It’s a Byers market; Brady Byers provides spark for Princeton in win at Rockridge

EDGINGTON – Brady Byers may be an unknown talent around the Three Rivers Conference, but he’s no secret to his Princeton teammates.

Byers returned an interception for a 35-yard touchdown at the end of the first quarter and took a pitch for a 49-yard touchdown early in the second quarter to lead the Tigers to a 21-14 halftime lead over host Rockridge in Friday’s season opener.

Senior quarterback Teegan Davis took it from there, engineering three touchdowns in the second half, including two of his own, to put the finishing touches on a 41-22 victory.

“We knew Brady’s ability coming in,” PHS coach Ryan Pearson said. “We didn’t consider him a secret weapon because we knew what we had, might have been for Rockridge.”

Brady was certainly no surprise to teammate Augie Christiansen.

“I knew he was going to be there because he’s that guy that everyone sleeps on,” he said. “But he’s going to have a big season. Just watch.

“We know what he is, but other teams, they don’t know he’s coming. He’ll be a fun kid to watch.”

Even with Byers’ early heroics, the Tigers had their hands full with the Rockets in the first half, leading by just seven points.

Pearson said Sam Graves, who returned as the Rockridge head coach after three years off, threw a wrinkle with a different defensive front that the Tigers didn’t expect.

“To be clearly honest, they came out with something we weren’t prepared for,” Pearson said. “They changed everything that we saw last year and kind of threw us off guard for the first couple series. Once we made those adjustments, I thought we played good football.

“We came out in the third quarter and I thought we were very physical and executed really well. Now we have to continue to take steps forward and make sure those mistakes don’t happen again.”

It was Byers who gave the Tigers a much needed spark early with his pick six.

“We were ready. I was ready,” he said. “We had film all week. I knew the plays. I knew it was coming. I just executed.

“Your first varsity touchdown is a pick six. It’s crazy.”

For good measure, Byers then took a pitch from Davis and raced 49 yards for another Tigers touchdown.

Christiansen added a 65-yard score to put the Tigers ahead 21-7 with C.J. Hickey’s conversion run.

Then Davis got in on the fun, opening the second half with an 85-yard romp on the first play following a penalty. It was a play Pearson told Davis would be there during halftime.

Hickey added a 1-yard touchdown run and Davis raced for a long gainer, this time for a 67-yard TD, to make it 41-14 Princeton.

The Rockets tallied more total yards, 448-441, and had seven more first downs than the Tigers (20-13). With Davis rushing for 228 yards on 14 carries, the Tigers outgained the Rockets, 379-211.

Rockridge quarterback Jacob Bayne threw for all three Rockets touchdowns to three different receivers with passes of 29 and 7 in the first half, and a 30-yarder in the second.

Pearson said his young offensive line of juniors Cade Odell, Payne Miller and Ian Morris, all making their first varsity starts, alongside senior center Brady Piacenti, grew up in a hurry under fire.

“I thought our offensive line did a fantastic job in that second half. For those guys to grow up a little bit as this game moved on, that’s a good sign,” Pearson said.

Christiansen said the Tigers stepped up on defense as well.

“We weren’t being as physical as we should have been in the first half especially. We weren’t playing downhill, we were playing side to side,” he said. “Once we figured that out, you saw what happened. We finally got that spark that needs to be there the first half.”

“Week 1, proud of how we came out. Definitely a lot of stuff we need to work on.”

Tiger tales: The Tigers will return to action at 7 p.m. Thursday at home vs. Orion.