Images by Greg Barnett
Princeton – If you had told Princeton head coach Chris Pedigo before the game that his all-state quarterback Grant Cochran wouldn’t complete a pass against Class AA power Bluefield until late in the fourth quarter, he wouldn’t have panicked.
“I would’ve said we better be running it good,” Pedigo said. “And that’s what we did. We’re working young receivers and they stepped up when we needed them.”
Did they ever.
Cochran completed his first pass of the evening with 2:20 left in the game, finding receiver Jonathan Wellman for a 34-yard score. He followed that up by hitting Dominick Collins on the two-point conversion attempt that tied the game. That set the stage for kicker Casey Geso, who on the next drive, nailed a field goal as time expired to give the Tigers a 39-36 win over Bluefield Friday night at Anne S. Hunnicutt Stadium.
After the offense tied the game, Princeton’s defense held on the following drive, sacking Bluefield quarterback Ryker Brown on second down, eventually forcing a three-and-out.
The Tigers started the final drive of the game on their own 49, but moved quickly, opening with a wide receiver screen to Peyton Clemons that picked up 22 yards. A run on the following play moved the ball to the Bluefield 22 with 2.8 seconds left, setting up Geso’s game-winning kick.
“Coming into the fourth on the last play of (Bluefield’s) drive I knew I had to be ready,” Geso said, with the game ball in hand. “I got ready and I was nervous, but my teammates got my back. They just told me it’s another kick, just like practice. So I went in there strong and acted like I knew I was going to make it and made it.”
Getting to that point of the game would be the equivalent of riding a rollercoaster with momentum swinging both ways.
In the first half it resided mostly with the Tigers.
Pedigo rolled the dice early and often on fourth down, taking his first gamble when the Tigers marched to the Bluefield 19. Facing a fourth-and-four, he rolled the dice and struck gold when Jacob Young rumbled into the end zone, staking the Tigers to a 7-0 lead.
“Listen, we wanted to win this football game and we want to win football games,” Pedigo said. “We believe in our guys. I think we showed that hard-nosed Princeton football’s back. Bluefield’s got a bunch of tremendous athletes but we felt we were better than them up front and we showed that tonight and we established the run game.”
On 4th and 4 Princeton decides to go for it. The Tigers run the ball and 19 yards later find the end zone with 3:14 left in the 1st#wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/GrFqmiSmlD
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 3, 2021
Bluefield struck back on it’s next drive when Amir Hairston found paydirt from nine yards out, but it took 24 seconds of game time for the hosts to answer.
Q2 9:36 – Amir Hairston from 9 yards out. Conversion attempt fails so Princeton is up 7-6.#wvprepfb
Drive was 11 plays, 81 yards. pic.twitter.com/AtZFif320p— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 3, 2021
Running back Brodie Rice opened the next drive with a 44-yard jaunt before he was tackled at the Bluefield 3. He finished the drive on the next play, carrying numerous Beavers into the end zone, giving Princeton a 14-6 advantage. It was just one of many highlights for Rice.
Hello Brodee Rice! He rips off a 48 yard run to the 3 and finishes it off with this beast mode TD! Princeton up 14-6#wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/L2yspg0PSL
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 3, 2021
The next came with under five minutes to go in the half with the Beavers in the redzone. Bluefield quarterback Ryker Brown’s pass over the middle was picked by Rice, helping the Tigers take their 14-6 lead into the break.
After the intermission, the Bluefield avalanche ensued.
After sacking Brown on fourth down to force a punt at the 8:30 mark of the third, the Tigers were tagged with a roughing the punter penalty, giving the Beavers new life. They capitalized as a 33-yard rush from running back Jamel Floyd flipped the field and on fourth down Brown called his own number, punching it in from two yards out, helping tie the game.
