Bulldogs run rampant over Eagles

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on November 8, 2014 11:27 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Somebody forgot to lock the Dawg Pound on Friday evening.

Princeton ran loose all night.

The No. 4-ranked Bulldogs, behind Shrine Bowl pick Johnny Frasier, knocked Rosewood from its nest, 52-12, in the Carolina 1-A Conference regular-season finale at Branch Pope Field.

Frasier rambled for 272 yards and four touchdowns for Princeton, which extended its win streak to three games over Rosewood for the first time since the late 1970s when then-school rushing record-holder Mike Atkinson flourished in Harvey Brooks' single-wing offense.

"You've got to give a lot of credit to Princeton, they're a really good football team on both sides of the ball," Rosewood head coach Robert Britt said. "They're aggressive, they're big, they're strong, they're quick. They've got some really good players.

"They gave us some trouble tonight."

Especially the defense.

The Bulldogs' unit forced six turnovers on downs, recorded eight tackles for loss, recovered two fumbles and picked off a pass.

The turning point occurred late in the opening quarter. Down 14-6 and facing a fourth down inside its own 1-yard line, Britt elected to have his team snap the punt out of the end zone.

Three plays later, Princeton cashed in a 23-yard touchdown run by Adrian Whack. The deficit doubled from eight to 16 points within a 72-second span.

It was the Dogs' second fourth-down stop.

"That's one thing we pride ourselves on when our backs are against the wall," said PHS senior linebacker Cody Garner, who posted a game-high 18 tackles.

"We always step up no matter who the opponent is. We seem to pull something up from inside of us and get intense."

Frasier's 30-yard TD gallop and Mike Wooten's 75-yard scoring strike to Cam Jackson pushed the advantage to 36-6 by halftime. Frasier had 237 yards at the break -- one more yard than Rosewood's total offensive output for the game.

Princeton's defense posted four more fourth-down stops, including another at the 1-yard line late in the third period.

"The execution wasn't there, we didn't finish some drives like we've done the past seven weeks," said Britt, whose team scored its lone touchdown on Cam Helt's 24-yard TD run barely three minutes into the game.

"I think we got the ball inside the 20 three times and we didn't score, but ended up scoring on the next play on defense. We didn't play as well as we could have."

Brett Jones' fumble recovery in the end zone pulled the Eagles to within 44-12. Wooten capped the scoring with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Jackson.

Wooten finished 4 of 6 for 115 yards.

Princeton won 10 games for the first time since 2009 and just the third time overall since 1981.

"Rosewood had their shots and was very close on connecting on the big plays, too," Bulldogs coach Derrick Minor said. "It was a good battle tonight."