East Peoria provides Princeton a good test in summer scrimmage

It was hot and humid.

There was some hitting.

The play was getting a little chippy at times on the field.

It felt like football.

The Princeton Tigers welcomed the East Peoria Red Raiders of the Mid-Illini Conference to Little Siberia Field for a controlled scrimmage Thursday morning.

Each team took turns running their offense against each other’s defense. There’s no tackling allowed, but there is some hitting with the kids in helmets and shoulder pads.

Princeton senior running back Casey Etheridge welcomes the challenges what bigger schools like East Peoria and Washington before them present.

“It’s great. We can see what we really need to work on,” he said. The energy’s good. We’re getting a little heated at times, but it’s all on in the competition of games. We still got a lot of stuff we need to work on, but I really like where we’re going.

“We’re going to see mistakes here more clearly than we will in practice seeing different guys. We go over and play Washington, play these guys. We don’t see a lot of teams as big as these guys. They’ve got great sized lineman and really skilled backs. We don’t always see that during the season. These are great scrimmages to get us ready for the season.”

East Peoria, which has an enrollment of 823, went 4-5 in 2024, finishing sixth among eight teams in the Mid-Illini with Washington on top at 7-0. Pearson, who came to Princeton from Canton out of the Mid-Illini, said it was a good day to test his Tigers out against another bigger school.

“Today was great competition for our kids, both varsity and [JV],” he said. “East Peoria is a much bigger school than us. They’re a 5A school that plays in a very tough and physical conference with the Mid-Illini. I thought we adapted well as the day went on to the physicality and that’s really what it comes down too.

“We always pride ourselves in being the most physical football team on the field but at the beginning, I didn’t think we were. Towards the end, I thought we flipped that. That was very encouraging. I saw lot of positive things, but still a lot of little things we have to work on.”

Pearson said the coaches will watch practice and evaluate the film from the scrimmage and grade each position.

The Tigers coach said he’s seen lot of good things out of his team this summer.

“I love them. I enjoy being around this group of kids,” he said. “They’re a fun group to be around. They love to joke around and be silly and goofy, but at the same time they understand when it’s time to lock in.”

The Tigers will close out the summer season with a “fun day” at the Scruggs pond on Friday and then give team two weeks off leading up to the first day of fall practices on Monday, Aug. 11.

“It’s always a fun day there and is a nice culmination to the summer,” Pearson said.

The season opener on Friday, Aug. 29 will send the Tigers to Sterling to play Newman on its home turf.

Tiger alumni in the house

There were two PHS alumni and Division I players in the Tigers’ camp Thursday, Teegan Davis (Iowa), from the class of 2023, and Bennett Williams (Air Force), who graduated in 2024.

Pearson always welcomes Tigers alumni to practices and the example they provide for his team.

“I love it when our former players come back. Any of our guys that have been a part of the program, I love that they care for it as much as they and they always want to come back,” he said. “Just having the presence of two Division I football players standing right here on the sidelines gives our kids great role models that ‘Hey these guys from Princeton can go play Big Ten football or Mountain West football, why can’t we?’ I just thing it’s a great example for our kids to have.”