Princeton – The Princeton Tigers will close the season where they opened it – at Laidley Field in Charleston.
The Princeton defense pieced together its best scoring effort of the season Saturday, blanking No. 7 Spring Valley in a 27-0 victory over the Timberwolves in the Class AAA state semifinal at Hunnicutt Stadium.
The win sends the Tigers to the Class AAA state title game for the second time in three years where they’ll face Nitro next Saturday at 7 p.m. at Laidley Field.
The title game appearance is the second for the Tigers following a loss to Martinsburg in 2023 when there were only three classes. It’s also the second for Princeton’s first year head coach Nate Tanner who led Parkersburg South to a runner-up finish in 2022.
“The main thing is this isn’t the first time for me and it’s not the first time for these kids on this team,” Tanner said of the differences. “Whether you want to believe it or not and people say it’s a special week and it absolutely is. But you’ve still got to find a way to block out some of the extracurricular noise and unnecessary stuff and stay dialed in and laser focused on the 48 minutes we’re going to embark on.”
Princeton had yet to record a shutout this season and was tested all night by a run-heavy Spring Valley team but passed with flying colors, forcing three turnovers on downs, nabbing an interception and forcing a missed field goal on seven drives.
“I think it’s a testament to the character of our kids,” Tanner said. “They’re gritty kids, tough kids. They were asking what’s so special about this group? And I was telling them their will to win. We put together a game plan throughout the week and the kids, we repped it and practiced it hard.
“It’s cool to see it come to fruition on Friday and Saturday night in this case. The bend but don’t break, it was awesome to see – Spring Valley they’re a good team. They put together some drives and our kids were able to come away with some huge stops.”
The Timberwolves did an admiral job keeping the ball out of the Tigers’ hands, running the ball 56 times for 295 yards and piecing together drives of 18 and 19 plays, but Princeton capitalized on its possessions by scoring touchdowns on four of its seven drives, using its final one to run out the clock.
They often came in explosive fashion as well.
All-stater Brad Mossor collected the first on a 21-yard run and followed Spring Valley’s 18-play drive that ended with a missed field goal by housing a screen pass for an 80-yard score and 14-0 lead.
Explosive plays continued to aid the Tigers who converted a third-and-9 with an 18-yard completion from Chance Barker to Brad Mossor and picked up 31 yards on the following play, a 31-yard strike from Barker to Wyatt Cline.
Jake Belcher did the honors, plunging in from five yards out to expand the lead to 21-0 at the break.
The numbers reflected the on-field success in limited opportunities with the Tigers collecting 137 yards rushing on 19 carries (7.2 YPC) and finishing 9-of-13 for 227 yards through the air.
“It was very limited, I was curious how many it was,” Tanner said. “That was a worry of mine coming in because I knew that was going to be their game-plan. Coming in from film study we saw how soft they played in the secondary, I’m talking leverage, with a lot of underneath space. I talked to Chance all week and I said, ‘Look, we’ve got to be efficient in the screen game and quick game.’
“I thought he did a fantastic job and I told our receivers, I said, ‘Listen, when you get the ball quick, we got to win.’ It’s going to be tough to take shots down the field and I don’t think we took any shots. We had one intermediate ball to Brad and the kids just executed what we coached them to do and it’s just cool to see. We were able to get the run game going at times and were able to put some points on the board.”
Out of its element and chasing, Spring Valley pieced together positive drives of 86 and 72 yards in the second half but the Tiger defense held on its own 2 and 23.
“It was a big emphasis all week that they were running the ball,” all-state defensive lineman Kalum Kiser said. “We knew that it was just who wanted it more and obviously we wanted it more. We wanted it more all year and that’s the outcome – go to the state ‘chip.”
Mossor led Princeton again in yards from scrimmage with 105 rushing and two touchdowns on 10 carries while hauling in four passes for 116 yards and another score.
Zeke Lewis led Spring Valley with 179 yards rushing on 20 carries.
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