Mercer defeats Princeton 34-7 at home with the help of four interceptions, punt return TD

After a first half featuring no offensive touchdowns despite some stellar plays by its defense and special teams, Mercer and its offense found their footing in the third and fourth quarters to roll past Princeton and move to 6-0 with a 34-7 win at Five Star Stadium Saturday afternoon.

The game looked like it might be a closer one for the Bears early when backup quarterback Hess Horn struggled to move the ball, but an electric punt return touchdown by Brayden Smith and multiple turnovers by the defense gave the offense time to develop.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” head coach Mike Jacobs said after the game. “Princeton’s a very well-coached team, and we got a good win over them… Brayden Smith continues to be a weapon.”

Those defensive plays included a fumble recovery touchdown and, for the second game in a row, four interceptions for the Bears. T.J. Moore snagged three of the picks all by himself, a school record.

“He’s been huge for us, and again, to watch our seniors play their best football at critical times in these games, those were three huge plays for us,” Jacobs said of Moore. “He continues to be a leader on and off the field, I’m really proud of his growth personally. I’m really happy for T.J. right now.”

Even with the big plays on the other side of the ball, though, the lack of offense caused some concern.

“I’ll be honest, I got after the offense at halftime. We were 0-for-6 (on third down), we had a couple turnovers. I didn’t think we were as consistent as we needed to be up front,” Jacobs said. “I thought what you saw in the second half was we looked a lot better up front on the offensive line… to their credit, no one sulked, no one pouted. They came out and accepted the challenge and played better, and you saw us move the ball in the second half.”

That shift came after Jacobs subbed in Mercer’s third-string quarterback, a towering freshman by the name of Whitt Newbauer. The 6-foot-6-inch signal caller ended up 7 of 11 with 125 yards through the air once he came in during the third quarter. The freshman also recorded his first Mercer touchdown, a rushing score from a yard out.

“Pretty pleased with how the young freshman came in and executed for us later in the game,” Jacobs said.

D.J. Smith, the Bears’ typical starter and a focal point of the offense thanks to his dual-threat abilities, injured his ankle two weeks ago against Wofford and was unavailable Saturday for the non-conference tilt.

The rushing attack for the Bears was potent regardless. Dwayne McGee led the way for Mercer’s typically stellar running back room, finishing with 118 yards and a score on 19 carries. If McGee hadn’t mentioned he had a stomach bug earlier that week in the postgame press conference, the average onlooker certainly would not have guessed it.

“A couple times I was kinda down on myself, like, “Okay, my o-line is doing really good, I ain’t making no plays,” McGee said. “This week, had the stomach bug, just put my head down and told myself, ‘You gonna be alright, just keep chuggin…’ real dogs make good plays. It showed today, especially with DJ out, we know we had to just keep running the ball.”

In the end, Mercer turned what could have been a concerning, closer victory into a statement on the team’s depth. The victory told Jacobs a lot.

“We never want to get to the point where we get upset about a win,” Jacobs said. “That’s the thing with our conference is, we cannot have some of the lapses… just the things that are negative for what we’re trying to do. We’re still trying to play that elusive clean game… again, I’m proud of our kids and how they responded when challenged.” 

Slow start, explosive finish

Princeton had an opportunity to shock the Bears crowd on the first play from scrimmage when the Tigers had an open man deep, but the receiver dropped a good pass from quarterback Blaine Hipa to give Mercer a break.

The Bears’ first drive looked smooth, with McGee and Micah Bell gaining chunks on the ground before some mid-range passes put Mercer inside Princeton’s 10-yardline, but the Bears had to settle for a field goal after some empty run plays and a batted-down pass attempt.

With a 3-0 lead, Mercer shut the Tigers’ offense down again to get the ball back, though the Bears couldn’t get anything going and had to punt themselves.

After another stalled Princeton drive, Smith gave Mercer the explosive play it needed when he took a 50-yard punt return to the house and made it 10-0. The Tigers tried to respond and completed a nice 31-yard pass to break into Mercer territory for the first time all afternoon, but the Bears forced a fumble to extinguish the drive in a hurry.

After another Mercer punt, the Bears’ defense came up big again when Dowling forced the fumble for another touchdown to make it 17-0. That score held through the end of the opening quarter.

Mercer’s offense continued to struggle throughout the first half, as Horn could not complete passes and committed two turnovers. The latter of those, a wobbly interception thrown on the run, gave Princeton its best field position of the day and set the table for a Tigers touchdown on the ground that made it 17-7 heading into the locker room.

Luckily the defense held up its end of the bargain. Princeton managed just 69 yards of total offense — 24 on the ground, 45 in the air — across the first quarter, with much of that offense coming on the lone scoring drive. 

Jacobs’ halftime speech proved to make a difference when the Bears returned to the field. After one empty drive with Horn under center, Mercer put Newbauer in and picked up some pace on offense and kicked a field goal to make it 20-7 with about five minutes left in the third quarter.

Princeton’s offense found a bit more success as well — running back Ethan Clark had the best ground game of any player against the Bears this season, ending up with 117 rushing yards — but failed to take care of the ball once it broke into Mercer territory. 

The Bears put together another consistent drive late in the third, then polished off the drive by getting McGee into the end zone from a yard out. The Tigers couldn’t muster any momentum from that point on, sputtering for the remainder of the quarter.

Mercer’s final drive put quite the exclamation point on the win, as receiver Parker Wroble made an unbelievable one-handed catch at the 1-yardline to set up a Newbauer rushing score that sealed the 34-7 win.