Princeton punches its playoff ticket with big win at Mendota

MENDOTA - Princeton didn’t just punch its ticket to the 2024 IHSA Playoffs.

The Tigers signed, sealed and delivered it with a convincing, run-away 57-14 win at Mendota Friday night.

The Tigers scored three touchdowns in the first quarter, and tacked on two more scores to go up 35-0 at the half. They put the running clock in play when the scored early in the third quarter as the Tigers improved to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in their final Three Rivers Mississippi contest of the season.

“It’s (making the playoffs) always a goal coming into the season. Happy for our kids to accomplish that,” Princeton coach Ryan Pearson.

“It’s a great feeling. We haven’t played our best ball yet. We know that,” said senior Noah LaPorte, who had two touchdown receptions in the first quarter. “Going into this game, we were trying to play a complete game. It’s just keeping the momentum going into the last two games of the season and into the playoffs.”

LaPorte, who set a school record with 206 receiving yards at Mendota two years ago, got the Tigers on the board early.

He caught a 20-yard TD reception from quarterback Will Lott at the 6:33 mark of the first quarter. Those two had so much fun, they hooked up again for a 36-yard scoring strike just 2 1/2 minutes later to make it 14-0.

He finished the night with 88 yards on three receptions.

“He had some amazing catches,” Princeton running back Casey Etheridge said. “In my opinion, his first catch was even with a little hold by the defense and he still caught that and brought it in. And then he had that catch (32 yards) along the sidelines which was really amazing. You could see the talent there. He’s a great feeling.”

Etheridge and running mate Ace Christiansen then got in on the fun.

Christiansen scored on a 21-yard run late in the first quarter and followed with a 1-yard score by Etheridge with a 3-yard TD with 5:33 left in the second quarter to put the Tigers up 35-0.

“We challenged our kids tonight needs to be the night,” Pearson said. “And I felt like, we really came out and executed all three phases of the game. We got every single kid that we dressed tonight in the game. That’s awesome to see.

“That’s the team we envisioned we’d have. It was nice to see us put it together with offense, defense and specials team with Gibby (Kaydin Gibson) on that kickoff return (86-yard TD). The grin on that young man when he came to the sidelines was pretty worth while.”

The Trojans got on the board with a 13-yard TD pass from Aden Tillman to Joe Stewart with 9:37 left to play. Freeman added a 36-yard touchdown for the Trojans to cap the scoring with 3:51 left to play.

Etheridge finished the night with 171 yards rushing and 3 TDs on 12 carries with Christiansen adding 86 yards and 2 TDs on 10 attempts. Lott completed 3 of 6 passes, all to LaPorte.

LaPorte said the Tigers have bounced back nicely after the 31-3 Week 5 loss at Monmouth-Roseville with last week’s 41-0 win over Hall and Friday’s win over the Trojans.

“Same thing happened last year. We jad a tough loss last year. Those the things you have to learn from and move on. Doesn’t do any good to dwell on it,” he said.

“They weren’t a bad team. I think our blocking up front was a lot better and we started to do some uptempo and I think that kind of caught them off guard,” Etheridge said. “And defensively, they drove us a a little bit, but I think we ended up standing our ground and did really good. There was a couple of (touchdowns) at the end, but I think our JV team did a really good job and we saw some players that seem to have a really bright future.”

The Tigers will return home next week to face Aledo Mercer County while the Trojans (0-7) will host Erie-Prophetstown (4-3).