Gallery by Greg Barnett
Princeton – Princeton didn’t light up the scoreboard with long touchdown strikes against Capital.
That’s mostly because the Tigers weren’t in positions where they needed to drive the length of the field.
Setting up shop inside the Capital 35 on four consectuive drives, Princeton scored touchdowns on all four of those possessions pulling away for a comfortable 41-12 season-opening win over the Cougars Thursday night into Friday morning at Hunnicutt Stadium.
Trailing 13-6 after yielding scoring drives of 58 and 66 yards, the Cougars could ill afford to cede field position, yet they did so repeatedly.
A pair of second-quarter punts netted a total of 21 yards, allowing the host Tigers to set up consecutive drives at the Capital 28 and 33. Both ended in three plays with all-state running back Marquel Lowe finding the end zone on a run of four yards and Garrett Mays finding it from 11 yards out courtesy of a pass from quarterback Chance Barker.
“I feel like if I had a duck, It would’ve drowned,” Capital head coach Jon Carpenter said. “We just couldn’t catch a break right there. We played tough and gave up heartbreakers there. I mean, they’re a really good football team and the first thing you got to do is give them credit. They are really good and really impressive. And I knew with their experience, I knew this was hard. But I’ve never been part of the game where our kids were so close to where we’re supposed to be and then none of it went our way, and you got to give them credit, but yeah, the short fields and everything that could go wrong for us went.”
Down 27-6 at the break, the Cougars compounded their struggles with a pair of turnovers that ended any hope of a comeback.
On the first play from scrimmage out of the break Capital running back David Robinson fumbled the ball, leading to Lowe’s third rushing touchdown of the game, a seven-yard jaunt two plays later. The wheels fell off on the following drive when a second-and-9 snap went over the head of Capital’s Fernando Valdivia before it was secured by Penn State commit Daniel Jennings at the Capital 19. The junior edge rusher took the scoring honors two plays later, rumbling in from 12 yards out for the Tigers’ final points of the game.
Both second-half scores came within the first three minutes of the third quarter.
“We were a second-half team last year,” Princeton head coach Keith Taylor said. “And I think that comes into conditioning. I think our guys were able to get in there, get off their feet for a little bit and those dudes stood up for five hours because they were listening to music and still trying to stay engaged. But we just told them, ‘Man, it’s a fight.’ Capital was ready to go square to square with us. I thought they played a really good first half. I thought they had a good game plan. I thought they were physical. So we just told them just stay the course and keep grinding. I think our conditioning is better than theirs. I think we’re going to be able to churn it out. Our guys always believe, it doesn’t matter what the scoreboard (says). We learned that against Parkersburg last year. You’re down nine points in the fourth quarter. Doesn’t matter. Don’t look at that scoreboard. Just keep grinding. Next play, next play, next play.
“Our defensive ends were causing some issues there, getting sacks, getting strips, you know. And those guys played their tails off, Caleb, Kaiser, Daniel Jennings, and then our big guy Riley Bell in the middle. I thought he did a great job. We rotated some different guys in there. I was really impressed with how Riley played. I’m really proud of that guy. He’s worked tremendously and I think he solidified that middle for us, and all they really had was the edge.”
The scoring drives were lighting fast, fitting for a game that was delayed over two hours due to lightning in the area, thus ending after midnight.
When the teams finally did take the field the wait proved worth it for the home crowd which witnessed Barker find Brad Mossor for a 38-yard touchdown pass on the first third down of the game. The fireworks were plentiful afterwards but penalties – the Tigers committed 15 for 111 yards – erased a pair of touchdowns runs on their second drive which ultimately ended with a turnover on downs at the Capital 2.
In the shadow of their own goalpost the Cougars drove 98 yards, energized by a 64-yard swing pass from Peyton Grigsby to Robinson. Valdivia did the honors on the next play, diving in from two yards out to knot the game at 6-6 with 10:24 left in the first half.
Princeton responded with a seven-play 66-yard drive that concluded with a 15-yard rushing score from Lowe. The drive came despite Princeton’s best efforts to self-sabotage with four penalties that cost it 25 yards.
“Last year, you watched us, and you know we were pretty good when we’re on time,” Taylor said. “We’re pretty good when we’re staying ahead of the chains. We’re pretty good when we’re not, you know, making stupid penalties and blocking people in the back and holding. I think that’s really what slowed the game and made it so sloppy. I’m gonna chalk it up to that we were tired, and it’s 12:30 at night. That’s what I’m going to try to do. But I think our kids got to understand that there’s a time for being really pumped up and really hyped, and there’s another time that they have to get right and understand the little things matter. And tonight, obviously they didn’t matter. But you know, if we’re trying to get to where we’re supposed to get to, which is Charleston, we’re really going to have to clean things up.”
Jennings finished with two sacks and a fumble recovery in his first game with the program while Brady Cline and Kalum Kiser split a sack.
“We’re trying to figure out, because you don’t want to over-coach a kid with that much talent,” Taylor said of Jennings. “So we’re trying to figure out ways that we could just let him play, where he doesn’t have to think, where he doesn’t have to worry about containing or anything like that. We want to create a defense centered around him. And Kiser is the same way. I thought Kalum played well.”
Barker finished 13 of 20 passing with 174 yards and two touchdowns strikes. Mossor hauled in six of those targets for 109 yards and a score while Lowe rushed for 107 yards and three touchdowns to round out Princeton’s top performers.
Robinson led Capital with 115 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries, adding 84 yards on four receptions. Grigsby finished 5 of 13 passing with 93 yards through the air to pace the Cougars.
Scoring Plays
First Quarter
