Little Tigers have long shot at playoffs
By: Bob Nuse
Steve Everett knows it’s a long shot. But at this point he’s happy to have any shot at all.
When the Princeton High football team opened the season with four straight losses, it didn’t look like the Little Tigers would get to play a game with playoff implications this year. But after defeating West Windsor-Plainsboro North, 21-3, Saturday, Princeton will do just that when it plays at WW-P South this week.
"We have a very outside shot at the playoffs," said Everette, whose team overcame a 3-0 halftime deficit to win its third straight game. "If we can go and win, that’s a whole lot of power points for us. We’re shooting for the moon. They’ve gotten us the last couple years, but a few years ago if you had said Princeton was going to be in a position to get into the playoffs at the cutoff if they win, people would have laughed at you. But it’s part of our focus and we drive for it."
Last year Princeton had a shot at the playoffs, but a loss to WW-P South derailed those hopes. This year, the Little Tigers will need to pull an upset against the 5-2 Pirates to get where they hope to be.
"If we don’t give an even better effort, South is just going to punch us in the mouth," said Everette, whose team scored one touchdown on an interception return and another that was set up by a blocked punt. "We know they are big and physical up front and they’re very good. And arguably, they have the best player in the conference at the tailback spot. No. 9 (Ryan Lupo) is a dynamite player and we’re going to have to have a special effort if we want to win."
Princeton had to grind out its win on Saturday over North. The Knights led, 3-0, when Princeton finally broke into the scoring column when Alexz Henriques took in a 1-yard run for score to cap off a 38-yard drive late in the third quarter.
The Little Tigers extended their lead when Jon Mitko intercepted a pass and ran it back 14 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-3. When North’s next drive stalled, Matt Abrams blocked a punt and set up a second touchdown run by Henriques.
"It’s been an entire team effort," Everette said. "Our special teams came to play today. We blocked two more punts. I think that’s about the fourth or fifth week in a row that we have done that. I think all the kids are feeding off one another. We’re playing well right now."
The defense yielded a field goal early, but then came up with three turnovers and held the Knights without a point the rest of the way.
"We were working hard," Princeton linebacker Joey Cifelli said. "We knew they would come to play, so we just had to do the best we could do. Special teams are a big thing for our team. If you work hard on special teams you can win games. And our defensive line played a great game today. We’re going to work extra hard this week."
The Princeton defense has managed to get better each week, with this week’s effort proving to be its best.
"If you look at the early part of the season, the scores didn’t really show how well we were playing," Everette said of his defense. "We get a lot of turnovers. Our linebacking core is solid. We’ve played strong defense all year. And the last couple of weeks our offense has gotten going and we’ve been able to show people what we can do."
Cifelli, a junior, is joined by two other juniors Doug Borchert and Luke LaVoie, as well as senior Elliott Schreffler in forming a solid linebacker quartet.
"Our kids are giving a good effort," Everette said. "We’re not babies anymore. We’re seven games into the season now and the kids know what they’re supposed to do. We’re putting ourselves into good position.
"I’m lucky. Three of our four linebackers are juniors, so they’re going to be back. Our senior linebacker, Elliott Schreffler, we charted him in the off-season and in two years he was out of position maybe twice. He’s not the biggest or strongest kid, but he leads our linebacking core. He makes the calls and the checks. And then the other three just run around and make plays. Luke LaVoie has shown he’s a varsity player the last couple of weeks and we’re hoping he just keeps getting better. Borchert and Joey played as sophomores last year."
Henriques finished with 33 carries for 110 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns to pace the offense. Mitko completed six of his 16 passes for 58 yards.
WW-P North started the game well, getting a field goal out of an opening drive. But from that point, the Knights struggled to generate enough offense.
"We had some opportunities in the first half, but when the opportunity was there we just didn’t seize it," said North coach Art Stubbs, whose team fell to 2-5 with the loss. "Our defense played the best it has all year. We were real proud of that. We were just getting the ball pinned deep on offense. And then in the second half we had the blocked punt and the two interceptions and we can’t afford to make those kinds of mistakes."
The loss was the fourth straight for the Knights, who have their hands full with a game against Lawrence on Saturday.
"We’re fighting and we won’t give up," Stubbs said. "We’re playing hard. We’re not going to fold. We’ll stay composed and come back out. We have Lawrence next and we’ll be ready."
Darren Parrot led the North offense with 82 yards on 24 carries. Jack Mulhull’s 27-yard field goal accounted for the Knights’ scoring.

