Grey Hodnett kicked his tenth goal of the season Saturday to beat Princeton, 3 to 2, and keep alive the Crimson's chances for the Ivy League title.

Hodnett's fourth-period tally secured for the victors a game the Crimson had threatened to wrap up for the first 35 minutes, and to give up for the next 40.

The game was played under atrocious conditions which made the ball more likely to sink that to bounce, but the Crimson controlled play so completely for the first period that the Tigers managed only two shots.

Goalie Maury McKeon of the Tigers dove or pushed his way to all the Crimson shots, though, until inside right Bill Lingelbach outran two Tigers to a ball floating in a puddle and passed sharply to outside Ken McIntosh. McIntosh booted a high kick toward the left of the goal, but Shad Tubman jumped and deflected the ball with his head off the left post and into the nets at 13:50 of the first quarter.

The Crimson established a 2-0 lead when Hank Holmes converted a rebound at 10:12 of the second period. Tubman had taken a short kick which McKeon blocked but could not hold, and Holmes scored his first goal of the season by kicking the rebound into the lower left corner.

But the whole complexion of the game changed after that goal, and Princeton attacked almost without let-up for the rest of the contest. The Tigers scored at 16:45 of the second period on a goal by Adolpho Bueno and again at 7:44 of the fourth when Derick Driemeyer evened the score at 2-all.

The explanation for the poor play of the usually steady Crimson defense lies in the fact that only one of the halfbacks and fullbacks, Stacey Holmes, was able to stay in all the way. Don Beaver, Hugh Sargent, John Hadik and Denny Little all started with injured legs, and not one of them could play the full 88 minutes.

As a result, goalie Lindsay Fischer, himself fitted out with a special pad to protect an injured rib cage, was under constant pressure. Neither he nor McKeon had much mobility in the mud, but at least twice Fischer slid headlong to grab shots, and his remarkable performance was hardly marred by the fact that two goals got past.