Ganter turned to tight end Ryan Houska, who only had three receptions all season before Saturday. Houska caught six passes for 50 yards against the Tigers, including two during Cornell’s best drive of the last two games — a 12-play, 76-yard march in the third quarter that finished with a one-yard touchdown run by senior Randy Barbour to even the score at 10. Greenway booted a 23-yard field goal attempt on the Red’s next drive to put Cornell up, 13-10, and it looked like the team would take a six-point lead in the fourth quarter on the following drive, but Greenway’s 28-yard attempt missed wide. Greenway’s miss was a shot in the arm for Princeton’s sluggish offense — three plays later was Peacock’s big touchdown reception.

“Emotionally, [Greenway’s missed field goal was] a great lift,” Hughes said. “It gave us a chance to go down and score. Frankly, it does things to the other team too. There was a little bit of a letdown [for Cornell].”

Cornell did not quit after Peacock’s catch; the Red began its next drive at its own 30-yard line with more than six minutes to play. Two rushes by Barbour and sophomore Abdul Taylor got a quick first down, but Cornell stalled just before midfield. The Red lined up in a short-yardage formation on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1, but Barbour and freshman Nick Mlady both failed to get the first down.

“It’s a play that worked on the goal line,” Knowles said about the play selection. “Same play. It worked pretty good on the goal line so we thought it would work again. That was a big chance right there for us to keep going. We had to get a yard on two plays and we couldn’t do it.”

“Out of that wishbone formation, they really only run three plays,” said Princeton senior linebacker Stephen Cody, who led the Tigers’ defensive effort with 15 tackles, a pass breakup and an interception. “The second one they ran ... [linebacker Keola Kaluhiokalani] just shot a gap, saw it, and was able to wrap [Barbour] up and the rest is history from there. It was a huge momentum change, too. It was nice to get a stand like that, especially since it feels like all year the fourth-and-1 plays have been going against us.”