Strike like lightning
Bluefield (35) vs. Princeton (21)
Written: Sep 05, 2015
  Rivalry takes to Hunnicutt Stadium
PRINCETON -- The atmosphere was electric. Literally.
The Princeton Tigers hosted intra-county rival Bluefield on Friday night at Anne S. Hunnicutt Stadium and took a 14-0 lead before lightning struck, and game was delayed.
The stands were nearly packed and so were the parking lots as kickoff neared, with the sun peaking out from thunderclouds near the horizon. Before the first half ended, Mother Nature intervened in the form of lightning some distance north of the stadium.
The teams were ordered to their locker rooms for a 30-minute lightning delay with 5:36 left in the first half. At that point, Princeton held a 14-0 lead.
The Tigers' initial possession ended with a lost fumble by Tyler Whitt as he stretched his arm out to try to get a first down on a pass completion.
The Beavers took over and marched 57 yards to the Princeton 1, but could not break into the end zone. The Tigers' Mohammed Abdelwahed cut down Bluefield's Carlos Reed on a fourth-and-goal situation at the 2 yard line.
Princeton took advantage of three Bluefield penalties, and at one point converted first downs on three consecutive plays, to travel 98 yards in nine plays for the game's first score.
Senior Kevin Phillips took the ball around the left corner and sprinted 23 yards to the end zone. With Jacob Whittington's point-after kick, the Tigers jumped on top 7-0.
The Princeton defense stiffened as the second quarter got underway, and Bluefield was forced to punt. A fair catch left Princeton with 90 yards to travel.
It only took four plays.
Senior Jordan Jones took a play that was going nowhere, threw off a potential Bluefield tackler, cut out to the right sideline and outraced a lone pursuer 69 yards to the end zone.
At that point, Jones already had 89 rushing yards, on five touches.
Halftime: Princeton leads 21-7. A storm of scoring punctuated the rest of the first half after the hour-plus lightning delay. Princeton negotiated 48 yards in four plays, with a pass from Christian Shafer to Phillips accounting for the final 34 yards and a 21-0 lead.
The Beavers turned to Carlos Reed and Mookie Collier for big runs, spanning 64 yards in three plays to get their first score. Reed got a tough 11 yards up the middle, with blockers pushing forward until the ball broke the plane of the goal line. With Zac Springman's kick, the score was 21-7 with 2:50 left in the half.
Bluefield senior Ashton Shaw sacked Shafer with 10.3 seconds left to negate Princeton's effort to score once again before halftime.
The Bluefield Beavers scored 21 unanswered points and tied the contest 21-21 with 3:51 remaining in the third quarter. Reed took a punt 90 yards for a TD and Collier slips around the corner of the Tigers defense and rolls 21 yards to set up the tying extra point.
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