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PHS Football Hits on All Cylinders, Topping WW/P-S 20-0 For 1st Win

By Bill Alden

The Princeton High football team was determined to make its Senior Day celebration last Saturday an afternoon to remember.

Coming into their game against visiting WW/P-S, the 0-6 Little Tigers felt that it was their day to have a breakthrough.

Two weeks earlier, PHS had christened its new AstroPlay turf field by battling WW/P-N to a 3-3 standoff midway through the fourth quarter before losing 16-3. On October 17, the Little Tigers held Ewing to a measly 39 yards total offense but ended up dropping a 7-0 decision.

Spearheaded by a defense that featured such key seniors as David Mostoller, Chris Pavacic, and Matt Fischer, PHS broke into the winning column last Saturday with a vengeance as they blanked the Pirates 20-0.

The win prompted a Gatorade shower for head coach Steve Everette and left the players chanting "our house" as their delighted fans streamed onto the field to join them in the euphoric celebration on the sunsplashed afternoon.

The team's seniors, though, had the broadest grins as they turned their last home appearance into the team's first win since beating Hightstown 16 -13 last October 12 and just its second triumph in its last 29 games.

"It feels great getting the first win of the season on Senior Day, it's the last home game and it just feels amazing," said Mostoller, who made several key hits from his safety position and gained 30 yards rushing as the team's top tailback.

"We've been so close the last couple of games. We've been right there, it's been a battle every time. The defense has just been playing amazingly but we just hadn't been able to get the offense to click."

On Saturday, PHS finally had everything in sync. On offense, quarterback Vinny Giacalone threw two touchdown passes in the second quarter, hitting Fischer on an 11-yarder and Pavacic on a 14-yard scoring strike.

The defense forced five fumbles, recovering three of them. In one of the key sequences of the game, it came up with a goal-line stand in the waning moments of the first half to keep the margin at 13-0. In the fourth quarter, it put the game out of reach as Frank Giacalone rumbled 35 yards for a touchdown on an interception return.

A soaked but elated Everette made no effort to hide his emotions. "It feels good to win, it's been awhile," said Everette, whose team posted the program's first shutout since a 26-0 win over McCorristin on October 17, 1998.

"We've been so close the last couple of weeks, it's real nice that we could get a finish here and get a win. The last three weeks our defense has been phenomenal. I don't know if you can play better defense than we've played."

While Everette hailed his stingy defense, he made it clear that the win was the product of a total team effort. "Today was just a day for us," he asserted. "It was just a good day for us to get all the cylinders going. Our QB played phenomenally, throwing a couple of TD passes. Our O-line protected the quarterback. All of the guys up front did a fantastic job."

As Everette took the field Saturday, he had a sense that things were going to turn out well for his squad. "We were calm and quiet, I didn't have butterflies today," recalled Everette, whose club had lost 11 straight coming into last Saturday.

"I didn't know that we were going to win but I was calm. I was ready to go out and coach and the kids were ready to go out and play. It's just a matter of going out and getting it done."

Everette believes the triumph could have long range implications. "This feels good not just for this season but for the teams to come," maintained Everette, whose club plays at Hightstown on October 31. "Right now we don't have a JV team. It's just freshmen but they have won two games. This is definitely a program-building win."

Tasting victory for the first time left Mostoller and his mates hungry for more. "We've got to make sure that we keep the momentum going," said Mostoller. "We have to play well these next few weeks. We're trying to build a program here. We can't make states this year but all these games have been winnable and we have three more."

But no matter what happens the rest of the way, the Little Tigers won't soon forget their day in the sun last Saturday.