Gallery by Greg Barnett
Princeton – Tazewell’s Carter Creasey became the latest QB to get canned by the Princeton Pressure Cooker.
Princeton’s pass rush sacked Creasey 10 times, eight in times in the first half en route to a 70-13 thrashing of the Bulldogs Saturday afternoon at Hunnicutt Stadium.
The 70 points are the most scored against Tazewell in program history, breaking the previous record of 69 set by Gate City (1974) and tied by Richlands (2011).
Kalum Kiser led the assault with a career-high five sacks, followed by Daniel Jennings with three. Ian Cox and Landyn Moore each split a sack with Kiser while Cox added a solo takedown to round out the totals.
“We knew coming in we had to play good up front to be able to handle them,” Tazewell head coach J’Me Harris said. “They’re very good up front. They’ll be the best team we play all year up front. And they dominated us up front. Today, we started a freshman. We’ve got two juniors, so this is a good learning experience for them, and we hope to get better as the season goes along.”
For Princeton (5-0) it was more of the same elsewhere – a sloppy mess mitigated by explosive plays and a large talent gap.
The Tigers committed 12 penalties for 110 yards in the first half and turned the ball over in the red zone on their second and third possessions. It marked the fourth time this season the Tigers accumulated over 100 yards in penalties.
The mistakes piled up to the point head coach Keith Taylor called a timeout, put the entire team on a knee and read them the riot act, earning applause from the home crowd.
“We played a clean game last week, but this week didn’t play clean,” Taylor admitted. “We tell those guys all the time now. As a coach you kind of hate and love homecoming. You got all this stuff going on, and then you have the game being played on Saturday. But I tell the guys, if you want to get to where you’re supposed to go, you know, the state championship, that’s played on Saturday around this same time. So you’ve got to know how to play a day game. You got to flip the switch and be able to play in that kind of adversity when things change. But I thought we did a great job responding early. I thought we responded. We came out, we put 14 points, and then we kind of gotten a lull there.
“Penalties, you know, I talked to coach (Chris) Belcher and he said, ‘I would love to just be able to call a game where we can actually stay in rhythm, you know?’ And so that stuff, we got to continue to get cleaned up. We can’t blame anybody but ourselves, and we’re having the penalties because the penalties are penalties. They’re not people trying to cheat us or anything like that. It’s like we’re making mistakes. We own it. We understand it well. It seemed like we weren’t in really good shape there early it was a little hot. So we’ll make sure we take care of that this week as well. But the way they responded, I thought the second half we played much better. We got homecoming over with and those guys were able to lock in a little more mentally. So I am proud the way we finished. There’s a lot of stuff we got to clean up.”
Despite Princeton’s self-inflicted wounds, Tazewell never capitalized.
After allowing Princeton running back Marquel Lowe to score from a yard out to cap an opening three-play 25-yard drive, the Bulldogs went three-and-out. Brad Mossor returned the ensuing punt to the Tazewell 14 but the Tigers squandered another scoring opportunity when QB Chance Barker fumbled on an option play.
Jennings wrecked Tazewell’s next drive with a first-down sack, forcing another quick punt that put the Tigers at the Tazewell 24. Moving to the 19 after a penalty, Barker was intercepted by Logan McDonald at the Tazewell 3, helping the visitors avert disaster again. The Bulldogs finally pulled out of neutral when Creasey flipped the field with a 38-yard completion to McDonald followed by another strike of 25 yards to Keenon McGuire. The drive eventually stalled at the Princeton 23 when a field goal attempt fell short but the threat was enough to get the Tigers rolling.
The dynamite blew on the next play from scrimmage when Barker hit Marquel Lowe on a wheel route for an 80-yard score.
The rout was on afterwards with Jennings and Mossor adding offensive scores in the first four minutes of the second quarter, extending the lead to 28-0.
Chasing, the Bulldogs were forced to the air where they found success when Creasey was kept clean. He threw for 200 yards in the first half, finishing with 367 on the day but the Tigers got their licks. Six of their 10 sacks came in the second quarter alone, with Kiser notching two of his on back-to-back reps.
“I’ve said it since we first started, we have two of the best defensive ends in the state,” Taylor said. “I think what helped us out this week too, we got some pressure in the middle, so those guys were able to get there. And Kalum will tell you he’s getting single blocks on the side because Daniel’s getting doubled, right? You can’t double them both so they play off one another. Teams are going to have a really difficult time trying to prepare for those guys, because I don’t know if there’s too many offensive tackles or guards or whoever that can block those guys one-on-one. So as defensive coaches we have an easier time to kind of game plan around that. We did some different things. Bringing them inside, Kalum got free one time. Daniel got free one time on a stunt there. Those guys being edge setters really helps us.”
Tazewell got on the board with 7:27 left in the half when Creasey connected with an open Walker Patterson but went into the break trailing 35-6.
Lowe and Jennings found the end zone again early in the third to initiate the running clock. Tazewell watched its protection issues extend to special teams where Carter Tipton blocked a punt and returned it for a score. An 84-yard kickoff return score from Mossor, his third return touchdown of the year, and a 93-yard interception return touchdown on fourth-and-goal courtesy of R.J. Coatney capped the scoring for the hosts on homecoming.
Despite piling up yards through the air, the Bulldogs were ineffective on the ground. The 10 sacks cost them 60 yards on the ground where they finished with minus-36.
“We played their style as far as the pace,” Harris said. “They had eight possessions in the first half. We stopped them three times, but they scored on five. So we had to slow the game down a little bit. We had to be able to run the ball and we weren’t able to do that, so that made us kind of one dimensional and played into their hands all day.”
Barker completed 7 of 10 passes for 210 yards and four touchdowns, his second four-touchdown outing of the season.
Lowe led the Tigers with 164 yards and three touchdowns from scrimmage on nine touches.
Princeton, which should be No. 3 in the Class AAA ratings when they release on Tuesday, puts its unbeaten record on the line next week when it travels to No. 16 Winfield (3-2).
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