At the start of the postseason Princeton thought it might just end up with one home playoff game. Now it’s hoping to make the most of another within the confines of Hunnicutt Stadium.
Following an upset win against No. 4 Hurricane, No. 13 Parkersburg makes the trip to Princeton Friday, advancing to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2018.
For both the Tigers and Big Reds it’s uncharted territory but the Tigers, who are playing in their fourth consecutive postseason, hope their experience provides them with an edge.
“Yeah, I think our kids, this week in practice our kids were just handling it like a normal week,” Princeton head coach Keith Taylor said. “I think our kids kind of just live in the moment they’re not really looking at historical stuff. They’re not looking at you know, second round of the playoffs. They just know that we have to take care of business to be able to play next week and I thought the guys played loose this week. I thought we had a really good week of preparation. I thought the guys really enjoyed being out there being under the lights. And you know, just being fortunate enough to go out there and continue to still play football because there’s a lot of teams at home right now. I think that our kids are just excited for the opportunity. They’re raring to go and get after it tomorrow night and I think it’s just it’s gonna be good football game.”
Quarterback David Parsons leads the Big Reds with numbers that rival his counterpart. Parsons has thrown for 2,502 yards and a school record 30 touchdowns this season, adding five more scores and 233 yards with his legs.
He has four different receivers with over 400 yards receiving with Anthony Ice (33-674-10) and Andrew Stalker (28-554-9) leading the way.
“He’s an incredible athlete,” Taylor said of Parsons. “He’s huge 6-foot-5, 230 pounds and I would say the best quarterback that we’ve seen all year up to this point. He does a great job with the offense. He can run it, he can throw it, he can throw on the run and he can run power. He does a good job with the zone read he does a great job with the RPO game so yeah, he stands out. All their receivers are good. The Ice kid he’s probably their speed guy. They got the (Stalnaker) twins that are long kids. Both are really good receivers. On the offensive line they’ve got a couple of big guys so you know they’re going to much play like us offensively with the RPO game, try to run the insides and outside zone. They are an impressive looking offense and do a lot with motions.”
The Tigers counter with their own offensive firepower.
Quarterback Chance Barker has thrown for 2,590 yards with 33 touchdown passes to just two interceptions. Running back Marquel Lowe has rushed for 1,427 yards and 20 TDs and Dom Collins leads the state with 1,277 yards and 21 touchdown receptions. That standout trio is coupled with a two-time first-team all-stater on the offensive line in right guard Eli Campbell.
With his electric group Taylor believes there’s an opportunity to continue the torrid pace on offense despite rain in the forecast.
“I think we’re gonna be able to run the football and  that’s going to have to be part of our game plan to be successful,” Taylor said. “I think our offensive line has grown even though they’re young they’ve grown since the first game and we’ve gotten better each and every week. Right now they’re playing at an extremely high level. So I think them guys handling business up front is going to be a place that I think we can we can attack them and in doing that, it’s going to kind of get their linebackers to play up a little bit and then we’ve got to take advantage of our RPO game, and get the slots involved. I think they’re gonna give us some one-on-one matchups with Dom  -I don’t think we’re gonna see a bracket.
“You never know until you get there Friday and see what they come out in. But I think Dom is gonna have an opportunity to play in space and to play one on one if it’s anything like what they did with (Tyshawn) Dues at Hurricane. They gave him some opportunities to get the ball in space and we got to make sure we’re able to get the ball to the playmakers whether it be Dom or whether it be Marquel in the screen game or whether it be Brad (Mossor) on the other side, and we’re able to play with our slots now. I think our slots have done a lot better job with Michael DiGiacomo, Kalum Kiser, etc. So I think we just got to spread the ball around and take what they give us because at the end of the day, I don’t think they can take away all of our weapons.”
The games Parkersburg has lost, its offense has been held in check on the scoreboard. Parsons threw for over 300 yards in losses to Cabell Midland and George Washington but the Big Reds mustered just 16 and 11 points, respectively, in those losses with Parsons throwing four combined interceptions.
Ideally the Tigers would like to force Parsons into the same mistakes, as difficult as it may be.
“I think in a lot of those games the quarterback made mistakes,” Taylor said. “They did a good job of disguising coverage, especially in the GW game. They were able to move the ball and every game that they played they moved the ball well. They moved it well against Cabell Midland. I haven’t seen the Huntington film, but they moved the ball well, they just they forced (Parsons) to make some some errant throws and they were able to generate some turnovers. For us we’re going to have to get off the field on third down.
“If we get them behind the chains and stop the running game – we’ve got to make sure we do a good job of getting them off the field on third down because they are one of the most explosive offenses in high school football, so we got to make sure we do what we can and we get them off the field so our offensive can go work.”
Princeton will host Parkersburg Friday with kickoff slated for 7:30.
