BCR Football Notebook: Scout team prepares Princeton defense in practice to shine at game time

The Princeton Tiger defense shined in Saturday’s 26-2 Class 3A second-round victory over Genoa-Kingston, not allowing a single point with the Cogs scoring only on a second-quarter safety.

Sophomore Ian Morris led the Tigers with 11 tackles and Danny Cihocki added 10 tackles. Teegan Davis and Noah LaPorte each intercepted a pass.

Many of the unsung heroes who helped make the Tigers’ “D” tick never saw the field Saturday.

That’s the second-string offense, which is responsible for running the other team’s plays as the scout team in practice.

Senior linebacker Augie Christiansen said the Scout Team makes the Tigers’ defense look good.

“Our scout team did a fantastic job getting us looks, running their plays. That’s a big part of it,” he said. “Those guys might not see the field as much, [but] they put in just as much work as we do at practice. They’re taking hard hits. They’re running the ball hard and giving us the best looks that they can.”

The scout team prepped the Tigers’ defense so well that Genoa-Kingstown had only 84 net yards on offense and managed just six plays past midfield in the seconod half, none within the 47-yard line.

Having a history: There is an obvious history between Princeton (11-0) and Saturday’s 3A quarterfinal foe IC Catholic (10-1) of Elmhurst.

In 2015, Princeton also started off 11-0 only to fall to IC Catholic 37-12 at Bryant Field.

The Knights defeated the Tigers 31-7 in last year’s quarterfinals on their home turf at Elmhurst.

The Tigers are hoping the third time will indeed be the charm. Christiansen said, “It’s going to be a whole different ballgame” than last year playing at home.

Princeton is third ranked in Class 3A, but drew a higher seed than the No. 1-ranked Knights, the 4 seed, because it went 9-0 and IC Catholic was 8-1 with a 23-22 Week 2 loss to Joliet Catholic Academy.

Knights in shining armor: IC Catholic has won five state championships in the past 20 years, winning three in 3A (2002, 2016 and 2017), and one each in 2A (2008) and 4A (2018).

IC Catholic petitioned the IHSA to play up in 3A rather than 2A where its enrollment (323) would have placed it.

Looking ahead: The winner of the Princeton/ICC game draws the winner between No. 2-ranked and 2 seed Reed-Custer (11-0) and No. 5-ranked and 6 seed Byron (10-1). With a win, the Tigers would get a road game to either Reed-Custer or Byron, having already hosted three times and their opponent twice.

Calling in reinforcements: Tom Pearson is calling in some reinforcements to help him finish off the paint job of Bryant Field for Saturday’s 3A quarterfinal game with IC Catholic. Sage Pearson, the younger brother of Tigers coach Ryan Pearson, will assist his dad this week in sprucing up midfield with a Tiger paw.

Tom Pearson, Sage and Ryan’s father, survived a devastating work fall in 2019 and is recovering from a second fall last month. He was unable to do his traditional end zone paint job for the Tigers’ playoff opener two weeks ago. The PHS staff stepped up, as it did in 2019, to paint Tiger stripes onto the Bryant Field end zones.

Tom Pearson began his tradition when Ryan was playing for Stark County, and he renewed it at stops at Canton and Princeton.

Did you know?: Both Ryan (1997) and Sage Pearson (2015) played for Stark County state runner-up football teams.

Riding with the Clippers: Players from both Ohio and LaMoille are enjoying the ride on the Amboy co-op Clippers’ ride in the 8-Man Football Association playoffs. The Clippers have advanced to the semifinals for the second straight season, set to host Champaign St. Thomas More at the Harbor at 2 p.m. Saturday.

LaMoille players are juniors Ian Sundberg and Gio Gatza, sophomores Ed Fry, Tate Sundberg and Brayden Klien and freshmen Cody Winn and Connor Deering. LaMoille’s Kenny Shrimplin is the Clippers’ special teams and linemen coach.

Ohio sends juniors Troy Anderson and Vincent Zembrzuski into the co-op.

Amboy rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat Milford-Cissna Park 30-28 in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

This week’s other semifinal matches Polo, the two-time defending 8-Man state champion, vs. West Central. West Central is coached by former Bureau Valley coach Jason Kirby, who led the Storm to a 3A state runner-up finish in 2004.

Then there were 2: The Three Rivers Conference started the playoffs with seven teams. It is down to two after two rounds: Rockidge (2A) and Princeton (3A). The Rockets advanced to the 2A quarterfinals by defeating Bloomington Central Catholic 27-18 on Saturday.

St. Bede (1A), Morrison (1A), Newman (2A), Monmouth-Roseville (3A) and Hall (4A) all were eliminated in the opening round. The Comets fell to Rockridge 42-12, while the teams that St. Bede (Forreston) and Hall (Sacred Heart-Griffin) lost to each advanced to the quarterfinals.

Busy weekend for G-K: Families and friends of the Genoa-Kingston volleyball and football teams had a fun weekend in Princeton. The girls won the Princeton Supersectional on Friday to advance to state and the Cogs football followed them for Saturday’s 3A playoff game.

“This is a very special time for our school district, as this is the first time we have ever had two fall sports teams still alive in the state series in November,” G-K athletic director Philip D. Jerbi said.

Two families were right in the middle of both events. Kailey Kline and Mady Lavender both play volleyball, while siblings Nolan Kline and Max Lavender are in football.

Quick counts: Princeton fans hope to turn the town blue this week encouraging residents to light up their homes with blue Christmas lights and change their porch lights to blue in honor of their boys in blue. .... Fulton, formerly in the Three Rivers and now in the NUIC, draws the tough task of facing No. 1-ranked and defending champ Lena-Winslow in the 1A quarterfinals. The No. 4 Steamers blanked No. 12 Rockford Lutheran 28-0, while the Panthers routed No. 8 ROWVA 76-7 last week. ... No. 15 Stanford Olympia (7-4) has been a giant-killer in the 3A southern bracket, upsetting No. 2 Benton 32-21 on the road in the first round and No. 7 St. Joseph-Ogden 60-28 on Saturday. The Spartans, who last won a playoff game in 1990, will play the underdog role once again when it hosts No. 3 Williamsville (10-1) in the quarterfinals.