Graham, Parsons still shine in Princeton's intense close loss to Buckhannon-Upshur 21-14

The Princeton Tigers dropped their home opener to The Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers. In that loss, junior quarterback Ranson Graham was 28/40 for 229 passing yards and 1 touchdown.

Graham also ran for 22 yards on two attempts giving him 251 all-purpose yards on the night. Graham, could've easily had 300 plus yards and another touchdown added to his resume, but with receivers dropping balls that could've turned into key plays, a touchdown called back, and other penalties that just wasn't the case.

Graham, did throw two interceptions, but the first, his receiver didn't fully run his route and the second one, The Tigers had a minute to two minutes left on the clock in the fourth quarter, when it was just 2nd down and The Tigers coaching staff decided to call all go's and that forced Graham to get picked off for the second time.

Graham put The Tigers in position to win the game multiple times. The Tigers cost themselves with dropped passes, penalties, and fumbles. They could've never been in that position with Buckhannon-Upshur and could've won by 2-4 touchdowns as The Tigers started off fast and scored on their opening drive with seven minutes remaining in the first quarter.

True sophomore Ethan Parsons, who is hands down Princeton's top receiver not dropping a single pass had 114 of Graham's passing yards and had Graham's only thrown touchdown in the opening drive.

With under a minute to go in the fourth quarter, Parson's sustained a bruise on his collarbone putting him out of action until The Parkersburg South game on September 14th as The Tigers are open next Friday. Parsons, the true sophomore also, plays defensive back and is the punter.

Princeton's center senior Jake Lilly also sustained an injury, but to his MCL. He goes for an MRI tomorrow according to Princeton Senior High Head Football Coach, Coach Pedigo through via Tweet. He could be back this week if everything goes well.

The Buccaneers junior quarterback, Ryan Strader scored all three of their touchdowns on the ground including a 2-point conversion and also, picked off Graham late in the game. Buckhannon-Upshur (1-0) hosts their opening home game against Ripley (0-1) this week as Princeton (0-1) makes a short, but a very tough trip to cross-rival Bluefield (1-0).

Kick-off for Princeton at Bluefield is set for 7 p.m.