'I've really enjoyed coaching them:' Princeton goes 10-0 for first time in 32 years
SHARONVILLE, Ohio - Princeton's football team never felt so close to its field's namesake than when the boys repeated milestones Friday that coach Pat Mancuso's Vikings reached in 1991 with an undefeated season and 1993 with an outright conference championship.
After a somewhat slow start on offense, Princeton overwhelmed Sycamore on both sides of the ball, rolling to a 42-7 win Friday night.
Princeton finished 10-0 in the regular season and won the outright championship of the Greater Miami Conference for the first time since 1993 when the legendary Mancuso was head coach. It was the Vikings’ first championship since 2003 when they shared it with Colerain. The 10-0 start is the Vikings’ first since 1991.
“I’m really proud of these guys,” said Princeton head coach Andre Parker. “From day one in the offseason, the first workout in December, they were together. And I’ve really enjoyed coaching them. I can’t say that enough. The community, the school, the administration, everybody has been awesome.”
More: Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky Week 10 high school football scores
The Vikings players weren’t around during Mancuso’s reign, but they enjoy being 10-0.
“The coolest thing about it is when you talk to these kids, they weren’t even born,” Parker said. “The thing we wanted to do was help them understand the history of Princeton and where they came from, then do our part.”
Unofficially, Princeton locked up the No. 2 seed in Division I, Region 8 and is guaranteed home games in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Sycamore, ninth in the region heading into the weekend, is a lock to play on the road next week in the first round.
“It feels great. All the work we put in. I’ve never been 10-0 so it feels really great,” said senior Jordan Houston, who said the team’s biggest strength is its work ethic. “We face adversity, play together, have fun.”
After the offense sputtered in its first two drives, mainly due to three bad snaps resulting in big losses, the Vikings scored on three straight drives and scored a defensive touchdown on a fumble return by P.J. Nelson, Princeton’s leading tackler for the season.
Princeton outgained Sycamore 291-182, rushing for 202 yards.
Three keys to Princeton’s win
Big play running attack: Princeton rushed for 147 yards in the first half, with three different players getting runs of 30 yards or more. Tino Brown-Freeman set the tone with a 32-yard touchdown run in the final minute of the first quarter. Quarterback Deangelo Birch had a 30-yard run on Princeton’s second TD drive, and Brown-Freeman had a 30-yard run to help Princeton lead 28-0.
Brown-Freeman had four carries for 79 yards in the first half.
“We have some seniors up front,” Parker said. “It’s their night. We can be explosive when we execute, and we executed tonight. We were able to get the ball in our playmakers’ hands.”
Princeton’s rushing defense: Facing the GMC’s leading rusher, Sycamore senior Eugene Harney, the Vikings limited him to 27 yards on 12 carries in the first half, and 72 yards on 25 carries, less than three yards per attempt for the game.
Harney came in with 1,077 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns.
“He’s a great player,” Parker said. “They’ve got a great staff, a good team. We always respect them so we knew it would be a challenge. He’s a tough, tough kid. We wanted to come out and play Viking football, and we were able to do that tonight.”
Play-making defense: Princeton forced two key fumbles in the first half. With the game scoreless, sophomore Andre Parker, Jr. recovered at the Princeton 27 with 2:47 left in the first quarter to stop Sycamore’s most promising drive of the first quarter. Then, Nelson got the fumble return for a TD later in the quarter.
To end the half, Sycamore started at its own 6 and drove to the Princeton 7, with the big play of a 24-yard pass from Seth Truter to Gio Garnett. But Parker and senior Donevin Favors sacked Truter on consecutive plays to stop the threat.
Princeton's defense was dominant all season, allowing only 102 points, 10.2 per game. Now it’s on to the playoffs.
“We got to clean some things up,” Parker said. “We got to get a couple of guys healthy. We just have to get better and we’ve been doing that. At this point of the year, every team you play is going to be really good, so we can’t beat ourselves.”
Turning point of the game
P.J. Nelson’s fumble return for a score gave Princeton a 14-0 lead with 15 seconds left in the first quarter and deflated the Aviators’ hopes for all practical purposes.
“That was huge,” Parker said. “They had to play our game (after that). They want long drives, and we kind of took them out of that.”
Play of the game
Brown-Freeman’s 32-yard TD run wasn’t flashy, but he took the handoff, ran up the left side, and saw nothing but open real estate.
Three stars
Tino Brown-Freeman, Princeton: He set the pace for Princeton’s rushing attack with a touchdown run and 79 yards in the first half.
P.J. Nelson, Princeton: The Vikings’ defensive leader for the year had six tackles, 1.5 for loss, one sack and forced two fumbles, recovering one and running it in for a touchdown.
Daelyn Jarman, Princeton: He had two touchdown catches for the Vikings.
What’s next
Princeton locked up the No. 2 seed and will host the No. 15 seed in next week’s first-round game in Division I, Region 4, which as of 11 p.m. Friday was projected as GMC foe Middletown.
Sycamore will play on the road, seed and opponent to be determined. Stay tuned to Cincinnati.com for unofficial pairings.
Princeton 42, Sycamore 7
Sycamore 0 0 7 0-7
Princeton 14 14 7 7-42
P – Brown-Freeman 32 run (Evans kick)
P – Nelson 16 fumble return (Evans kick)
P – Hambrick 14 run (Evans kick)
P – Jarman 11 pass from Birch (Evans kick)
S – Harney 2 run (Schnelle kick)
P – Hunter 45 run (Evans kick)
P – Jarman 25 pass from James (Evans kick)
Records: P 10-0 (9-0 GMC); S 5-5 (5-4).
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Princeton goes 10-0 for first time in 32 years with 42-7 win.
