Princeton starts its ‘playoffs’

Tigers want to make amends for the ‘one that got away’

Princeton Tigers logo

There will be no postseason this spring, but that doesn’t mean there will be no playoffs.

The Princeton Tigers will get their shot at the “playoffs” starting Friday night when they square off against Three Rivers rival Sterling Newman. The Tigers (4-0) were ranked second in 3A and the Comets (3-0), the defending state champion, were No. 6 in 2A in last week’s AP Poll.

Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Sterling High School for the BCR Game of the Week.

“It’s disappointing we don’t have a playoff system,” PHS coach Ryan Pearson said. “We end our schedule with two very good football teams with Newman and Fulton, so we’re kind of treating this as our playoff system. We’ve kind of talked about how this is going to be a our semifinal game and next week with Fulton’s going to be our state championship game. That’s the way we’re approaching it.

“We want to end our season on a positive note and send these seniors off with those lasting memories they’re never going to forget.”

PHS senior All-State running back Ronde Worrels has a score to even with the Comets before he graduates.

“I’m definitely ready. We already got to play a high-caliber game against a state championship team (Lena-Winslow), and now we get to play another one, so I’m all in for the great competition,” he said. “I also haven’t got a win against these guys all my years, so this is a big one for me.”

The Tigers had their chances to get one from Newman in 2019, but let it slip away.

Princeton was waltzing to a big victory, leading 21-10 at the half. Then the wheels fell off in the second half as the Tigers committed five turnovers and gave Newman a short field time after time and the Comets capitalized, rallying for a 25-21 victory.

“We’ve definitely have this one circled for some time. We feel like we let one get away last year. To get the opportunity to go back and play them again, and go up and fix the things we didn’t do well last year, and hopefully come away with a win,” Pearson said.

“We had five turnovers and constantly gave them a short field to operate. When you play those good football teams you can’t make those mistakes. That’s certainly a point of emphasis for this game. Make sure we, No. 1, take care of the football. When you have five turnovers, you’re chances of beating any one are not really high. We we want to have a turnover and penalty-free game.

“We have to make sure we give Newman a much bigger field to operate. I think we fumbled twice inside our own 25-yard line and you just can’t do that against a good football team.”

Newman coach Brandon Krezcmer led the Comets to the 2A championship in 2019, taking over the program from longtime coach Mike Papoccia. Pearson said nothing’s really changed in the passing of the torch in that Newman is the same old Newman.

“They’re going to hang their hat on playing smash-mouth football up front,” Pearson said. “They’re going to get out of their bone at some points of time. The bottom line is, you have to stop their run game and you can’t give up the big play when they do decide to pass. They don’t pass for short yardage plays. They pass for affect. They throw for touchdowns.

“Defensively, they’re very extremely physical, they’re extremely fast and very disciplined. We’ve got to take what they give us and not put ourselves in negative yardage situations, giving up a sack or things like that. It’s hard to beat a team when you constantly do that to yourself. When we didn’t do that last year, we were successful and we’re able to move the ball. You can’t take two steps forward and one step backward and expect to beat a good football team.”

PHS has scored 43 or more points in each of last three games, winning by a 43.8 to 7.8 margin of victory on the season. The only team to score twice on the Tigers defense was Lena-Winslow (35-14) in the season opener.

Worrels, now the all-time leading rusher in Bureau County history, leads the ground game, rushing for 430 yards and nine touchdowns. Senior quarterback Tyler Gibson had a big night in last week’s 48-7 win at Orion, throwing for 234 yards and three touchdowns, and now season totals of 627/6.

“With Princeton we are going to have our hands full. Coach Pearson and his staff have done a great job with the program. They are well-coached and don’t make mistakes,” Krezcmer said.

“They have athletes all over the field. They can hurt you in so many ways offensively. Defense the are fast, the fly to the ball and come with bad intentions. We are going to have to play our best game of this spring season.”