Princeton sinks Mendota with 49-point first-half barrage

The Princeton Tigers gave the Mendota Trojans a sinking feeling on a rainy Friday night at Bryant Field.

The evening started with a 15-minute delay for field maintenance to repair a hole that emerged during warmups.

When the action got underway, five Tigers scored, with Casey Etheridge and Preston Arkels hitting pay dirt twice as the Tigers ran away to a 55-0 Three Rivers East victory to improve to 7-1 overall, 4-0 in league play.

They will look to cap their sixth straight division championship next week at home against rival Hall.

“What an odd, odd night,” Tigers coach Ryan Pearson said. “Not only did we start the game 15 minutes late because of a sinkhole that was in the middle of the field, so we had to bring guys out to fill all that in. Then we had the weather on top of it. What a crazy, crazy night.

“I’m proud of our kids. Anytime that you can get a big conference win like that ... we just climbed one rung up the ladder, closer to our sixth conference championship.”

The hole opened up, Pearson said, because one of the tiles under the field broke and “I guess, over time, it’s just been wearing out and eventually the sod just caved in. We’ve got some field repairs before next week.”

Princeton junior Arthur Burden, who caused a fumble and recovered it, said the Tigers executed their game plan to perfection.

“Everybody just did their job and did what we did in practice and what coach told us. Got the job done. Everybody did their role,” he said.

“We knew it was going to be like this. Game plan was to pound the ball down their throats, block them in the dirt. That was the game plan.”

The Princeton defense shined. Mendota got no farther than the PHS 47 yard line, that coming on a run on a broken punt play, and was held to negative 11 yards rushing on the night. Christiansen contributed an interception for the Tigers’ defense.

Arkels got the Tigers going with an 8-yard run and added the two-point conversion run.

Mendota snapped a punt into the end zone on its second possession, and the Tigers cashed in two points for a safety to go up 10-0.

Before the quarter ended, quarterback Will Lott hit Noah LaPorte for a 43-yard TD strike, and Etheridge raced in for a 35-yard TD and added the conversion run to put the Tigers up 26-0.

Princeton continued to reign in the rain, adding touchdowns by Arkels (4 yards), Ace Christiansen (3) and Etheridge (41) to take a 49-0 halftime lead.

Mendota coach Keegan Hill said it was a tough assignment for the Trojans (1-7) playing the No. 2-ranked Tigers.

“They’re very balanced, [and have] ability on the offensive line, backfield and receiver, quality players everywhere,” he said.

Because of the rain, field conditions and score, the halftime intermission was reduced to five minutes and the quarters to 10 minutes.

“I talked to the officials and the Mendota coaching staff and said we’re going to play our F/S the second half, let’s just go, because the rain is coming,” Pearson said.

Sophomore Eli Berlin added a 2-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter after the Tigers kept the ball for the entire third quarter.

“I was real happy how our younger kids executed toward the end of the game. They played awesome,” Pearson said. “Mendota kept their defensive starters in, and our younger guys went right down the field on them and scored and pretty much had the ball the entire second half. When you do that, you’re going to feel pretty good about it.”