Hurricane Football Team: No. 11 Tigers travel to face No. 5 Redskins

Oct. 7—PRINCETON — After spending a literal 'hurricane week' recuperating for the second half of its season with an open date, the Princeton football team finds itself bracing to confront a Hurricane of an altogether different sort.

It's in Putnam County and it's pronounced 'Hurra-kin.'

The Redskins (4-1) await the Tigers (3-1) in a key Class AAA matchup on Friday night. Princeton and Hurricane are ranked No. 11 and No. 5 in this week's WVSSAC Class AAA power rankings, respectively.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

While the game is unquestionably a big deal, it is the first of a series of big deals facing the Tigers from here to the end of the regular season.

"The schedule doesn't get any easier. It's one big team after another on down the stretch," said Princeton head coach Chris Pedigo, whose squad won three straight prior to a 28-27 loss at Lord Botetourt that preceded the open date.

"The next five weeks, we're going to play more teams that are in the Top 10 and three of those are probably in the Top 5," he said.

The upcoming Class AAA gauntlet includes Woodrow Wilson, Bridgeport, Greenbrier East and Parkersburg South.

"I think this year's schedule is the most challenging one we've had up to date. If we can win these next few games, we're going to put ourselves in really good position. We'll see what happens," he said.

This will be Princeton's first time crossing paths with Hurricane since 2014, when the Tigers were still MSAC members. The two programs have not met since Pedigo took over the head coaching post.

Hurricane head coach Donnie Mays, who took over at Hurricane this year, coached against Pedigo's Tigers while head coach at South Charleston during the surreal 2020 COVID season.

"We played them in what ended up being the [Class AAA] state championship game ... they beat us and ended up being crowned the champions because nobody else could play," Pedigo recalled.

Some prior knowledge of Mays' previous coaching tendencies doesn't hurt, but what's going on with the Redskins today is by no means a carbon copy of what Princeton encountered in 2020.

"He's a little bit different. They're still in spread ... they're very uptempo. They're going to try to play fast. They still try to do a lot of RPO stuff that they did when they had Trey Dunn at South Charleston the last few years," Pedigo said.

Former Black Eagles defensive star Mondrell Dean followed his head coach to Hurricane to wrap up his high school playing career this year. He is one of a number of extremely talented players Mays has to work with this season.

"He's a special talent. They've got a running back who transferred in from Ohio [Jeremiah Riffle}and he's also a special talent. They've got some really good wide receivers. They play fast offensively and put up a lot of points," Pedigo said.

"They play as well defensively as anyone we've played. They're fundamentally sound and are going to give you a lot of looks. A lot of d-line movement. They'll take the Dean kid and play him at linebacker and move him to defensive end. Against Spring Valley he played defensive end, defensive tackle and linebacker. They move him around to a lot of different places," Pedigo said.

The 31-29 loss to Spring Valley is Hurricane's lone defeat thus far this season. The Redskins have beaten Winfield (48-21), Capital (48-0), George Washington (59-78) and, most recently, St. Albans (50-0).

Hurricane sophomore quarterback Noah Vellaithambi has passed for 878 yards and eight touchdowns thus far in his first starting season as a varsity player.

Sophomore receiver Tyshawn Dues has 14 catches for 296 yards and four touchdowns. Heath Montgomery and Bryson Murrell are also significant contributors on the routes.

Princeton's offense is led by four-year starting quarterback Grant Cochran, who is already fated to graduate as the most-prolific passer in program history. This season he's completed 57-of-88 attempts for 830 yards and 10 touchdowns. He's given up four interceptions this year.

Dominick Colllins paces the receivers with 22 catches for 402 yards and seven touchdowns. He is also a big play threat on special teams, his most recent kicking game coup having been his scoring kickoff return versus Lord Botetourt. He's got 683 all-purpose yards and nine touchdowns in total.

Receivers Brad Mossor (14-172, 1 TD) and Carter Meachum (10-104) and running backs Marquel Lowe (35-231, 3 TDs) and Brodee Rice (24-130, 2 TDs) are also key skill contributors on offense.

"I think we are what we are. We know what we feel like we can do, although there's always some things that we can improve upon," Pedigo said.

"You're not going to see much different from what we've been doing the last few years. It's the same approach every week. It seems like every week, if you take one piece away what we do opens up things for other players," he said.

Khamrin Proffitt (44 tackles, 6 TFLs) and Rice (40 tackles, 2 TFLs) pace the Princeton defensive unit.

One of the things that facilitates Hurricane's hurry-up offense is a deep roster that allows Mays to partially platoon significant portions of his offensive and defensive units. The Tigers are not as deep, and staying healthy will remain a big concern for Princeton this game and in all those that follow.

"We're not really deep. We play a lot of guys two ways. We've really focused on that the last two weeks. Making sure that our conditioning was right.

"I think we're going into this week as healthy as we've been all year. Hopes are that we can maintain that through the next five weeks," Pedigo said.

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