Princeton – The Dallas Cowboys* of the 1990s had successful approach to offense – throw to take the lead, run to win the game.
Class AAA No. 1 Princeton replicated that blueprint with momentum-swinging plays, keying victory.
Brad Mossor ripped a 92-yard touchdown run, moments after an 84-yard joust was called back, giving the Tigers a 35-17 lead in what turned out to be a 42-30 victory for the top-rated team in Class AAA against Class AA No. 1 Independence Friday night in Princeton.
Mossor’s run flipped the game entirely as Independence elected to kick a field goal on the previous play, a fourth-and-3, from the Princeton 16 in an effort to make it a 28-20 game.
The kick slipped left, setting up Mossor’s gut punch with 1:54 to play in the third quarter.
“I thought we were still in the game if we get the field goal,” Independence head coach John H. Lilly said. “If we get the field goal it’s a one-score game. We just challenged the defense. We had gotten down there twice and we didn’t get it. We were kind of upset we didn’t get what we thought we should’ve got (a defensive holding penalty). We took the field goal thinking it’d be a one-score game.
“So if you think about it at the beginning of the fourth quarter it would’ve been a one-score game.”
The Tigers moved the ball well through the air in the first half, going 14-of-22 for 182 yards and a pair of touchdown passes but explosive plays in the run game sealed the coffin.
Mossor’s biggest play from scrimmage was followed by a 20-yard touchdown run from R.J. Coatney on the Tigers’ next drive, putting them up 42-17 with 10 minutes to play, ending the night for Indy’s starters and stamping a performance that saw the hosts generate five runs of 10-plus yards out of the break.
“We knew going in – we were walking to the locker room and coach (Ben) Neal, our offensive line coach come up to me and said, ‘Hey, how are we going to run the ball in the second half?'” Princeton head coach Nate Tanner said. “I said, ‘I gotcha, I gotcha.’ Be patient. It took me a little bit at the beginning to see what they were doing defensively. It took a drive or so. They do a really good job in the box coaching their kids up. They were giving us some bear fronts (five men on the line of scrimmage), sometimes it was a 51 look, sometimes it was a 52 look. It’s hard to run the rock.
“We started the game out with an (h-back) and we still weren’t able to run it really well so we went 10 (one running back, zero tight ends) and got busy through the air. I through they did a great job. At halftime we made a subtle adjustment to what we saw on film when we got in to just one concept that enabled us to run it out of tempo. So we came out and I tell everybody the chess match is so much fun and they do a great job. We started playing chess a little bit and just found something we exploited.”
While the Tigers pulled away late, they found themselves against the wall early.
Battling turf toe, Independence QB Brock Green connected on three passes of 30-plus yards in the first half, finding all-state receiver Christian Linksweiler in single-coverage against Princeton’s blitz heavy defense.
Their first connection, a 35-yard strike on third-and-8, set up an eventual 1-yard touchdown plunge from Green. Linksweiler took over on defense as well, corralling a bobbled pass for an interception return of 43 yards. The turnover proved harmless with a partially blocked field goal concluding the drive.
Princeton eventually found the scoring column when QB Chance Barker scrambled in from six yards to on fourth-and-1.
Indy countered with a field goal drive, highlighted by a 34-yard completion to Kaden Bradbury but touchdown passes of 20 yards to JoJo Campbell and 36 yards to Mossor put the Tigers ahead 21-10 at the break.
Indy battled back, opening the second half with a five-play, 38-yard drive that resulted in an 18-yard Cole Laxton touchdown run but Princeton countered again with another toss to Campbell from 18 yards out.
“With Brad, whenever we were in 2×2 sets with an extra guy in his face, he had inside leverage and he wasn’t going to let him have a free release and they had somebody over top which we’ve seen all year long,” Tanner said. “To the other side it was pretty much two on two and I think Linksweiler was playing on Jojo and he was playing with a pretty good cushion because JoJo can fly. I just saw that and figured we could rip the quick game or a screen out there to him and he still had space to work with and you’re still putting a really fast kid with the ball in his hands in space and they still have to make a play in space and JoJo was able to win a couple of times.”
John H. Lilly praised the effort of his team which was dealt a blow when it was confirmed first team all-state running back Sylas Nelson would miss the remainder of the regular season with a knee injury. Adding to the list of injuries was Green, who played through turf toe, and all-state linebacker Landon Riddle who left in the second quarter with an ankle injury.
“I’m really proud of our football team,” Lilly said. “Brock’s in a boot until Wednesday. He didn’t even practice. I’m proud of him. It would’ve been real easy for him to sit out this game but he came out and he played. Laxton was hurt and didn’t practice until Wednesday. I’m just so proud of our football team. We’re not happy with losing but we stepped up. We accepted the challenge and played the No.1 team in triple-A and battled our butts off.”
Mossor finished with four rushes for 103 yards, adding 83 yards receiving and a touchdown to cap his production from scrimmage.
Barker completed 15 of 25 passes for 200 yards, adding 90 yards on the ground with his legs.
Linksweiler hauled in three passes for 74 yards, drawing two holding penalties and two pass interference penalties in the loss.
Princeton (8-0) travels to Hurricane next week while Independence (7-1) hosts Nicholas County.
*Dallas sucks. Go Birds!
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