Touchdown Beavers. Ryker Brown with the extension on 4th down for the score. On the 2PA Green comes back in the game and hits the pylon on a sweep. It’s tied 14-14#wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/CHdFMOwk8Y
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 4, 2021
The miscues for the boys in blue didn’t stop there. After Bluefield called a timeout Princeton handed the ball back to the visitors on a fumble and 200-meter state champion Jacorian Green made them pay. Brown found the speedster down the right sideline for a 31-yard touchdown on the ensuing drive, staking the Beavers to a 22-14 lead.
The fumble hurts immediately. On the third play of the drive Brown finds Green for this 31-yard score. It’s 22-14 Bluefield with 2:35 left in Q3#wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/IrlysvfXIo
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 4, 2021
The Tigers didn’t panic, throwing their own counterpunch.
Rice made his presence known again at the start of the fourth, recovering a Green fumble and returning it 22 yards for a score to slash the deficit to a point.
“He had a hell of a night man,” Pedigo said. “Listen, he’s the epitome – we named him captain tonight because the kid is just a leader. He’s got no quit in him and he’s full of energy. If I ask him to play guard he’ll play guard and he wouldn’t say two things about it. He’s the kind of kid you want on your football team and we’re very blessed to have him and I’m extremely, extremely proud of him.”
Riding the momentum, the Tigers recovered the ensuing kickoff and scored on a one-yard run by Jacob Young.
“I think that’s a sign of a football team that’s bought in to brick-by-brick and building the foundation and not quitting,” Pedigo said. “This football team did it last year. I told other people that after last year we were learning how to win and we were learning how to put teams away and this game right here just showed we’ve got no quit in us. The third quarter, they owned it. Then it was a display of offense.”
Offense and special teams, to be exact.
Brown and Green provided more fireworks for the Beavers in both facets.
Green provided the third lead change of the half when he returned a kickoff 99 yards after Young’s touchdown run, giving Bluefield a 30-28 advantage. After Princeton turned it over on downs at midfield on its following drive, Brown called his own number again, scoring from six yards out to make it a 36-28 game.
That was when Cochran delivered, finding Wellman for a score on the following drive.
Grant Cochran picks a fine time to complete his first pass of the evening. With 2:20 left he finds Wellman on a 34-yard pass. The defender on the play, Flack, is being tended to on the field #wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/L7SEvhMMQl
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 4, 2021
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed the Tigers’ conversion attempt back, but they still prevailed, tying the game on a pass from Cochran to Collins before Geso finished it off.
Princeton wins 39-36 on a last second FG#wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/XpORh1epMs
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 4, 2021
“I think we were a little more patient on offense in the second half,” Bluefield head coach Fred Simon said. “We made enough plays … but big plays. But to me, you score 36 points and you ought to win a football game.”
The Beavers, who were playing their first game of the season, struggled with cramps and communication throughout the night. They were forced to burn all of their first-half timeouts early on due to expiring play clocks and struggled at times to get 11 players on the field.
“Yeah it was a first game thing,” Simon said. “They’ve had two scrimmages and a first game and we’ve only had one scrimmage. I thought it hurt us. You could learn from your mistakes, but it came back to haunt us. It would’ve been nice to have won and work on them next week but it didn’t happen.”
Cramps and game shape impacted the Beavers heavily as Green sat out most of the third quarter and starting cornerback Jaeon Flack cramped on the tying touchdown, forcing him to exit on the two-point attempt.
“We had cramps and our best corner was out because of cramps on that two-pointer,” Simon said. “It would’ve been nice to have everyone there but again, you get in the first-game situations and you’re not used to the game speed. All of sudden you’re starting to play faster, again all of a sudden with all the time we’ve had off I thought it hurt us a little bit. We could’ve gotten all of that out of the way in a scrimmage or our first game last week, but it is what it is.”
Brown led the Beavers with 17 rushes for 70 yards and two touchdowns while completing 20 of his 23 passing attempts for 163 yards and a touchdown and an interception. Green caught nine passes for 84 yards and a score.
Rice led Princeton with 110 yards on 10 carries while Cochran was 2-of-7 passing for 56 yards and a touchdown.