Hun, MHS also square football records
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Princeton High football coach Steve Everette felt like he was coaching a different team than the one that had opened the season with a 29-3 loss to Nottingham.
After a disappointing opener, the Little Tigers bounced back with a 39-7 win at Ewing on Friday night.
”The Nottingham game was a wakeup call for us,” said Everette, whose team got three touchdown runs from Josh Gordon to pace the offense vs. Ewing. “We had a bad taste in our mouths after that game. It was a tough loss, but the kids responded well. We worked hard to fix some of the problems we had in the first game. We focused on getting back to the fundamentals like blocking, tackling and getting the running game going.”
Gordon and fellow running back Trevor Barsamian each rushed for more than 100 yards. Gordon ran for 107 yards on nine carries and scored three touchdowns, while Barsamian had 156 yards on 26 carries.
”We started with Trevor early, he’s the hammer,” Everette said. “And then we gave the ball to Josh and he had some nice runs. We like to call him the nail. Some people have referred to them as Thunder and Lightning, we like to call them the Hammer and Nail. When you start off with a 250-pound kid running and pounding the ball, that’s the hammer opening the hole for the nail. Then at the end we were able to finish them off with the hammer again.”
Connor Ryan completed six passes, including one for a touchdown to DeQuan Holman.
”I think we came into the first game a little overconfident and we made some mistakes that helped a team that didn’t need any help,” Everette said. “Nottingham played well and did what they needed to do to win.”
In other action featuring Packet-area teams, Montgomery evened its record at 1-1 with a 41-13 win over North Hunterdon on Friday night. J.T. Tartacoff and Frank Rubino each returned a kickoff for a touchdown to help put some points on the board. D.J. Ruhlman threw a pair of touchdown passes, while Tartacoff also threw a touchdown pass.
West Windsor-Plainsboro South improved to 2-0 with a 49-20 win over Hightstown on Saturday. David Twamley rushed for 237 yards on 20 carries and scored five touchdowns to lead the potent Pirates offense. Connor Farrell completed 12 passes, including six to junior receiver Jack Dennehy, who caught a touchdown pass.
The Hun School evened its record at 1-1 with a 38-13 win over Mercersburg. Donald Coleman rushed for 186 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead the Raiders on offense. Nick Williams rushed for 140 yards, including an 84-yard touchdown run. He also returned a punt for a touchdown.
West Windsor-Plainsboro North fell to 0-2 with a tough 31-28 overtime loss to Hopewell Valley. The Knights rallied to force overtime with less than three minutes left when they drove 60 yards, capped off by a 15-yard touchdown pass from Rob White to Drew Kenavan. White then ran in the two-point conversion to force overtime. White finished the day with 181 yards passing, including three touchdown passes to Kenavan.
Princeton Day School fell to 1-2 with a tough 14-6 loss to Elkton Christian Academy. The Panthers scored first when Aiden Epply-Schmidt scored on a 2-yard run after an option pass from Dennis Cannon to Josh Meekins set up the score.
But the Panthers were done in by turnovers, throwing five interceptions and also losing the ball once on a fumble.
”We had too many turnovers,” PDS coach Rick Mabes said. “The offense still just is not there. I think maybe we overexert on defense and then we have nothing left for offense because we have guys on both sides of the ball. We try to give them a break when we can, but it never seems to work out.”
PDS led, 6-0, when a turnover late in the first half allowed Elkton to score with just 20 seconds left in the half.
”I thought in the first half we controlled the line of scrimmage well,” Mabes said. “We were moving the ball. There are positives in this game. But we know our downfall right now and it is offense. We have to get the offense clicking. If we have our offense clicking, we’re going to be trouble for anybody.”

