The last two times Princeton and Newman have faced off, it’s been a close contest.

In the fall of 2019, Princeton led 21-10 at halftime before Newman rallied for a 24-21 win. In the spring of 2021, when both teams came in ranked and unbeaten, Newman took a 14-13 lead in the third quarter on a Marcus Williams touchdown run, only to see Princeton answer with a pair of scores to win 28-14.

“We just have to be focused the whole game,” Newman linebacker Ethan VanLanduit said. “It’s the team who plays the full four quarters, 48 minutes, that’ll come out on top.

“We’re just two really good programs. Both teams always fight to the end. Talented, strong kids on both teams, and it’s always a good game.”

Princeton comes into this fall’s matchup 4-1 on the season and ranked No. 7 in the state in the latest Class 3A AP poll.

The Tigers may have lost Ronde Worrels to graduation, but they have a new offensive weapon in quarterback Teegan Davis. Davis had thrown for 810 yards and eight touchdowns while rushing for 398 yards and seven scores so far this year.

“You can’t prepare for just one facet,” Newman assistant coach Andy Accardi said. “Davis is really good, but if you focus on him, the other players will beat you. We talked to the kids that if you have a matchup, you’ve got to play it and do your job, if you don’t, we’re going to have problems.”

Things were going great for Princeton early in the season, with four wins in four weeks while outscoring teams 177-34. Then in Week 5 things went the other way, with a 49-21 loss to Kewanee. Instead of vulnerable, Accardi sees a Princeton team coming away from the Kewanee game hungry.

“I think Princeton coming off the loss last week is going to be really ready to get back, they’re probably pushing themselves,” he said. “So we’re going to take the brunt of it. We knew that was going to happen, and we’re preparing our kids for it.”

But loss to Kewanee or not, Princeton is still one of the better teams in Class 3A, even if the loss did knock the Tigers down a bit from the No. 2 ranking in the AP poll the week before.

“We have to be ready for everything. They’re a good team,” VanLanduit said. “Defense, linebackers fly in when they blitz. The line has a good challenge this week to pick up blitzers. Defensively, we’ve got to be ready for anything. They have good, fast, quick players. We have to know our responsibilities.”

On defense, the Tigers have used a heavy blitz to limit teams, holding Rockridge, Orion and Mendota to seven points each, in each case that team’s lowest offensive output of the season.

“They’re going to throw everything at us,” Newman offensive lineman Garrett Williams said. “We’re going to have to learn to pick them up and do our jobs.”

Newman’s offense in the Week 5 win over Bureau Valley put together strong, Blue Machine-style drives to eat up huge chunks of the second half, but also at times the Comets stalled out.

“We’ve just got to remember our keys and not make a lot of mistakes,” Garrett Williams said. “We have a really young O-line this year, I’m the only returning offensive lineman, so we’re learning this year and getting ramped up. I think this game’s going to be it for us, and we’re going to play a really good game.”

Princeton’s loss to Kewanee was just the latest in what has been a wild season in the Three Rivers. Newman knows that full well, with losses to Rockridge and St. Bede, with Rockridge subsequently being knocked off by Erie-Prophetstown and Monmouth-Roseville in back-to-back one-possession games.

“I think that after last year with nobody knowing what anybody had, the schedules not sure what was going on, I think what it’s done is turned us into a conference that you have to come prepared every day,” Accardi said. “That’s from top to bottom. You never know what you’re going to get. Everything is a surprise because you didn’t know much about the fresh/soph teams. The one thing is, whoever makes the playoffs out of our conference is going to be extremely well prepared coming into it.”