PRINCETON, N.J. -- Even the best players make mistakes. The mark of a truly great player is his ability to overcome miscues and turn a negative into a positive, rather than allowing the mistake to affect his play adversely for the rest of the game.
Duvol Thompson is a great I-AA player, and Saturday against Princeton, he atoned for a big mistake by leading his team to victory.
Thompson, the Quakers' starting cornerback, was working his second job, returning kickoffs, when disaster struck.
With the Tigers ahead 3-0 in the first quarter, Thompson fumbled a kickoff, and Princeton's Doori Song recovered at the Penn 27.
Thompson was not the same the rest of the game.
"I don't believe that I fumbled that, and that got me a little angry," Thompson said.
It was the officials that made the call. But Thompson took it out on his opponents.
For the rest of the afternoon, he was all over the field, covering receivers one-on-one, coming up to stop the run and infusing the defense with much-needed passion.
In short, Thompson exemplified Penn's 20-game Ivy League winning streak. On a senior-laden defense, he led the unit in the most important category: pride.
"We've been playing together for a long time, and I think that is a sense of pride on our part. We want to be able to stop everybody."
Early on, the Tigers were controlling the action with their two-pronged rushing attack of Branden Benson and Jon Veach. Benson is a 230-pound battering ram who was making the Quakers pay for every tackle they made on him.
Enter Thompson.
The 185-pound cornerback came up to make three straight stops on Benson in the second quarter, punishing the big back in the process. He also fired up his teammates with vocal outbursts after every play.
This sequence changed the momentum of the entire game. Benson was not the same for the rest of the afternoon, and the Penn defenders began to swarm both Benson and Veach.
Thompson also made his presence felt in the passing game.
With Princeton ahead 12-7 in the third quarter, the Tigers took one of their few chances. Thompson was matched up in single coverage with wide receiver Brian Shields. Princeton quarterback Matt Verbit threw a beautiful pass 40 yards down the field, and Shields appeared to have a step on Thompson.
But at the last moment, the cornerback reached across with his left hand and batted the pass away, letting Shields know about it all the way back to the huddle.
Later in the drive, Thompson got turned around by tight end Jon Dekker, only to turn back just at the right time to bat down Verbit's pass in the end zone.
Thompson, however, was not a lone assassin. He was joined by fellow seniors Michael Sangobowale and Luke Hadden in setting the tone for the entire team.
Sangobowale busted up a Jon Veach run in the backfield midway through the fourth quarter, and finished with four total tackles.
Hadden was even more impressive. He was in on 11 tackles, and made perhaps the two biggest plays of the game.
With Princeton up 3-0 in the first quarter and knocking on Penn's doorstep, Hadden stripped Tigers split end Greg Fields, and classmate Kevin Stefanski recovered, stopping the Tigers' early-game momentum.
With the Quakers up by just a point and Princeton at the Penn 19-yard line, Hadden chased down Benson as he was trying to get to the corner, and with help from Sangobowale, he stuffed Benson in the backfield for a 5-yard loss back to the 24-yard line.
Princeton kicker Derek Javarone was forced to try a 41-yard field goal instead of a 36-yarder, and judging by how narrowly he missed the kick, the five yards might have been the difference in the game.
To win 20 consecutive league games, a team needs a lot of talent, a lot of good coaching, but most of all a lot of pride.
That is what Thompson, Hadden and Sangobowale provide. On Saturday, they carried their teammates on their backs and showed them what pride is all about.
The Penn football team has won 20 Ivy League games in a row because of the character of its players, and its defensive leadership was instrumental in Saturday's win.
