Gallery by Greg Barnett
Princeton – The rain subsided after halftime but Hurricane raged on.
The Redskins from Putnam County rallied from an early 21-7 deficit, scoring 28 second-half points in a 56-42 win at No. 3 Princeton Friday night in Hunnicutt Stadium.
Unable to get its passing game off the ground through the early downpour, No. 9 Hurricane (5-1) leaned on former quarterback-turned-running back Noah Vellaithambi who churned 41 carries into 281 yards and four scores. He was the engineer of an offense that scored seven touchdowns on just 10 drives against Princeton (6-1).
“It’s always a team effort,” Vellaithambi said. “I was getting five yards from the line of scrimmage before I was touched. The offensive line played a great game and this one goes to them.”
As generous as Vellaithambi was with his praise, he played as much of a role in his own success, punishing the Tigers after contact. He proved nearly impossible to bring down on first contact, regularly requiring a host of Tigers to tackle him and often that wasn’t enough to stop him from powering forward for an extra yard or two.
“I sat here and I told the guys in the locker room we had to stop one guy,” Princeton head coach Keith Taylor said. “I’m not trying to take credit away from any other player but (Vellaithambi’s) playing with a different intensity. You can tell he wants the football. The worst game for us was the Spring Valley game where they gave him a lot of touches. Before that he was playing out wide, he wasn’t doing this kind of stuff but he went off against Spring Valley and give that kid credit. He was the starting QB, lost the job, came back and was just trying to get on the football field and he just found out he’s a tailback.
“At the end of the day we’re meeting him in the hole and he’s carrying three, four, five dudes that play both ways. It’s just one of those things where he wanted it more than we did. We refused to tackle him low and when you have a stud running back like that and try to hit him high he’s going to keep carrying you and he kept carrying us.”
Princeton’s strategy to neutralize the run game by deficit nearly worked when the Tigers took a 14-0 lead. The first score came after the Tigers recovered a muffed ball on the opening kickoff and charged 40 yards, capping the drive with a touchdown pass from Chance Barker to Dom Collins. A blocked punt on Hurricane’s following drive was recovered by the Tigers who found the end zone again on a 14-yard rushing score from Marquel Lowe at the 9:31 mark of the opening frame.
Vellaithambi responded by providing the Redskins the spark they needed, keeping the ground game in the fold. Starting their second drive at the Princeton 35, the talented runner needed just one play to bolt to the end zone and get the visitors on the board.
The game then morphed into a showcase for Vellaithambi and Princeton’s all-state receiver Dom Collins who combined to score six times – three times each – in the first half. Touchdown receptions of 39 and 70 yards by Collins helped the hosts to a 28-14 lead before Vellaithambi’s third touchdown made it a one-score affair at 28-21 with 7:18 left in the first half. But the special teams excellence Princeton displayed in the opening quarter faded as the game drug on.
The Redskins knotted the game up when they blocked a punt that was scooped by Michael Hill and returned for a score with 2:54 left to go in the half.
“I don’t know when the last time we blocked a punt was but it gave us some juice in that first half,” Hurricane head coach Donnie Mays said. “It felt like every time we were moving the ball we had to do it in four plays.”
The special teams mistakes carried into the second half after Hurricane took the lead on a 37-yard touchdown pass by JacQai Long to Michael Terrell. The ensuing kickoff was muffed by the Tigers and recovered by Hurricane which went back to the well, extending its lead to 42-28 when Long found Terrell again from 35 yards out.
Princeton answered with a three-play drive that covered 64 yards and yielded points on a 38-yard touchdown pass to Brad Mossor but the Redskin offense proved too much Princeton to slow with Vellaithmabi and Rhett McGrew scoring to cement the win.
Collins, who finished with 10 catches for 175 yards and four touchdowns, accounted for the final score of the night with the game out of reach.
“He’s a great player and I told him to keep his head up,” Hurricane head coach Donnie Mays said. “We knew coming into this he was going to be a handful. You’ve got to find him. He’s one of those guys where it’s like Where’s Waldo type stuff. He’s one of the best receivers in the state and there’s a reason why. They did a good job of finding different ways of getting him the ball. I think we did a better job in the second half of slowing him down.
“We got off that bus today because all of the delays and the wrecks and we didn’t get out of Hurricane until 4:30. It just put us behind schedule and we just came out here and it’s raining and we’re trying to warm up and we got like 20 minutes and you felt everything rushed. It just kind of snowballed into a bad first half. But after we got in there at halftime, we regrouped and we talked about what we needed to do and we game planned a little bit for (Collins) and I think that’s what helped us.”
The Redskins did most of their damage in the second half on both sides of the ball. They accumulated 271 of their 432 yards of total offense after the break, holding Princeton to just two scores over that same span.
For good measure they scored touchdowns on four of their five drives, using the fifth to run out the clock.
“We let them load the box on us to hit the passes that we hit,” Mays said. “I thought – when it’s raining sideways out here it’s hard to throw the football. We came out and just tried to throw some basic passes and the ball was just slipping and sliding everywhere. I think overall we were as efficient as I’d like to be.”
Long completed 11 of 19 passing attempts for 130 yards and three touchdowns while his counterpart Barker completed 21 of 24 attempts for 308 yards and five touchdowns.
Terrell was Hurricane’s leading receiver with 90 yards and two scores on four receptions while Lowe led Princeton on the ground with 114 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. Brad Mossor added 108 yards receiving and a score in the loss.
Princeton will aim to rebound from its first loss of the season next week when it hosts Beckley while Hurricane will host Cabell Midland.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
H: 7 21 21 7 – 56
P: 21 7 7 7 – 42
SCORING SUMMARY:
1st Quarter
P: Dom Collins 6 yd Pass from Chance Barker (Saeed Aboulhosn PAT)
P: Marquel Lowe 14 yd Rush (Saeed Aboulhosn PAT)
HUR: Noah Vellaithambi 35 yd Rush (Player 11)
P: Dom Collins 39 yd Pass from Chance Barker Saeed Aboulhosn PAT)
2nd Quarter
HUR: Noah Vellaithambi 2 yd Rush (Player 11 PAT)
P: Dom Collins 70 yd Pass from Chance Barker (Saeed Aboulhosn PAT)
HUR: Noah Vellaithambi 12 yd Rush (Player 11 PAT)
HUR: Punt blocked return for a touchdown by Michael Hill (Player 11 PAT)
3rd Quarter
HUR: Michael Terrell 37 yd Pass from JacQai Long (Player 11 PAT)
HUR: Michael Terrell 35 yd Pass from JacQai Long (Player 11 PAT)
P: Bradley Mossor 38 yd Pass from Chance Barker (Saeed Aboulhosn PAT)
HUR: Noah Vellaithambi 4 yd Rush Player (11 PAT)
4th Quarter
HUR: Rhett McGrew 20 yd Pass from JacQai Long (Player 11 PAT)
P: Dom Collins 24 yd Pass from Chance Barker (Saeed Aboulhosn PAT)
