PRINCETON - South Johnston entered Princeton’s playing field Friday night as the defending Cape Fear Valley 3-A Conference Champions and did nothing to dispel the belief that they can repeat as champions again this year.

The Trojans exhibited an impressive offensive attack en route to a 55-7 dismantling of Princeton for their first victory of the season. Albeit against a 1-A division neighbor, South rolled out 254 yards rushing and 260 yards passing while hitting pay dirt four times each way.

South was able to run the ball with speed and power, averaging almost 13 yards per carry. Senior tailback Tony Davis dominated the ground attack breaking tackles, slashing and cutting through the Bulldog defense for three touchdowns. Davis racked up 185 yards on just 10 carries.

With the ground game churning out yardage, South’s passing game was more than effective with Junior quarterback Pat Dunigan going 13-for-18 for 239 yards.

Able to stand and pick his receivers, Dunigan showed some deft touch on several corner routes that his receivers were able to turn into long yardage and eventually, four touchdowns.

“We were the big school this week.” South Johnston coach Joe Salas said after the game, “We’ll be the small school next week and West will be the big school. We’re going to have to get better to beat them.”

When asked what he saw as an area for improvement, Salas said they will have to “Reduce penalties, get better against the run and fix some mistakes. It’s good to get the first game out of the way. We’ll get better.”

Salas’ reference to defending the run was also a point of encouragement for Princeton coach Russell Williamson, who emphasized in his post-game the fact that they were able to establish a bit of a running game late and actually scored against South’s first team defense.

“That’s a tough opener,” said Williamson, “They manhandled us but, we’re gonna be ok.” Several key penalties and even more dropped passes helped to contribute to the offensive frustration of the Bulldogs. All the while their defense had the formidable task of stopping an offensive juggernaut in South’s offense.

“They’re bigger, faster and stronger than we are,” Williamson said. “I think once we got over the intimidation factor, we settled in a little bit and started to hit and play well.

“We love playing them we but don’t play them next year.”

Princeton will look to rebound next week at North Moore while South Johnston will stoke the fires of one of their bigger rivalry games at West Johnston.

After the Princeton game, Salas reminded his seniors that this will be the last time they will get a chance to play West.

As impressive as the offense was, the yet untested Trojan defense left the field with just as many question marks as it had when it entered the field, especially as it relates to the run game.

One way or another, those question marks will be answered next week when they face the spread offense and power running game of the Wildcats.