By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Princeton High School football team found itself in this same position.
Just as they have done this year, in 2009 the Little Tigers opened the season with four straight wins. Just like 2009, Princeton will play its fifth game against Steinert.
”Steinert is still a good football team,” said Charlie Gallagher, whose team used a big fourth quarter to beat Lawrence, 40-20, last Thursday to improve to 4-0. “They are a good ball squad. You look at 2009, we were 4-0 at the time and we played Steinert and we lost. So we need to bring it next Saturday.”
Princeton certainly brought it in the fourth quarter against Lawrence. Trailing, 20-19, Rory Helstrom and Colin Buckley scored on touchdown runs and David Beamer connected with Brian Tien on a 20-yard touchdown pass and the Little Tigers were on their way to a 4-0 start.
”We were resilient in two facets,” Gallagher said. “We were really banged up and I knew the guys were going to persevere and give it everything they have got because that is what they have been doing all year. We just didn’t know.
”And then you could see in the beginning of the game that there were no ill effects, they were ready to play the game. Then to go down, you say to yourself, maybe we hit a wall. But on our next drive Rory Helstrom comes to work and makes a great play. The O-line is doing a great job. I think we won the game in the trenches, no doubt.”
Buckley had scored the Little Tigers’ first touchdown and Sam Smallzman added a touchdown when he returned a fumble for a score. A Beamer-to-Joe Hawes touchdown pass had given Princeton a 19-7 lead before Lawrence rallied to take a 20-19 lead.
While Princeton improved to 4-0, Montgomery is now 3-1 after a 35-6 win over Ridge. Chris Chugunov threw for 365 yards and four touchdowns to lead the way for the Cougars. Mitch Chugunov caught two of the touchdown passes in the win.
West Windsor-Plainsboro North fell to 2-2 with a 32-12 loss at Trenton. WW-P South slipped to 0-4 with a 35-0 loss at Burlington Township.
