BLOCK PARTY: Princeton High senior fullback Colin ­Buckley makes a block last Thursday in helping the PHS football team roll to a 40-20 win over previously undefeated Lawrence. Buckley also rushed for 38 yards and two touchdowns in the victory, which improved the Little Tigers to 4-0. PHS will look to keep on the winning track when it hosts Steinert on October 11. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

As the fullback for the Princeton High football team, Colin Buckley knows that his main job is to open holes for star tailback Rory Helstrom.

“I do a lot of the kick out blocks for Rory,” said Buckley. “You know if you lay the block, he is going to break it. If the block is there, he is gone.”

Last Thursday against visiting Lawrence, the rugged 6’1, 200-pound Buckley performed that role with aplomb, blasting through the Cardinal defense as Helstrom rushed for 134 yards and a touchdown and PHS pulled away to a 40-20 victory in improving to 4-0.

But as PHS overpowered previously undefeated Lawrence, Buckley got to take advantage of some good blocking himself, rushing for 38 yards and two TDs.

“I just got big holes, I got the ball and fell on the goal line,” said Buckley. “Our offensive line took these guys out. Our O-line was much better, they played hard.”

Buckley pointed to the offensive line, which features junior Noah Ziegler, junior Matt Toplin, sophomore Ethan Guerra, senior Brian Lemus-Camey, senior Tommy Moore, and senior Omar Moustafa, as the unsung heroes of PHS’s remarkable reversal of fortune which has seen the Little Tigers go from 0-10 in 2013 to their undefeated start this fall.

“They were all together last year,” said Buckley. “As younger guys, we all kind of got beat up as a team but they came back and they are beasts now.”

Although PHS found itself trailing Lawrence 20-19 early in the fourth quarter, Buckley had no doubt that the Little Tigers would come back.

“I knew we were going to win,” said Buckley. “We have been down before in other games and we knew that we just had to do what we are trained to do and we were going to win. We have good coaches and we have 100 percent faith.”

PHS head coach Charlie Gallagher never lost faith in his players even as the team dealt with a 5-day turnaround from its draining 36-29 win over Hightstown  on September 27 and then found itself trailing Lawrence early in the fourth quarter.

“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,” said Gallagher.

“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, they are opening holes. Danny Rodriguez, our line coach, had mentioned that this game is going to be won in the trenches. I think we won the game in the trenches, no doubt.”

Buckley’s work on the trenches was a big positive for the Little Tigers. “Colin is doing everything that we ask him to do,” said Gallagher.

“He wants to do it. He’s battling out there, he’s doing a great job for us. I was glad that he could get into the end zone. It is great stuff.”

In pulling away from Lawrence, PHS showed some great balance as Sam Smallzman rushed for 66 yards while Joe Hawes and Brian Tien each caught TD passes and quarterback David Beamer passed for 159 yards.

“The way the offense is set up it is to spread the ball around,” said Gallagher.

“We don’t have any one big threat. We have a lot of guys. We have a lot of talented football players on this team so we are excited.”

In Gallagher’s view, his team’s reversal of fortune is the product of learning lessons from the lumps the program endured last fall.

“It is great to be 4-0,” said Gallagher. “I think it is the experience of the guys. I may call something from last year. They will say we haven’t run that but I know that it will click with those guys. We don’t have to put so much legwork into everything. These guys are
picking it up fast.”

With PHS hosting Steinert on October 11, Gallagher knows that his players have to keep working hard to keep on the winning track.

“Steinert is still a good football team, they are a good ball squad,” said Gallagher.

“You look at 2009, we were 4-0 at the time and we played Steinert and we lost. There is deja vu so we need to bring it next Saturday.”

In Buckley’s view, the Little Tigers aren’t about to stop bringing it. “We just worked hard in the offseason,” said Buckley. “We got the whole team back. We knew how bad it feels to lose every game so we certainly don’t like that. We can’t get too cocky.”