Gallery by Greg BarnettĀ
Princeton – The words Princeton fans have yearned to hear for 100 years rang through the frigid confines of Hunnicutt Stadium Friday.
“Your Princeton Tigers will be playing in Wheeling next week for a state championship!”
It’s true.
Behind an efficient and explosive offensive performance, Class AAA No. 5 Princeton raced by No. 8 Bridgeport 73-70, earning a spot in next Saturday’s Class AAA title game to be played at noon at Wheeling Island Stadium.
The Tigers will play the winner of Martinsburg-Huntington which will be played Saturday.
The game featured 1,337 yards of combined total offense with Princeton QB Chance Barker breaking the preliminary round record for touchdown passes thrown in a game with eight, topping the mark set by J.R. House in 1997 against Dupont.
Bridgeport, which compiled 756 yards of total offense with its single wing attack, broke the previous record of 717 net yards, set by the Indians two years ago against Jefferson.
But the story of the night was Princeton wide receiver and Kennedy Award (awarded annually to the state’s best player) hopeful Dom Collins who caught nine passes for 330 yards and four touchdowns, adding two rushes for 19 yards and a fifth score.
“It’s hashtag offer him,” Princeton head coach Keith Taylor said. “You know, we’ve been saying that since I’ve been here. I’ve been putting it on Twitter and I’ve reached out to WVU’s coaching staff. I mean, they want to offer other dudes and he’s the best player in West Virginia. If he didn’t show that tonight I guess he’s gonna have to show it in Wheeling. I mean, the kid is the best player in the state of West Virginia. And it’s about time people really give credit where credit’s due. I love the kid. I’m proud of the kid. And I just hope that somebody takes a chance on him because they’re really missing out on an incredible young man.”
Bridgeport head coach Tyler Phares, who saw his Indians give up three touchdowns to Collins last season, summarized his frustration and relief with four words.
“I’m glad he’s graduating,” Phares said of Collins.
Whether it be in the screen game or the vertical passing attack Collins starred early and often.
He kicked off the scoring with a 66-yard touchdown grab in double coverage on third-and-15 with 3:44 left in the opening quarter after eight minutes of shutout ball.
“I told (Barker), I said, ‘No matter what, the way they’re playing me I just knew it was gonna happen.'” Collins said. “The safety is coming over way too late and I saw it and he put it in a good place where nobody could touch it but me and I got it turned around and saw green grass and just ran.”
As impressive as Collins’ offensive feats were, it was his play on defense that flipped the game for the Tigers
After Bridgeport knotted the contest on a Zach Rohrig touchdown early in the second quarter and later forced a punt, QB Jack Spatafore hit Donovan Williams on a 32-yard pass that was marked down at the Princeton 1 when Collins tackled him from behind.
Much like his chase-down tackle against Parkersburg on special teams last week, his effort made the difference as Marquel Lowe forced a fumble on the next play and Hezekiah Burnette scooped the loose ball rumbling 96 yards for a touchdown that put the Tigers on top for good and gave them all of the momentum.
An 89-yard touchdown pass to Dom Collins and a 38-yard rushing score by Lowe on Princeton’s following offensive drives staked the hosts to a 27-7 advantage that they carried into the break.
“We always tell our kids don’t ever give up on a play,” Taylor said. “That’s twice Dom has stopped a touchdown short and we’ve been able to generate a stop. Now if you had told me Hezekiah Burnette would run for 96 yards on a fumble recovery I would’ve told you you were crazy. And I believe in a lot of stuff but I wasn’t really ready for that. But then Dom comes down and blocks like six people. He blocked the first guy, somebody else caught up and he blocked the second guy and the third guy.
“You know that’s just kids that bought in and have given everything to God for other people. I saw the ball pop out over there. And I was just hoping we’d get on it. We are an opportunistic defense, but a lot of times the ball doesn’t bounce our way. It finally did. And Ā they were getting ready to take a lead there. I don’t remember what the score was when you have that many points. I had to use bathroom twice during the game it was ridiculous. I’m trying to not pass out drinking too much Gatorade, water, whatever it may be. And we were able to capitalize there and if they go in and score there I think they go up and they can start slowing it down, which probably would have been better for our scoreboard if they had to slowed it down a little bit but they were able to go up tempo and I don’t know too many teams that could run a single wing and put up 70 points.”
