Ace Christiansen, Princeton roll over rival Kewanee

Princeton had an Ace up its sleeve Friday.

With Kewanee turning its focus on his leading rusher, Casey Etheridge, Princeton coach Ryan Pearson turned to junior running back Ace Christiansen to give the Tigers’ offense a much needed spark.

Christiansen was up for the challenge, rushing for 184 yards on 14 carries, including a 5-yard touchdown with 9:05 left to play to cap a 37-14 Homecoming victory at Bryant Field over the previously undefeated Boilermakers.

“We kind of felt that Kewanee was going to try to take away Casey, so we wanted to feed Ace quite a bit. That was part of our game plan,” Pearson said. “Ace ran absolutely phenomenal tonight. Credit our offensive line for opening up the holes for him, but man Ace ran well. Ace played his tail off, but that’s what we expect from No. 3.”

The game marked the 125th meeting between the longtime Route 34 rivals, dating back to 1897. The Tigers got to keep the traveling trophy with athletic director Jeff Ohlson delivering the prize to midfield to the team’s captains.

Pearson was getting pretty nervous watching the trophy bounce around amongst the players, saying, “Don’t drop it, don’t drop it.”

“I was a little worried, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “Once I saw them kind of shooting it up and down, I was getting worried they were going to drop it”

The Boilermakers (5-1, 3-1) forced a 7-7 halftime tie when quarterback Brady Clark hit Colson Welgat for a 19-yard scoring strike with 1:10 left in the second quarter.

Kewanee’s excitement of playing the Associated Press Class 3a No. 3-ranked Tigers even in the first half, however, didn’t last long.

The third quarter belonged to the Tigers, who scored three times to put the game away with a 29-7 lead by quarter’s end.

Etheridge scored twice on runs of 3 and 1 yards, but it was Christiansen who set him up, breaking off runs of 47 and 44 yards.

“Oh, it was awesome, hearing the crowd cheering and all that, hypes you up big time,” Christiansen said.

Tiger quarterback Will Lott closed out the Tigers’ third quarter with a 30-yard TD strike to Noah LaPorte with :29 seconds left.

Lott and LaPorte also connected for a 33-yard TD in the first quarter to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.

“After that first half, we weren’t playing our best. Everything wasn’t going to plan, but coming out that second half we knew we had to pick it up and we did,” Christiansen said.

“I’ll be honest, we really didn’t have a ton of adjustments from the first half to the second half,” Pearson said. “There was just some minor things that we weren’t doing a very good job of. We addressed it at halftime and credit to our kids, they came out and executed exactly how we planned it. I think the results kind of speak for themselves.”

Princeton improved to 5-1 overall and 2-0 atop the Three Rivers Mississippi (East), seeking its sixth straight division championship.

“It’s really big, especially for conference. It’s one of the biggest games of the year that we’ll play,” Christiansen said.

“Big rivalry game. 125 years, I don’t know what that compares to other rivalries. That’s a big one,” Pearson said. “We knew Kewanee was going to come over here and play us tough. They were undefeated. Credit to our kids. They came out and battled and played a heck of a second half.”

Kewanee coach Matt Taylor was happy to play to a 7-7 tie at half, but said the Boilermakers just couldn’t keep up with the Tigers.

“We were able to match points in the first half, so we really considered ourselves fortunate to be tied at halftime,” he said. “However, we also felt we stayed resilient. We worked back. We didn’t give up. We did what we needed to do to tie the game.

“The second half was a different story. They did approximately what they did to Sterling last week. They ground the ball. Ultimately, they wore us out. We just didn’t meet force with force. .... We got exactly what we asked for, an opportunity to test our ourselves against a playoff-caliber team and we got that. Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but sometimes you improve the most after a loss.”

Princeton now holds a 64-57-4 series edge over Kewanee, winners of eight of the last 10 meetings and 17 of the last 21.