For the first time since 2002 Princeton will host a home playoff game, opening what it hopes is a four-game playoff journey on Saturday when it welcomes Oak Hill.
While hosting a playoff game is new, that’s the only irregularity.
The Tigers and Red Devils have already played once this season in the same venue they’ll meet at on Saturday with the Tigers coming away with a 42-28 victory in that Sept. 8 meeting. But that was two months ago and just three weeks into the season.
The challenge for the Tigers is wiping that win from their memory and not underestimating a program that’s pushed them the last two seasons.
“Yeah, I think mainly for us is kind of not taking anything from that first game, you know, kind of looking at their last couple games because the first matchup It was early in the season,” Princeton head coach Keith Taylor said. “They were just getting his guys ready. (Oak Hill head coach Davon Marion)’s guys were kind of getting familiar with him. My guys were getting familiar with me so I don’t think you can really take a whole lot from that that first matchup other than coach Marion’s gonna have his kids ready to play. So take the score or whatever it may be or what it ended up because we played a sloppy football game, man, we had a lot of penalties.
“We had guys in different positions guys weren’t running the correct routes. You know, we played one of our worst football games and I think they played one of their best. You look there, we started to pull away a little bit and one thing you’re going to find out about coach Marion’s squad, which everybody has thus far, is there’s no quit in them. He’s done a great job getting them prepared and getting them ready. And those kids are believing in his program, just like my kids are believing in ours.”
Marion, who served as the Tigers defensive coordinator the last half decade, is in his first year as the head coach at Oak Hill where he immediately turned the program around, guiding the Red Devils to the playoffs for the first time since 2008 when they were in Class AA.
A defensive specialist, Marion deployed a strategy that limited Princeton all-state receiver Dom Collins to a season-low 36 yards on four catches. In response running back Marquel Lowe had 220 yards of total offense.
It highlights the problem with defending the Tigers who have weapons everywhere. Collins has over 1,200 yards receiving with 20 touchdown catches while Brad Mossor has 584 yards. Lowe has rushed for 1,267 yards and 18 touchdowns with QB Chance Barker registering a program records with 2,378 passing yards and  33 touchdown passes, both tops in the area.
“I think that’s what Dom doesn’t get enough credit for,” Taylor said. “Even when Dom doesn’t have a big game he changes it because people cannot play their regular defense against Dom Collins. So you’re always going to get some version, you know, of their defense, but they’re always, even if they don’t put a bracket on Dom, they’re always looking for him. So what that does is that obviously opens up the box. The reason why we had so much success against Parkersburg South is because they took one of their best tacklers or their best linebacker and put him at corner. But I think that’s what is so fascinating about our team is where Dom is so electrifying and so good. Now we have all this other space to let these other guys work and they’ve always been ready.
“Dom’s just been beaten the coverage and those guys have been open all year long. You know, we’ve been able to throw to the slots with Mikey (Digiacomo) and even Kalum Kaiser and Wyatt (Cline). Those kids are going to have to be able to make big time catches and Wyatt, you know, hats off to him man because he’s been making big catches for the last three or four weeks. He made a couple big catches against Hurricane. They weren’t touchdowns or anything but our offense is in such a rhythm right now that our timing’s really, really good and it’s really, really hard to stop our slots. When you have people like Brad Mossor and Dom Collins out wide, you got to spread everything out and that’s why you’re seeing Marquel able to have the success he has because our offensive line is is bullying people when he only got five and six dudes in the box.”
The Red Devils pose problems as well on offense. QB Malachi Lewis has thrown for 1,156 yards with 12 touchdown passes and excels at extending plays when they break down. J. D. Mauritz, a big bruising back, is over 1,000 yards for the season.
“It makes it easier because you know what they do and we’ve already seen it once but I’m sure they’re gonna have some different wrinkles in their system,” Taylor said. “But the more you watch coach Marion’s team, they are a ground and pound team. They throw some key screens, they do their thing, and they expect to physically beat you. You have to say ‘Hey, you’re gonna get hit in the mouth for four quarters Can you stop it?’ They got a big offensive line and they’re gonna try to do those things. But I think we’re used to playing the same teams twice, because of COVID. You know, we had Greenbrier East this year. So we’re kind of used to that. During the Covid year we played Bluefield twice when they were freshmen.”
For the senior class at Princeton Saturday’s playoff game marks a program first as they’re the first class in school history to make the playoffs four years in a row. They’re 0-3 to this point but hope to correct Saturday.
“Just seeing how much they’ve grown since they were freshmen is incredible,” Taylor said. “Like our kids now don’t expect to go in and just play football and hang in there, they expect to win. And that’s contagious. Like no one’s really looking around. Our guys never lose their composure when things are going wrong. I can remember when those kids were freshmen, somebody scores a touchdown and it’s like the game’s over. And now our guys are pretty much locked in. But for the most part, our guys like go into all these games expecting to win it. And that’s the kind of attitude that you haven’t seen in Princeton football since I’ve been there.
“Now there’s a couple guys that always go in thinking that they’re gonna play well, you know, but as a team, going into these games, believing that you’re gonna win is where I think, you know, the seniors is where their mindset is. And that’s because they put in the work in the offseason and they put in the work when we weren’t that great. When we were a decent football team, 6-4 we were in a lot of big time football games like South Charleston or the playoff game in Spring Valley kind of got beat up a little bit. You had the big time game at GW last year. So we’re playing in these big time games that are playoff atmospheres. So it’s making it a little easier to kind of go into the playoffs and just play like it’s a regular game. We’re not wiped out and kind of like taken aback from the big scene of things.”
Princeton will host Oak Hill on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.