One play was all it took to set the Princeton Tigers in motion Friday night at Bryant Field.

Casey Etheridge scored on the first play of the second half, racing 65 yards to paydirt to give the Tigers an 11-point lead.

The Tigers went on to outscore the Trojans by 34 in the second half with two TDs apiece by Etheridge and quarterback Gavin Lanham to win going away for a 48-10 Three Rivers Mississippi victory over Mendota.

That was the Tiger team Princeton coach Ryan Pearson said he was looking for.

“We challenged them at halftime,” Pearson said. “I didn’t think our execution was very good in the first half. We had some missed assignments. But I was very, very happy with how they responded. In the second half, I thought our offense, defense and special teams all played extremely well and that’s the team I knew we could have.

“You saw what we could be and that is encouraging to me as a coach, but we have to put two halves together.”

Princeton senior Eli Berlin said the Tigers took Pearson’s halftime challenge to heart.

“He told us, this isn’t the team we know that we are and didn’t play the way we wanted to play,“ he said. ”First half, we came out a little rough. Felt like we were asleep a little bit. Second half we came out ready to go. We had it all drawn out in the board downstairs and we had to lock in.

Lanham followed Etheridge’s TD with scores of 3 and 63 yards to make it 34-10 at the end of three quarters.

Etheridge, who rushed for 224 yards on just 13 carries, scored his fourth touchdown of the night on a 19-yard run and freshman Reece Pearson added a 42-yard dash as the Tigers improved to 4-3 overall, 4-1 in conference.

“All of our kids, no matter what the role they were playing, knew we had to execute better. And I really thought they did that in the second half,” Pearson said. “We really didn’t have a ton of adjustments. We knew exactly what they were going to be in and how to attack them. We just had to execute better.”

A determined Mendota team came to play to start the game, using a 10-play 46-yard scoring drive, taking a 7-0 lead on a 5-yard TD by Jayden Lesley at the 5:47 mark of the first quarter.

Etheridge got the Tigers on the board 2:17 with a 10-yard and added a 28-yard TD to put the Tigers up 14-7 early in the second quarter.

Mendota coach Jim Eustice opted to go for the field goal and Ethan Escatel made good on a 32-yard kick with 1:25 left in the first half to make it 14-10.

Eustice said the Trojans gave it their best shot, but just couldn’t sustain it in the second half.

“We played hard the first half. We were in it and ultimately over 48 minutes, Princeton was stronger and quicker than us,” he said. “It’s a good lesson for our kids. We need to get our weight program in the offseason like Princeton has been for years. It was evident that as the game wore on that we physically weren’t going to be able to keep up with that for 48 minutes.

“The first play of the second half, the kid broke that one and you could see the look in our eyes. I was disappointed how it seemed we quit after that. It really took the sail out of our kids and it just snowballed after that. You have to credit Princeton. They do what they do. They’re stronger than us and they executed well and they did everything they needed to do to beat us.

The Tigers have two more important games to play, next week at Aledo Mercer County and then back home vs. Erie-Prophetstown, looking to run the table to finish 6-3 and enhance their playoff seed.

To get there, Berlin said, “We have to come out and play like we did in the second half. We have to play with heart and as a team that we know that we are.”

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 29

Princeton's Casey Etheridge reacts after scoring a touchdown against Mendota on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025 onBryant Field at Princeton High School. (Scott Anderson)