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MANLIUS – Teegan Davis sure knows how to throw himself a birthday party
The senior quarterback threw for four touchdowns, ran for one and, for good measure, returned an interception for another score to lead the Princeton Tigers to a 48-0 win over Bureau Valley on Friday at Storm Stadium.
“A little birthday win, I guess. Good kickoff to my 18th birthday,” said Davis, who attended Bureau Valley schools into the sixth grade. “No place better than being under the Friday night lights.”
“I’m happy we were able to come over here and give him a birthday present,” Tigers coach Ryan Pearson said. “He used to go to school here. Got to come back and play against some kids he probably went to middle school with.”
The win wrapped up Princeton’s fifth straight Three Rivers Conference East (Mississippi) Division championship at 6-0 with the 3A No. 3-ranked Tigers improving to 8-0 overall.
“We’ve got one more [against 5-3 Monmouth-Roseville]. I know they’re going to play us pretty us pretty tough, so we’re going to have our hands full next week,” Pearson said.
The Tigers did all their scoring in the first half, scoring three touchdowns in the first quarter and four more in the second quarter, giving their first-string offense and defense the rest of the night off.
CJ Hickey got the Tiger Express going with a 28-yard touchdown run on Princeton’s second play from scrimmage following a Bureau Valley penalty just over 2 1/2 minutes into the game.
Princeton recovered a Bureau Valley fumble at the Storm 26 and Davis promptly threw a touchdown strike to Noah LaPorte just 23 seconds later to make it 14-0.
With 6:41 left, Davis stepped in front of a Storm pass and waltzed in for a 45-yard return to send the Tigers to a 21-0 lead.
Davis was just warming up.
He opened the second quarter with a 46-yard touchdown pass to LaPorte on a fourth-and-25 play.
Pearson said it’s been a long time since his team has converted a touchdown on a long fourth-down play like that, and that “the kids made me look good.”
Davis, who completed 4 of 6 passes for 149 yards, found Brady Byers open for a 50-yard scoring strike, and connected once more with LaPorte for a 27-yard score.
LaPorte finished with three receptions for 99 yards, all for touchdowns.
“We game-planned all week and those were always open, so we grabbed it,” Davis said of the Tigers’ touchdown passes.
“We had the football in the air a little bit. They were playing us man. We knew we had some matchups on the outside we liked,” Pearson said. “I thought Teegan threw some great balls, and our receivers made some pretty darn athletic plays.”
Davis put the icing on his birthday cake with a 20-yard TD romp to cap the Tigers’ scoring at 48-0, with Carlos Benavidez adding his sixth PAT kick of the night.
“I don’t think there’s any more Davises, but I’m glad that he’s a senior,” BV coach Mat Pistole said with a smile.
Pistole said the Tigers are as good as advertised.
“They’re well-coached. They’re really fast and athletic, and their kids really play hard. And that’s a really good combination,” he said.
The Princeton defense held the Storm to three net yards of offense in the first half, and just 15 on the night (negative 1 yard rushing), with 15 yards coming on one pass from quarterback Bryce Helms.
“I thought we executed in all three phases. Any time you can get a running clock in the first half and still keep a shutout with your younger guys in the second half, that’s awesome,” Pearson said.
Davis said the Tigers will be ready to finish off a 9-0 season next week at Monmouth.
“Next week, just go execute like we have been,” he said. “Augie [Christiansen] is running the ball really well. The line’s been blocking really well. Go with the game plan and execute it.”
Note: The Tigers presented Pearson with the game ball after his school-record 45th win in his sixth season at Princeton.