The Princeton Tigers drive to the St. Louis and the Class 1 title continued on Monday night as they defeated East Buchanan, 34-20, at C.F. Russell Stadium..
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The Princeton Tigers drive to the St. Louis and the Class 1 title continued on Monday night as they defeated East Buchanan, 34-20, at C.F. Russell Stadium..
The Tigers jumped out to an early 21-0 lead but then had to hold off a high-powered Bulldog offense.
?Coming into Monday night we wanted to run the ball and eat up the clock,? Head Coach Dave Cavanah said. ?We held on to the ball for somewhere around 35 of the game?s 48 minutes, so I think we accomplished that.?
East Buchanan took the opening drive down to the five-yard line before a fumbled snap turned the ball over to the Tigers. Princeton answered the Bulldogs? drive with a close to eight minute drive that ended on a 24-yard scoring run by Nathan Craft.
?With our style of offense it is important to get an early lead. Our defense came up with big stops when they needed them,? Cavanah said. ?Our defensive line dominated the line of scrimmage. That allowed us to focus on stopping their passing game.?
A Princeton interception stopped East Buchanan?s second drive in the second quarter. Princeton again capitalized, this time on a five-yard touchdown run by Brett Cavanah.
The Tigers extended their lead to 21-0, thanks to a 56-yard touchdown by Brandon Parsons. East Buchanan fired up its offense at the end of the second quarter as the Bulldogs scored a 16-yard pass to Andrew Mead from Jeff Snyder.
Defense ruled in the third quarter as both teams held the other out of the end zone until final five minutes. Mead caught his second touchdown of the night from Snyder. as the two connected on a 46-yard touchdown pass.
?Our defense really has been better than our offense for most of the season,? Cavanah said. ?Our kids take a lot of pride in winning games on defense.?
Princeton extended its lead back to 14 points early in the fourth quarter on a 26-yard touchdown run by Craft. But East Buchanan?s air assault was not over yet as Snyder connected with Derek Pflugardt on a 50-yard pass.
?We knew that East Buch?s big weapons were in the passing game,? Cavanah said. ?All week long we talked about the importance of leading by more than 14 points and forcing turnovers. We wanted them to turn the ball over four times. If we did that, I felt like we would win the game.?
The Tigers went back to the ground game as they had all night and all year long. Princeton drove the ball down the field and scored on a three-yard run with just over two minutes to play.
Craft finished the game with a pair of touchdowns and 190 yards on 24 carries. Parsons rushed for 144 yards on 20 carries and two touchdowns. Brett Cavanah finished with 99 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.
?Our fullback and left halfback actually went over a 1,000 yards last week. Brandon (Parsons) went over a 1,000 yards on Monday,? Cavanah said. ?We are pretty balanced in the backfield, but none of that would be possible without our line.?
All three runningbacks have now rushed for over a 1,000 yards on the season. Craft has 1,169, Parsons has 1,027 and Cavanah has 1,016.
?I think it says a lot about the effort the linemen give to get not one, not two, but three running backs over 1,000 yards,? Cavanah said. ?Those kids on the line have worked very hard and should be very proud of what this team has accomplished.?
The Tigers ground out 427 yards on 66 carries while completing two of three passes for 23 yards.
East Buchanan finished the game with 272 passing yards and 348 total yards. Snyder completed 10 passes for three touchdowns while throwing three interceptions.
Princeton improves to 9-3 overall. The Tigers now are one game away from the state championship game at St. Louis. The Tigers will travel to Adrian on Saturday. Adrian advanced with a 27-24 win over Santa Fe.