Nobody associated with the Hamilton program was hanging their head about losing to undefeated Princeton, the GMC champion and No. 3 team in the final Associated Press Division I state poll.
The Big Blue set a program record with eight GMC wins and finished with the most overall wins in at least two decades. Athletic Director Missy Harvey suspects it might be the most wins since the 1997 team went 10-0. Hamilton also earned the first post-season win in program history last week with a 13-10 squeaker over Sycamore.
The Big Blue also had the lowest losing margin against Princeton of any GMC team during the regular season, losing by just 22-16 in Week Five.
“I’m not holding my head down about anything,” said second-year Hamilton coach Arvie Crouch, a Big Blue product.
“I had a blast — an absolute blast,” Crouch told his team in the post-game huddle. “You did things right.”
Senior Cournell Bennett-McCoy scored both of seventh-seeded Hamilton’s touchdowns, the second after moving from running back to quarterback when junior Antonio Mathis Jr. left the game in the second quarter with what Crouch described as a hip flexor injury. Bennett-McCoy finished the game with 98 yards on 21 carries.
“He does it all,” Crouch said.
Losing Mathis forced Hamilton to abandon its game plan, but the Big Blue still was able to mostly keep the ball out of the hands of the speedy, prolific Princeton offense. Hamilton actually outgained Princeton in total offense, 252-213, while running 13 more plays and possessing the ball for almost 10 more minutes than the Vikings, but the Vikings capitalized on several possessions that started with advantageous field possession. Their first four scoring drives covered, in order, 50, seven, 34, and 28 yards before the clinching drive that went 73 yards in two plays.
The first half included the two teams trading fake fourth-down punts on consecutive possessions and Hamilton junior R.J. Shephard gaining 24 yards as the holder on a fake field-goal on the final play of the first half, a play that included a Big Blue holding penalty that Princeton declined as Shephard was tackled three yards short of the end zone.
Neither fake punt led to a first down.
“I made a bad call on the fake punt,” Crouch admitted.
The Big Blue, running a full-house, three running back, T-formation offense, took a 7-0 lead with a 13-play, 65-yard drive that consumed 7:29 and was capped by Bennet-McCoy’s one-yard run with 4:31 left in the first quarter.
Princeton tied the game with 5:39 left in the first half on Hambrick’s three-yard run, the culmination of a 10-play, 50-yard drive following Hamilton’s failed fake punt.
Vikings junior P.J. Nelson blocked a Big Blue punt on the next possession and classmate Khy’lek Jarrett recovered it at the Hamilton seven-yard line, setting up junior Teryntino Brown-Freeman’s go-ahead touchdown on the next play with 3:18 left before halftime.
Princeton, the No. 2 seed, is scheduled to meet third-seeded Lakota West in a regional semifinal on Friday at a site to be announced on Sunday. The Firebirds advanced with a 24-14 win over sixth-seeded Elder on Friday.
Princeton beat 10-2 Lakota West, 18-3, in Week 2.
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