It wasn't an ideal situation for Princeton football coach Andre Parker in his season debut Thursday. On Monday he found out his starting quarterback would be standing on the sidelines with him.
Princeton took the field vs. Anderson minus last year's Greater Miami Conference passing leader, Mekhi Lynn, who has been sporting a soft cast on the thumb of his throwing hand.Â
Enter 5-foot-8-inch, 160-pound sophomore T.J. Engleman. In his first varsity start, he was an elusive spinning wheel while running and able to loft the ball up to his lanky receivers.
Engleman finished with 245 yards rushing and two touchdowns while throwing for 297 yards and four scores as the Vikings outscored Anderson 58-45. The teams accounted for 1,197 yards of total offense with Princeton racking up 727 and Anderson 470.
"My offensive line put me in the right place," Engleman said. "The coaches made up the game plan for me. I'm just trying to fill in while QB1 (Lynn) is out. I'm just trying to look at my reads and run the right thing."
Added Coach Parker, "We knew Day One what TJ was. He came out and was very calm. He made one or two misreads. Even after his mistakes, he was ready to bounce back. He's a gamer. It's just the beginning for him."
Engleman got the scoring underway with a 79-yard third-down scamper with 3:32 left in the first quarter. After that, he knew he belonged.
By half's end, Engleman had run for 169 yards and a score and thrown for 101 yards and a late-second quarter touchdown to Rodney Harris Jr. Princeton led by 11, 28-17 at the break.
"Those boys make me look good," Engleman said of Harris and Myers.
But, what Anderson lacks in defense, they make up for in perpetual offense. Griffin Scalf, who also made his first varsity start had consecutive scoring passes to Evan Upchurch to give Anderson a 31-28 lead with 7:10 remaining in the third quarter.
They would not lead again.Â
The Vikings scored 24 straight points and led 52-31 after a Cole Walker field goal. Anderson added two more scoring passes from Scalf to Joey Faulkner, but time and turnovers cost them.
Wearing red now, Andre Parker still has not lost to Anderson since becoming a head coach in 2010. Most of those were as the Winton Woods coach and former Warrior Chris Oats and family were on hand to watch his first victory as a Viking.
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