ON THE RUN: Princeton High football running back Chase Gallagher, left, takes a handoff from quarterback Quinton de Faria in a game earlier this season. Last Saturday, junior running back Gallagher rushed for 81 yards, including a 37-yard touchdown run, and made two receptions for 23 yards in a losing cause as PHS fell 30-8 to Ewing. The Tigers, now 3-2, play at Northern Burlington on October 1. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Bill Alden
As a nor’easter storm pelted the area with heavy rain on Saturday, the Princeton High football team got off to a dreary start when
it hosted Ewing.
The PHS offense found itself underwater as the Tigers trailed 16-0 the Blue Devils at halftime.
“We didn’t get off the ball very well in the first half,” said PHS head coach Charlie Gallagher. “They actually had a very good game plan, they did a nice job. I don’t know if they threw a pass in the first half. They loaded up, they had three in the backfield. That was smart on their part. They took advantage of it, we had to get some extra d-linemen
in there.”
At halftime, Gallagher reminded his players that they were still very much in the game despite the score.
“We made some nice adjustments,” said Gallagher. “The message was that we were only two scores down and we were getting the ball.”
The Tigers took the second half kickoff and went on a scoring march that culminated with a 37-yard touchdown jaunt by junior running back Chase Gallagher, the coach’s son.
Junior quarterback Quintin de Faria ran in for a two-point conversion as PHS narrowed the gap to 16-8.
“We did exactly what we wanted to do,” said Gallagher. “We got the ball first in the second half and went right down the field. We made a big fourth down conversion Chase did a really nice job. The line did a nice job, the guys were on fire. We started at about the 25-yard line. It was a solid drive. There was a fourth down in the mix, and a third and long somewhere along the line. We made a couple of big conversions.”
But the rally fizzled from there as Ewing scored two unanswered TDs in the fourth quarter to pull away to a 30-8 win.
“My hat is off, Ewing did a nice job,” said Gallagher, whose team moved to 3-2 as its three-game winning streak got snapped. “They controlled the ball, they made a couple of plays. They ran the ball pretty effectively.”
PHS, though, kept fighting to the end. “There was no quit in our team, they scored with 40, 50 seconds left and we went two-minutes and tried to drive down the field,” said Gallagher. “We weren’t taking a knee. Our captains Ajay [Coulianidis], Ben [Kahn], Langsdon [Hinds] and Rio [Giamarese] are doing a great job leading by being out front.”
In addition to Chase Gallagher, who ended up with 81 yards rushing and made two receptions for 23 yards, several other Tigers excelled against Ewing.
“Langsdon had a really good game on defense, he played really well and so did Rio,” said Gallagher. “I think Rio ended up with about eight tackles. Ajay did a nice job and so did Kenny Chmiel and Xavier Felton. Ben had six tackles. They got after them in the second half.”
While the loss to the Blue Devils stung, Gallagher will be urging his players to put that setback in the rear view mirror as the Tigers get ready to play at Northern Burlington (4-1) on October 1.
“We could dwell on all of the things that we didn’t do right, we will learn from those things,” said Gallagher. “We must move forward and not do too much complaining about what took place. It is learn from what we did really quickly because we have a game on Thursday.”
The Tigers will have to be on their game in order to overcome a tough Northern Burlington squad.
“They have a really talented quarterback (Brent Walulak), he is a three-year starter,” said Gallagher. “He runs for as many yards as he passes. They are pretty balanced. They have a really talented receiver (Josiah Ruttley). They have got some speed.”
In Gallagher’s view, PHS has the scheme and talent to compete with the Greyhounds.
“We can’t lose faith in what has gotten us here, our running game has been significantly better over the past several weeks,” said Gallagher. “We put in a new offense this year and it is really starting to click which I am really happy about. I also feel like we are balanced. We have to stiffen up a little bit on the defensive line and with the backers a little bit. But I think we will. Our guys are playing 10 times better, they are just getting better each week.”