Princeton opens with win over Newman, but ‘didn’t play our best game’

PRINCETON – Princeton coach Ryan Pearson gets as excited as anyone after a Tigers win.

And while he was happy with the 28-14 opening night win over Newman Central Catholic in a Three Rivers crossover Friday at Bryant Field, he was far from satisfied.

“I’m happy we won, but we can play a heck of a lot better,” he said. “That’s our job as coaches, to get the team to the level that I think we can. We’ve got to go back to work, put our hard hats on and lunch pails and just go back to work.

“A win’s a win, we did not play our best game by any means. I know usually between your Week 1 and Week 2, you’re going to have your most corrections that you make in a season. Obviously, we’ve got some things we’ve got to fix. That’s what we told our kids. We’re going to go back to the drawing board and get them fixed, and hopefully get better.”

Princeton senior all-stater Noah LaPorte agrees the Tigers can play much better.

“Wasn’t the prettiest game we’ve had,” he said. “First game of the year, we didn’t know what they were going to come out with. It wasn’t a pretty game, but we got the job done. We got a W.”

The Tigers put themselves in position to win by taking a 21-0 lead late in the second quarter on the way to a 21-7 edge at halftime.

Senior fullback Alex Winn got the Tigers on the board with a 2-yard run with 1:03 left in the first quarter.

The Tigers scored twice in the second quarter on runs by senior Ace Christiansen and Casey Etheridge.

Christiansen raced 24 yards to pay dirt with 5:38 left. Etheridge scored on a 6-yard run and added the conversion run to give the Tigers a 21-0 lead with exactly two minutes left in the first half.

Newman coach Mike LeMay said slow starts hampered the Comets last year and felt like that got them again Friday.

“We talked about that. Really, they had field position, kind of pinned us back,” he said. “I know we had some explosive plays, but our execution at times just wasn’t there. And that’s going to happen in the first week. But the guys kept grinding. I was pretty pleased with that, but at the end of the day, you always want to win.”

The Comets used a 48-yard pass from Evan Bushman to Brady Williamson to set up a 1-yard scoring run by Briar Ivey with 1:14 left to make it a 21-7 game at the half.

It was the Comets’ first score in 3½ games against a Tigers defense that pitched shutouts in each of the past three meetings.

“We have the weapons to score on anybody. We believe that,” LeMay said. “Princeton’s got it humming right now. We know they have our number. We gave them a fighter’s chance, and I thought we were swinging.”

Tigers’ quarterback Will Lott got in on the fun with a 1-yard run with 25 seconds left in the third quarter, and Ian Morris’ third PAT of the night made it 28-7.

Newman scored again on a 28-yard TD strike from Bushman to George Jungerman with 9:22 left to close the scoring.

“I’ve got to give credit to them for some of those plays, but at the same time, it’s the fundamentals we didn’t do a good job of. We can’t do that against good football teams,” Pearson said.

“Definitely a weird feeling after shutting them out for so long and having them score,” LaPorte said. “But there’s going to be teams who are going to score and we’ve got push through that and fire right back.

Princeton rushed for 201 yards, led by Etheridge (15-92) and Christiansen (21-86).

Bushman finished the night completing 12 of 18 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions.

The Comets couldn’t get their running game going against the Tigers’ defense, however, thrown for minus 39 yards rushing.

Christiansen and Lott each had interceptions and Grady Cox a fumble recovery for the Tigers’ defense.

The Tigers will travel to Rockridge for Week 2, while the Comets will host Mendota.