Seemingly comfortable with a 20-point advantage, the Tigers relented while the Indians stuck to their run-first approach out of the single wing.
It led to the two teams combining for 12 consecutive drives that ended in a touchdown, a streak that wasn’t snapped until Lowe intercepted Spatafore with 5:46 to play. Princeton added its final points on the following play when Barker threw a screen to Collins that went 87 yards for another score to make it 73-50.
The lead remained in jeopardy though as Bridgeport put together a pair of drives that lasted two and four plays, respectively, encompassing 142 yards and in ending touchdowns. With a chance to salt the game, a miscommunication on a toss led to a Princeton fumble that was recovered by the Indians who capitalized seven plays later with the final score of the game with 1:03 remaining.
Princeton recovered the ensuing onside kick and lost 43 yards on kneel downs but successfully ran out the clock.
In total the Indians scored 41 of their 70 points in the final quarter and thatĀ charge came in spite of the loss of Rohrig, who exited the game in the third quarter with an injury. In his absence Tim Jeffress excelled, rushing for 262 yards and four scores with 238 of those yards coming in the second half.
“That’s all he knows is how to battle,” Phares said. “You know, we’re probably not the most athletic team in the world but our kids are fighters and battlers. They’ll fight anybody and they weren’t going to quit. That’s not in their DNA.”
Barker and Collins both set new program marks in the win.
Barker broke the single-game passing yards record of 444 set by Grant Cochran in 2021 against Parkersburg South. He also extended his single-season passing touchdown record to 46 after tossing eight on Friday. Collins broke the single-game receiving yardage record with 330 in the win, extending his season total to 1,731.
“I thought they did a good job eliminating the deep balls and making Barker throw it in a tight window,” Taylor said. “He made a heck of a pass over here. He made a bad pass that Dom made a great play on but he also had a beautiful pass there. Hats off to Bridgeport because they did a lot too. We put our athletes in space and coach (Chris) Belcher, you know, that dude is incredible. We knew we were going to score and I thought it’d be 56 or something because we were going to have to score that many because I knew they were going to score. I never in a million years thought it would be that score. You look at Bridgeport, traditionally they don’t give up a lot of points. Hats off coach Phares. His kids never quit. They had every opportunity to quit.
“I thought that our offense was going to put it to bed and especially when our defense stepped up and made a couple of opportunistic plays. But no, they didn’t. So that just shows you the kind of of culture he’s built over there. The tradition he’s built over there, you know, and those guys gave us every bit that we wanted, and if it wasn’t for a couple seconds on the clock, we would have probably went to OT and it’d been 503-500 or something.”
B: 0 7 22 41 – 70
P: 7 20 20 26 – 73
Scoring Plays
Q1
P: Collins 66 yard pass from Barker (PAT good); 3:44
Q2
B: Rohrig 10 rush (PAT Good); 11:55
P: Burnette 94 yard fumble recovery TD (PAT good); 7:02
P: Collins 89 yard pass from Barker (PAT no good); 4:24
P: Lowe 38 rush (PAT good); 2:09
Q3
B: Jeffress 40 rush (PAT good); 11:43
P: Lowe 24 yard pass from Barker (PAT); 8:37
B: Rohrig 40 rush (PAT); 5:32
P: Mossor 51 yard pass from Barker (PAT blocked); 4:40
B: Williams 23 pass from Spatafore (Jeffress rush); 1:15
P: Collins 40 rush (PAT Good); 1:04
Q4
B: Jeffress 1 rush (PAT good); 10:09
P: Lowe 52 yard pass from Barker (PAT); 9:55
B: Jeffress 82 rush (PAT good); 9:35
P: Collins 48 yard pass from Barker (PAT blocked); 8:48
B: Williams 59 yard pass from Spatafore (PAT good); 8:09
P: Mossor 23 yard pass from Barker (PAT good); 6:56
P: Collins 87-yard pass from Barker (PAT blocked): 5:46
B: Love 8 rush (PAT blocked); 5:18
B: Jeffress 39 rush (PAT good); 2:27
B: Love 4 rush (PAT good); 1:03