Fueled by a Career Day from Running Back Honda, PU Football Races Past Columbia 35-7 in Ivy Opener

Bob Surace was feeling good about his Princeton University football team as it prepared to play at Columbia last Saturday in the Ivy League opener for both squads.

“I walked off the field Wednesday and Steve Verbit has been here 41 years and he said that is the best Wednesday practice I have ever been at,” said Princeton head coach Surace. “I felt the same thing but I didn’t say it. We were really focused and we were really detailed. I felt like we were making some good improvements.”

But while Surace liked what he was seeing from his squad, Tiger star running back Kai Honda was under the weather coming into the week.

“Kai was really sick last week,” said Surace. “He was in the infirmary over the weekend and I didn’t know early in the week if he was going to play. We didn’t know if he had pneumonia or what it was. As the week went on, he started feeling better.”

On Saturday, junior Honda made Columbia sick as he produced one of the better rushing performances in recent years for the Tigers, running for 219 yards and four touchdowns, both career highs, as Princeton pulled away to a 35-7 win over the Lions. He was later named the Ivy League Co-Offensive Player of the Week along with Yale quarterback Dante Reno.

Honda, a 5’10, 210-pound native of Manhattan Beach, Calif., became the first 200-yard rusher since Collin Eaddy (266) at Yale on November 10, 2018 and first four-touchdown performer since Eaddy at Brown on October 16, 2021. His 70-yard touchdown run was also the first 70-yard run by a Tiger since John Volker against Penn on November 23, 2024. Honda was the first Princeton player to rush for 200 yards and score four touchdowns in a game since Keith Elias (299) against Lafayette on September 26, 1992.

Honda didn’t waste any time showing that he was feeling good on Saturday, sprinting 40 yards for touchdown on Princeton’s first possession as the Tigers jumped out to a 7-0 lead.

After Columbia tied the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter, Honda hit pay dirt again with a seven-yard scoring jaunt as the Tigers went up 14-7 and never looked back in improving to 2-1 overall and 1-0 Ivy.

In the waning moments of the first half, Honda struck again as he raced 53 yards for his third TD of the half with 1:08 remaining in the second quarter to give the Tigers a 21-7 lead at intermission.

“We had our timeouts and went into the two-minute drill,” said Surace. “Mark Rosenbaum (offensive coordinator) and I communicated and said we can run the ball because we have the timeouts. We were close enough and I thought we could get down in a good solid touchdown or field goal position. Mark calls the run and Kai is in the end zone.”

Honda added a fourth TD early in the fourth quarter when he got loose for a 70-yard scoring jaunt to stretch the lead to 28-7.

“I joked after the game, that was like the Jordan flu game,” said Surace, referring to Michael Jordan’s 38-point effort for the Chicago Bulls in the Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals when he played sick.

Honda also resembles Jordan in his commitment to improvement.

“Kai is a very explosive runner, he is strong, he is fast,” said Surace of Honda, who now has 305 yards and six touchdowns this season. “I think the thing that has really helped is that he has been very patient in finding the hole. Early in his career, he just sprinted into the line, he didn’t set things up. We have seen Kai’s growth from year to year to year. Credit to Kai because he is a workout phenomenon. He is just so into the lifting, running, and nutrition. He is a little bit freaky that way.”

Senior punter Brady Clark helped the Tigers hold off Columbia in the second half with some key boots.

“I credit Brady Clark because they came out and they get a stop and he punts them down to their end,” said Surace of Clark, who averaged 55.5 yards a kick with a long of 66 yards and was later named the Ivy Special Teams Player of the Week. “They drive it and we get another stop and they punt us to the eight or nine-yard line. We are backed up. We have a penalty and we are punting from our 10 and you are thinking a good punt, they are going to be at midfield. He unleashes one and flips the field again, He got us back on track with his punts.”

The final TD of the day for Princeton came on a 55-yard pass from Ty Ciongoli to Aidan Besselman with 6:27 left in regulation. Sophomore Ciongoli, who has been rotating with freshman Wyatt Becker at QB, connected on 3 of 5 passes for 112 yards.

“I think they are both doing a really good job with what the play design is and reading the defense,” said Surace. “Mark does a good job of utilizing their talents. We split the game plan. It gives them a better chance to get practice reps. When you are inexperienced, you lack practice reps and you see all of these new defenses. What you don’t want is for them to be completely shocked not having run plays that we put in. I think that has really helped them.”

Coming off a 22-0 win over UAlbany on September 26, the Tiger defense was stingy for a second straight week.

“In the Bryant game (a 21-14 loss on September 19), we had three series where there were long yardage situations and we didn’t get off the field,” said Surace, whose team limited the Lions to 91 yards rushing in 31 carries as they fell to 2-1 overall and 0-1 Ivy. “We have been really good on third and fourth downs. Yesterday we were 4 for 4 on fourth down stops. We have done better in the red zone. We are playing situational football a little better. We have to continue that piece. I felt we rushed the passer very well. We made them check it down. We limited the damage in the run game. I thought our guys did a good job.”

Junior linebacker Connor Cronin had a very good performance against Colombia, making a game-high 10 tackles.

“Last year, he played a lot and he was just getting better and better this spring,” said Surace. “We had an All-Ivy outside backer Will Perez a few years ago and Connor brings a lot of those same traits. He is a guy who had been a safety who moves well. A lot of colleges recruited him as a wide receiver. He has really good hands and instincts. He has been really key for us.”

Getting a rare one-sided win in Ivy play came as a bit of a surprise to Surace.

“I didn’t have any more gray hairs, it is not typical of these games,” said Surace. “They are a good team, going into the game you are not expecting a blowout. We executed really well and they had a tough day in some of those things that led to the score expanding. We have got to keep improving because the Ivy League is obviously tightly competitive.”

Playing at Wagner (1-4) on October 10, the Tigers will need to show more improvement to earn their third straight win.

“We have never played them before, they played James Madison and Cal Berkeley and they are really high end top 40 in the country teams,” said Surace. “In the new era of college football, our quarterback is a freshman and some of our best players are younger guys while they have a number of transfers that are fourth, fifth, sixth year guys. When you look at their roster, there are 35 guys who played a high level of football. They have a top receiver who was the 14th best receiver coming out of high school and went to Pitt. They have played one of the hardest schedules in the country from an FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) standpoint.”

In Surace’s view, his team’s hard work during the week is paying dividends.

“I do think our guys have practiced really well and you want to see it carry over because it doesn’t always carry over,” said Surace. “I felt really good as the week went on that we were in nice zone. We were very focused. I felt throughout camp we got better but when we played Bryant we just weren’t quite complete. We are still not complete but we have made these strides to get to this point.”