Late first half TD sparks Princeton in first-round win over Oregon

PRINCETON – It would have been easy for Princeton coach Ryan Pearson to settle for a 12-point halftime lead in Friday night’s Class 3A playoff opener at Bryant Field.

But Pearson hasn’t taken his Tigers to the playoffs six straight years taking it easy.

The Tiger coach took defensive timeouts to force Oregon to punt to give the Tigers the ball at their own 16-yard line with just 1:03 left in the first half.

Six plays later, on third-and-10 from their 40-yard line, quarterback Will Lott hit senior end Noah LaPorte with a short screen pass and he worked his way through the Oregon defense and went off to the races for a 60-yard touchdown reception.

The Tigers missed their third conversion, but took an 18-point lead to the locker room on the way to a 40-8 victory.

“I just felt like the first quarter was just odd. There was no flow in the game. I really don’t have an explanation for it,” Pearson said. “Those are the type of things that are going to happen. Oregon had a good game plan. They tried to slow everything down, keep our offense off the field, keep us off balance. And they did a great job in the first half.”

LaPorte said it was just the lift the Tigers needed.

“I love it. You got to gamble sometimes and obviously it paid off right there. That propelled us to the win,” he said. “First quarter, first half, we weren’t getting any momentum going and kind of picked it up second half and got that victory.”

It was the Tigers’ seventh straight first-round playoff victory. Princeton (9-1) will meet the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 12 Chicago King (6-3) vs. No. 5 Chicago Marshall (8-1) in the second round.

“It feels good. Starting off the postseason strong. It’s a new season,” LaPorte said. “Looking forward to a new opponent. See what we did wrong this game and move on to the next game. Fixing our mistakes and looking to play any team.”

Oregon (5-5) held the Tigers scoreless for the first 17 minutes of the game. Casey Etheridge broke the ice for a 34-yard touchdown run, giving the Tigers a 6-0 lead with 6:45 left in the second quarter as their PAT kick was blocked.

On their next possession, the Tigers mounted a 10-play, 63-yard scoring drive with Lott bulling his way in from the 1. The conversion pass failed and the Tigers took a 12-0 lead with 2:11 left in the half.

That’s when Pearson looked for a spark. The Tigers held the Hawks to six yards on three plays with Pearson taking a timeout after each stop.

After the Hawks punted, Etheridge picked up 6 yards and Lott gained 18 for a first down at the Tiger 40. Lott then hit LaPorte for the touchdown pass to send the Tigers to the locker room with an 18-0 lead.

“Having a touchdown like that with eight seconds instead of taking a knee, going into halftime, we’re pumped up and obviously it carried into the second half,” LaPorte said.

“We’ve been working on that package quite a bit the last couple weeks and we wanted to use it in that type of situation,” Pearson said. “Great execution by our kids in that drive. That was huge, going from a two-score halftime lead to a three-score halftime lead. Credit to our kids for executing that drive right there.”

Lott called his own number for another 1-yard touchdown to give the Tigers a 25-0 lead on Ian Morris’ PAT with 6:02 left in the third quarter.

Princeton completed its scoring with a 20-yard run by Etheridge and a 5-yard run by Common Green with Ace Christiansen’s conversion run taking the Tigers to a 40-0 lead with 4:10 remaining.

While the Hawks showed their emotions on the field after the loss, coach Broc Kundert said they were winners for what they did for Oregon football.

“Oregon football has been down for awhile. These guys put us in a direction going forward. That’s huge,” he said. “I’m proud of them for that. Just a great bunch of seniors.

“We’re out five starters. I thought we played as well as we could have. Love to see what would happen if we were fully healthy. They’re a good football team. I think they’re going to do some things.”

Etheridge led the Tigers with 150 yards rushing and two touchdowns while Lott rushed for two TDs and threw for another, completing 5-of-10 passes for 90 yards.

The Tiger defense held the Hawks to 137 net yards of offense, with 116 yards rushing.

Pearson was glad the Tigers survived their slow start and finished strong.

“The name of the game is survive and advance.” he said. “We didn’t feel we played our best game by any means. But I told them we beat a very good, physical football team 40-8. Just imagine how good we could be if we just fix some of our technical mistakes. And I truly believe that.

“I know our kids will come back to work on Monday and be ready to go for whoever we play.”