Fortner Throws Four TD's, Princeton Holds King City to 65 Yards

Princeton’s football team pitched their third shutout of the year, a 40-0 beatdown of King City, and rolled into Friday’s showdown with Stanberry. It will be a battle of Cinderella teams as Stanberry is surprising people with a 5-0 start and Princeton’s only two losses have been close losses to Worth County and Rock Port.

The Tigers did it through the air as Gage Fortner threw four touchdown passes for the night and didn’t let the rain and the mud bother him. Wyatt Maize continued to have a lights-out performance as a receiver, getting 10 catches for 174 yards. Mitchell Walker had 60 yards on the ground. And Princeton showed the ability to play defense, holding an explosive King City unit to 65 yards. The Tigers held Jax Jundy, whose running nearly brought King City back from the dead in a 55-50 loss to Stanberry the week before, to eight yards in 17 carries. Princeton’s unorthodox blitzing defense was creating problems for King City all night, with blue shirts living in the backfield.

Stanberry has emerged as one of the top scoring teams in eight-man football this year. They scored 55 points or more in each of their first five games behind their explosive backfield of Drew Parman, Pax Schieber, and Max Hilton. Parman’s arm is good enough to keep defenses honest; he completed a long pass against King City to bail out the Bulldogs after the Wildkats had gotten the lead on them late. Princeton has shut three teams out, so something will have to give Friday.

After both teams exchanged punts to start the game, Princeton caught its first break when Kash Holt fell on an errant snap at King City’s 22. A shovel pass to Wyatt Maize went to the 14, and a bubble screen to Holt got him loose and into the end zone thanks to good blocking by the rest of the receiving corps downfield. Mitchell Walker ran in the extra points to make it 8-0 with 9:25 left in the first.

Both teams found it hard to get going in the mud. Wyatt Maize for Princeton and Coltin Potter for King City were getting off booming kicks, splashing it dead in the mud deep in enemy territory. Finally, Princeton tried some razzle-dazzle, handing it off to Mitchell Walker on a double reverse pass play. Kash Holt took a strike from Walker and Princeton overcame a holding penalty, getting a first down on King City’s 28 on a play that was protested by King City’s coach. On third and two at the 20, King City had Walker stopped in the backfield, but he somehow eluded the tackle to get a first down at the 16. Two plays later, Walker again got loose to the seven. He got down to the six, but a measurement found him inches short for a fourth down. There was a mixup on the handoff, Wyatt Maize fumbled it, but Mitchell Walker picked it up and ran it in. King City’s coach protested unsuccessfully, contending that Maize was down. That was a backbreaker for King City and put Princeton up 14-0 with 9:03 left in the second.

King City had a golden opportunity after Luke Roberts picked off a tipped ball to give the Wildkats good field position at the Princeton 18. They took a shot into the end zone unsuccessfully. Jax Jundy picked up one before running into Mitchell Walker and Gavin Tatum. Carter Henrich picked up six to the Princeton 11 to set up fourth and three. But Landon Carlson led his receiver too far on a pass play, and Princeton took over on downs. It only took them one play to take advantage as Wyatt Maize took a bubble screen on the sideline and accelerated past several purple shirts 69 yards to the house with 4:45 left. Mitchell Walker laid out a defender who was trying to tackle him in the backfield and then ran it in for the extra points to make it 22-0.

Andrew Fordyce got a sack to force another three and out for King City. A short kick put Princeton in good field position at the 40. Fortner was sacked on the first play back to the 38 but then found Judd Henke for a 42-yard score with 2:14 left to leave Princeton ahead 28-0 at the half.

The next scoring chance for Princeton came late in the third after Andrew Fordyce forced a fumble that King City had to cover deep in their own territory. King City had to punt, and Princeton had good field position at its own 37. A sweep from Wyatt Maize and a shovel from Fortner to Maize got the ball to the 23. On fourth and seven at King City’s 20, Princeton used both Maize and Walker as decoys and set up a perfect screen to Kash Holt over the middle. He took it to the house with 3:26 left in the third to make it 34-0.

King City finally found daylight during its next series as Caiden Wainscott caught a 14-yard pass and nearly broke one before Bowe Ussery made a touchdown-saving tackle. Coltin Potter caught an eight-yard pass at the 40 for another first down. They got a holding penalty, but a pass interference call and an offsides call gave King City a golden opportunity with a first down at Princeton’s 27. But a fumble put them behind the sticks, and Randy Wilson dropped Jundy at the 29. A long pass went incomplete to set up fourth down. Carlson was under heavy pressure from two blue shirts but nearly got it away to a King City player who was uncovered, but it was incomplete and Princeton had held.

With Mitchell Walker at the quarterback slot, he completed a shovel pass to Wyatt Maize, who took it 29 yards and dragged a King City defender 10-15 yards with him to King City’s 19. Walker picked up 12 to the seven. A shovel pass to Dynten Hale picked up five to the two, and Walker took it the rest of the way with 7:55 left in the game. The teams turned it over to their reserves for the remainder of the game.

Gage Fortner completed 12 of 20 passes for 211 yards and four scores. Mitchell Walker completed three passes in three attempts for 23. Walker had 14 carries for 60 yards. Gage Fortner had 5 carries for 11 yards, and Brayden Girdner 2 carries for 16 yards.

Wyatt Maize had 10 catches for 143 yards. Kash Holt had 3 catches for 50 yards, Judd Henke 1 catch for 42 yards, and Dynten Hale 1 catch for 5 yards.

Kash Holt had 6 tackles, Wyatt Maize, Ryker Fortner, Bowe Ussery, and Gavin Tatum had 5. Andrew Fordyce and Max Walkup had 4. Wyatt Maize, Kolton Schurke, and Randy Wilson had 3. Reed Mitchell, Dynten Hale, Brayden Girdner, Devin Alton, and Gavin Stockman had 2. Scotty Briggs had 1.

Princeton had 10½ tackles for loss. Kash Holt had 3, Andrew Fordyce 1.5, Mitchell Walker, Ryker Fortner, Gavin Tatum, Randy Wilson, and Devin Alton had 1, and Max Walkup and Gavin Stockman had .5. Andrew Fordyce had 1.5 sacks and Kash Holt .5.