Princeton – Slowing opposing rushing offenses had proven challenging for Princeton in wins over Graham and Winfield.
Not so much Friday.
In their final game ahead the return of injured all-state linebacker Kalum Kiser next week, the Class AAA No. 2 Tigers held No. 3 Greenbrier East to just 27 yards rushing on 23 carries, securing a 35-14 win over the Spartans in Hunnicutt Stadium.
The Princeton defense held East running back A.J. Godfrey, the area’s fifth-leading rusher with 660 yards coming into Friday night, to 40 yards on 18 carries with 24 of those yards coming in the final frame.
“I thought our kids played really good against the run,” Princeton head coach Nate Tanner said. “We talked about (Godfrey). He’s a heavy kid, has really good balance and he’s strong. We talked about howvwe can’t let him get downhill. Keep our shoulders square. We were able to get him going lateral some and our kids swarmed to the ball and kept good leverage. Their quarterback too, he’s a really good athlete.
“I was a little bit worried about him coming in. We put a huge emphasis on keeping leverage on him. If you let him get to the edge he can make you pay so really proud of our kids.”
The struggles in the run game hamstrung the entire East offense which finished 4-of-15 on third down conversion attempts, requiring on average 7.5 yards to convert.
“When you see where you can attack things you basically watch film and then if you see that, it’s what you want to attack during her football game,” East head coach Ray Lee said. “Gameplans, you put them in place and you see what happens once the clock starts.”
The Tiger offense carried its weight too, achieving near-perfect balance in the box score. The hosts rushed for 263 yards on 37 carries and threw for 272 on 30 pass attempts.
The effort came on the backs of seven different players who had at least 40 yards from scrimmage, led by 111 combined from Brad Mossor, 93 on the ground from Alex Cox and 82 through the air from Wyatt Cline.
“The skill guys throughout the offense, they’re all getting better and getting in more of a rhythm,” Tanner said. “They’re getting more comfortable and you talk about the balance of run-pass but anytime you can get numerous guys touching the rock and producing, it’s a beautiful thing and we’re going to need that down the stretch to extend the season late like we want to and just to win weekly with the schedule that we have. And with the way teams are defending Brad (Mossor), we have to have other guys step up.”
The Tigers drew first blood when an eight-play, 60-yard drive ended on a fourth-and-goal touchdown run from the 1 for Mossor on the second drive of the game.
East responded with an equally impressive drive, finding pay dirt when Brody Hamric connected with Nate Suttle for a 22-yard score, knotting the game after a quarter. The ground game for the Tigers powered the next drive when Jake Belcher turned his first carry of the night into a 40-yard touchdown run.
Then the Tigers delivered a gut punch.
Needing 61-yards in the final 40 seconds of the half for a touchdown, Barker, who threw for 252 yards on the night, connected with Wyatt Cline three time in five plays for 40 yards including for the final play of the half, a 24-yard touchdown pass as time expired.
“Coach Tanner always talks about us going fast and tempo and we go really fast,” Barker said. “We were trying to get down the field and we’ve been practicing this for awhile now. We just go fast and we kick a field goal We didn’t kick a field goal there because it was like a 42-yard kick and we felt like we drew a play up and it worked.”
“We called a play that we hadn’t repped yet because they were bracketing Brad all night,” Tanner said. “We tried that. I drew something up in the dirt on the backside and Chance scrambled and our kids made a great play. It wasn’t on me. It was just the kids making a play.”
East cut the deficit back to six in the third when a 42-yard pass to Kaden Stone and a pass interference on Princeton put the Spartans inside the Princeton 10. A bootleg pass to Grant Burdette made it a 21-14 game but the East offense threatened just once more.
Meanwhile Princeton found pay dirt twice more when Mossor ran it in again from a yard out and Corbin Justus hauled in an uncontested pass from Barker from 19 yards out with 4:25 to play.
“We had a busted play (before the half),” Lee said. “The guy was there in perfect position, knocks the ball away and it goes up instead of down and he’s just standing right there to catch it. You take away two or three busted plays and we’ve got a real good football game going. One long pass here in the back of the end zone (to Justsus) and a call that was made – we’re not going to get into that too much – but those little things can change the complexion of a football game.”
Hamric finished with 203 yards passing and two touchdowns on 38 attempts, connecting four times with Kaden Stone for 63 yards.
Nate Suttle added 44 yards receiving and an interception in the loss.
Princeton will aim to bolster its playoff rating next week when it travels to Class AAAA Beckley while Greenbrier East will travel to Nicholas County.
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