Princeton turns ‘winning ugly’ into winning big

PRINCETON – Princeton won last week’s opener 41-22 at Rockridge, a game it led just 21-14 at halftime.

Coach Ryan Pearson told the Tigers it was “winning ugly,” and they needed to work on a lot of things moving forward.

Did they ever.

The Tigers won convincingly rather than ugly, leading 37-7 at the half on the way to a 60-20 rout over Orion in a Thursday night special at Bryant Field. Some of their starting and key personnel were manning the headsets to the coaches in the press box in the fourth quarter rather than making plays on the field.

Seven players scored in four different ways (passing, rushing, interceptions and field goals) as the Tigers ran away in the Three Rivers Conference crossover.

Pearson and quarterback Teegan Davis said the Tigers executed much better than last week’s 41-22 opening win at Rockridge, a game they led 21-14 at the half.

“Last week we weren’t super excited about how we played, but we came back to show them what we’re about,” Davis said.

“We certainly didn’t play our best football game last week, and we made some fundamental mistakes that are just not Tiger football,” Pearson said. “We wanted to make sure we executed in all three phases, and I thought we did a great job of shoring up the areas we didn’t do a good job of last week. That’s a testament to our kids. They came out and understood they needed to play better.”

It was 24-0 by the time the first quarter ended with the Tigers holding Orion to minus 23 yards rushing,

Augie Christiansen got the scoring started with a 32-yard TD run ,and C.J. Hickey followed with a 40-yarder two minutes later to make it 14-0.

Carlos Benavdez booted a 32-yard field, the first of two he had on the night. Sophomore Noah LaPorte picked off a pass by Orion quarterback Kale Filler to cap the first-quarter scoring with two minutes remaining.

“Noah has been tremendous for us back there,” Pearson said. “Big, tall guy who’s very rangy. Each game he gets to play he just gets better and better.

Davis called his own number and was off to the races for an 84-yard romp.

“I have to give a shout to my big boys on the line. They always block great for me. They made a crease and gave me a big hole,” Davis said.

Davis engineered a Tigers offense that accumulated 385 yards on the night, rushing for 119 yards of his own and passing for 48 more.

“Teegan did a great job being an extension of me out there,” Pearson said. “I thought he did a great job making the right reads and distributing the ball where we felt our numbers were and spots were. But that’s what we expect out of our senior leader.”

Hickey, who led the Tigers with 125 yards rushing on 10 carries, made it 37-0 at the half with his second TD of the night, this time an 18-yarder.

A touchdown by Orion’s Cole Kratzburg at the end of the first half only delayed the running clock.

The Tigers put the running clock into play with a 48-yard TD strike from Davis to Danny Cihocki and a 3-yard score by Augie Christiansen to make it 50-7.

Sophomore William Lott got in on the fun with a 27-yard “pick six” with 7 1/2 minutes left in the game.

The big lead and running clock allowed Pearson to play many underclassmen against Orion’s first string, and they held their own, he said.

“That’s what it’s all about. We wanted to make sure we got our younger kids an opportunity to play. What better opportunity than against varsity players,” he said. “Orion kept their starters in. They were running no huddle. That’s just great work for our younger kids and I thought they did a fantastic job with the opportunity they were given.”

The Tigers (2-0) will have an extra day to prepare for rival Hall at home next week for the Three Rivers East opener.

“We’ll celebrate this win tonight and get right back at it,” Davis said.

• Tiger tales: Thursday’s win was the Tigers’ fourth straight over Orion, but just its second in five tries at home.