The Big Lake Hornet football team fought valiantly, scored three times and didn’t give up all the way to the end — but their efforts in the Section 6AAAA quarterfinal game Tuesday at Princeton came up short, 42-22.

Princeton got on the board first when Jonah Hviding reeled in a 60 yard pass from QB Cooper Drews less than two minutes into the game. The Hornets battled tough and held the Tigers off the board for most of the first quarter and even scored  a TD by Trenton Josewski from 10 yards out to bring it to 7-6. The XP attempt failed and that was the score with under a minute and a half to go in the first.

Unfortunately, the Tigers struck quickly to enhance their lead when Drews found Evan Schimming from 65 yards out to go up 14-6. Not wasting any precious time of the first quarter, the Tigers pounced again with just one second to go when Kaden Olson rambled in from 12 yards out to make it 21-6 after the first 12 minutes.

Things did not get better in the second half for the Hornets other than holding the Tigers to just two scores. One was a 50 yard TD score from Drews to D. Brown to go up 28-6, then the other was a 15 yard scramble for Drews resulting in a TD. 

At halftime, the Hornets found themselves down 35-6.

Princeton capped off their scoring early in the third quarter when Schimming caught another Drews pass from 12 yards out to find paydirt.

In the fourth, with the score 42-6, the Hornets saved their dignity by scoring twice — once when Josewski ran 45 yards to the end zone and once when Hayden Thieke caught a Tyler Anderson, 20 yard pass to make the final, 42-22.

Princeton moves on to play #2-ranked Zimmerman Saturday on the road.