Princeton brings ‘that trophy’ back in a big way

Ryan Pearson didn’t need much in the way of motivation to get his Princeton Tigers ready for Friday’s game with long-time rival Kewanee.

They’ve been carrying all the motivation they’ve needed for 364 days.

It was nearly a year ago that the Boilermakers upset the Tigers and walked off with the traveling trophy that goes to the winner of the long-time rivalry and said they planned to keep it for awhile.

The Tigers got the trophy back in a big way Friday at Bryant Field, riding a 42-point second-quarter surge on the way to a 56-7 victory on Homecoming night.

They scored in different way with touchdowns by rushing, passing, an interception return and a fumble recovery.

Pearson cut his postgame huddle short by telling his team to “go get that trophy back,” gleefully accepting it from Princeton athletic director Jeff Ohlson.

“We’ve been game-planning for this one for a long time. They made the comment that the trophy was going to stay in Kewanee for a long, long time and our kids took that to heart. I’m glad we got to bring it back to Princeton,” Pearson said.

“It was kind of unleashing the Tigers. There wasn’t a whole lot of motivation that needed to happen for me. Right from the get go, they wanted to come out and send a message tonight. I thought they did that.

“We’ve wanted this game for a long time. Last year’s game left a bitter taste in our mouths and we’ve had this game circled for a long time. I’m happy for our kids. We got a big Homecoming win and got to play all our kids.”

Senior Augie Christiansen, who scored two touchdowns in the first half and rushed for 118 yards, said the Tigers had a message to deliver.

“Especially after last year, it sunk in, that’s not who we were,” he said. “Especially them being them. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but they kind of disrespected us in front of our face. Since then, this is the game we’ve been wanting to play.

“This is exactly what we wanted to do. We wanted to show who Princeton actually was. And I think we did that well today.”

Princeton center Brady Piacenti said Friday’s win helped make the pain from last year go away.

“Watching that last year, that hurt. This is all we’ve practiced for all year. We needed it back,” he said. “Tonight, we all played an amazing game and it’s back home now. It feels good to have it.”

C.J. Hickey got the Tigers on the board with a 1-yard run with 9:27 left in the first quarter and Christiansen added a 9-yard run 3 1/2 minutes later to make it 12-0 with the Tigers failing to add the conversion on either touchdown.

Then the fun really began.

Sophomore Noah LaPorte scored on a 21-yard pass from Teegan Davis on the first play of the second quarter.

After Davis scored on a 3-yard run, Christiansen did his best impersonation of Davis by racing 59 yards for another Tiger touchdown.

“I had a nice little cutback and that’s the first thing I thought of, ‘That’s what Teegan would do.’ He’d probably do it a lot quicker and a lot cleaner,” Christiansen said

Davis laughed and called Christiansen a “mini-version” of himself.

LaPorte returned an interception 47 yards to pay dirt and just 26 seconds later, Ian Morris pounced on the pigskin in the end zone for a touchdown to put the Tigers up 50-0 with 2:23 left in the first half.

Davis looked like a greased pig scrambling for a 26-yard touchdown avoiding nearly every Boilermaker defender on the field to cap the halftime scoring at 56-0.

“That’s an athlete. Teegan’s an athlete. Princeton’s not going to see anyone like him, I don’t know, hopefully soon, but that’s a special kind of person,” Christiansen said.

Piacenti said it’s fun to be the center for the Tigers’ offense

“Oh it’s fun. Can’t wait for every Friday. It’s the best thing ever,” he said.

Tiger tales: Princeton’s 56 points are the highest it has ever scored against Kewanee. The Tigers now lead the all-time series 63-57-4. Princeton will return to action next week at Newman.