For years the quarterfinal round was uncharted territory for Princeton. Now it’s an expectation.
For the first time in school history the Tigers have won playoff games in back to back seasons though this year that’s the standard after a title game run last year.
In the way of another trip to the Class AAA semifinals is a team that’s familiar with Princeton’s position in the Huskies of North Marion who will invade Hunnicutt Stadium on Saturday at 4 p.m.
A year ago North Marion made a run all the way to the Class AA state title game, falling 49-48 after a two-point conversion attempt in the waning seconds was snuffed. Both teams know what it’s like to finish as the bridesmaid and seek better fortunes but only one can move on.
When Princeton head coach Keith Taylor puts on the tape, he sees a balanced team.
North Marion averages 232 rushing yards per game with three different players leading the way. Brian Poindexter has been the Huskies’ most productive rusher with 823 yards rushing and 11 rushing touchdowns while Toby Michael comes in with 618 yards and 11 scores as well. Trevor Mullett rounds out the trio with 432 yards and six scores.
Michael doubles at QB, having thrown for 490 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns. He splits passing duties with Cole Morris who has a team-high 521 yards passing with four touchdowns.
“Coach (Daran) Hays does a good job getting those guys to buy into scoring by committee,” Taylor said. “You can’t really key on anybody. They have two different quarterbacks that come in and in some films each throws the ball more. They’re extremely balanced and have a lot of guys willing to do the work. I think that trying to defend them, it’s hard to key on the things. I know the QBs can throw the ball but they want to ground and pound you. They hang their hat on being a physical football team and try to run it down your throat and I imagine that’s what they’ll try to do to us.”
North Marion’s ground attack poses problems for a Princeton offense that’s allowed a 100-yard rusher in each of the last two games.
The Tigers were without starting linebacker Marquel Lowe while all-state defensive end Kalum Kiser was injured two games ago and sat out last week’s contest against Parkersburg South.
“When you get into late November and early December teams that run the ball are going to win the game. That’s something we’ve kind of struggled with the last couple of week,” Taylor said. “I know we’ve won the games but teams have rushed against us early and Parkersburg South wasn’t stopped until the final drives. We’ve taken a step back this week to analyze what we need to do defensively and put guys in better positions to stop the run. What we’ve done is get back to fundamentals of staying in your gap and tackling. When you watch the film we’re not getting dominated or wiped out, we’re just missing assignments or misaligning. We’ve gotten back to the fundamentals of defense in our preparation. We’ve had two all-staters out and some guys feel like they have to do more and it’s causing us to get out of position and we’re hoping guys have learned from that.”
Kiser should be ready to go Saturday but Lowe, a senior, tore an ACL against Parkersburg South, bringing his season to a close.
“Kalum rehabbed his ankle and practiced (Tuesday),” Taylor said. “He’s going to be 100 percent ready to go but Marquel is out for the rest of the season. That’s an incredible loss for us not only because he’s a tremendous football player but he’s been a leader for our football team the last two years. He’s the soul on both sides and played as a freshman and a sophomore. It’s hard to see him do everything he’s asked to do and see his season taken from him. It’s a tough pill to swallow and our thoughts and prayers are with him. Unfortunately that’s the game of football and you never know when your last play is going to be and I think that opened some eyes to the fact you never know when your last chance on the field might be. We hope and pray that he’s able to continue his college career playing football.”
Despite the loss of Lowe, a 1,000-yard scrimmage back on offense, the Tigers have a trio of stars on offense. Chance Barker has throw 34 touchdown passes, Daniel Jennings has 1,161 yards rushing and 23 total touchdowns while receiver Brad Mossor has 1,092 yards and 13 touchdown catches. They’ll face a North Marion defense that mixes and disguises looks.
“They do some different things in the secondary that you don’t see other teams do,” Taylor said. “They disguise coverages very well so it’s going to be important that Chance gets locked in and reads his keys and makes the correct reads because they do provide different things you don’t see. They have an extremely big and physical defensive line and two linebackers that move around. They’re multidimensional with the fronts they present. They’ll go with a 3-3 stack and will come down with their middle linebacker for four-man fronts. They also have some good linebackers that will blitz so we’re hoping we can establish the line of scrimmage and that’s what you want to do this time of the year. We’ve challenged our kids this week that it will be up to them to establish the line of scrimmage.”
