NEW YORK - Columbia's defense was once again dominant, but the high-scoring offense from the start of the season sputtered as Princeton spoiled the home opener with a 24-6 win. 

Columbia (2-1, 0-1) was averaging 40 points per game.

"We're just disappointed we didn't execute." Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football Al Bagnoli said. "Some of the more obvious things are for the first time in a long time we lost the turnover battle and we lost dramatically (4-1)."

"You just can't make that volume of mistakes and lose that many possessions."

After the remnants of Hurricane Ian dumped heavy rain all morning, it was a crisp, overcast fall Saturday at Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium. October 1 is the latest home opener for Columbia since 1975 as 4,071 fans came out.

Princeton (3-0, 1-0) opened the game with an eight-play, 75-yard drive in 3:46 to take a 7-0 lead Columbia's No. 1 scoring defense in the country. From there, the Lions' opportunistic defense tightened up.

The unit answered with a touchdown of their own on the ensuing drive on a backward pass from Princeton, as defensive back Aaron Brebnor recovered the ball in the endzone. It was the third straight game with a defensive touchdown for Columbia, making it 7-6 midway through the first quarter. Defensive lineman Justin Townsend had a pair of sacks – the first of his career – and a batted pass on the next drive.
"It's a credit to the other guys because each play we harp on it every single day that it's just doing your 1/11," Townsend, who ended with three sacks, said. "If I can do my 1/11th of my piece every single time then it's going to lead to more success and allow me to grow as a player and allow me to be successful and make more plays. "

A late second-quarter touchdown gave Princeton the 14-6 lead at halftime.

The Lions' defense held the Tigers to 19 rushing yards on 29 attempts. They had six sacks on the day.

Princeton took advantage of a Columbia muffed punt and scored a two-yard touchdown to make it 21-6 with 3:30 left in the third quarter.

"We got exposed a little bit with short fields," Bagnoli said.

Princeton, an Ancient Eight powerhouse, is coming off another Ivy League Title, while Columbia seeks its first conference title since 1961. Bagnoli led Penn to nine league titles in his tenure there.

"We've got to learn from it. We can't let this game negatively affect next week and have one game cause two losses," Bagnoli said. "So hopefully our pride's a little hurt and will be a little upset and we'll take it out on Wagner next week."

POSTGAME NOTES

• Columbia has dropped four-straight to Princeton, dating back to 2017

• The Lions' six sacks were the most for the program since last season when they had eight at Central Connecticut State

• Senior Ryan Young made his season debut after missing the first two games due to injury. He led the squad with 31 yards on eight carries and had three catches for 21 yards.

• Fara'ad McCombs led the defense with eight tackles

• Townsend finished with three sacks and had 4.5 tackles for a loss

Matt Sugam '23 SPS  has been covering sports in the NYC Metropolitan area for over a decade. He has spent the last eight years covering college and professional sports as a stringer for the Associated Press and contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He's been covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia's School of Professional Studies. Follow him on Twitter @MattSugam or visit his website at www.mattsugam.com