FRIDAY PREPS: Trinity tops Montgomery Academy
The Trinity Widcats knocked off the Montgomery Academy Eagles on Friday in Capital City Conference action. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
A 10-win season and a trip to the quarterfinals of the state playoffs is a pretty successful season for most high school teams.
For Trinity, however, it is that quarterfinal loss that kept replaying over and over like a movie clip from a horror film. Losing to Montgomery Academy and Catholic in the regular season was bad enough, but the 42-21 loss to Montgomery Academy in the 3A quarterfinals was a nightmare that just wouldn’t subside.
Rest easy, Trinity fans. The players will get plenty of sleep on Friday night after Grayden Flowers’ 24-yard field goal provided the game-winning points in the Wildcats’ 18-15 win over Montgomery Academy on Friday at Ragsdale-Boykin Field.
“It’s all about how we’re going to handle the success,” senior Mac McClinton said, “but it means a lot, especially with this team. We got some revenge from last year. Hopefully, we’ll see them again in the playoffs.”
This wasn’t some stroke of luck or simply good fortune on the part of the Wildcats. They trained for an entire year, constantly reminding themselves of how Montgomery Academy pushed them all over the field in a dominating beatdown last November.
“Both of those games have been on our mind all off season,” senior linebacker Joe Handey said. “We knew coming into this year they were going to have a great team, almost the same team they had last year in the backfield. So we knew we had to bring our ‘A’ game and we focused on that all off season. We focused on being better up front and being in better condition because that was one of our problems last year. We knew we had to be more physical.”
It showed. Not enough to turn the tables, simply enough to even the playing field. Montgomery Academy fullback Jashawn Cooper, who was simply too much for the Trinity defense a year ago, managed a paltry 28 yards on 10 carries and was never a factor on Friday night.
“We were focused on him,” Handey said. “Not him only, but we knew that he hurt us last year pretty bad. We keyed on him a lot and knew once we stopped him they were going to start handing it to the other guys.”
The Eagles’ offense was grounded. There was a 70-yard touchdown run by Chance Wilson six minutes into the game and a 25-yard scoring run at right end by Jamal Cooper with seven minutes left in the third quarter. Those two plays accounted for half of MA’s total offensive output.
The passing attack, which featured Judson Lindsey in a season opening win over St. James and Thomas Woodward on Friday night, was nonexistent. Woodward attempted just five passes, all quick-hitting passes toward the sideline. The only downfield pass, thrown by Lindsey as a running back, was intercepted by Webber McClinton.
“We probably should have thrown the ball a little bit more,” Montgomery Academy coach Robert Johnson said, “but they really won the game at the line of scrimmage. I thought special teams had a lot to do with it, also. Their special teams were outstanding, ours not so much. It was just a tough ballgame. Hats off to Trinity, they did a great job.
“They’re a little different this year defensively. They’ve been really fast up front, but this year they’re big so they’ve changed what they’ve been doing and I think that gave us some problems. We couldn’t get the same push we usually do, but that’s a credit to them.”
It would take a special teams miscue to break the tie. Wilson’s touchdown run was followed by an illegal participation penalty on the Wildcats during the extra-point attempt, causing Johnson to change his mind and use Jashawn Cooper for a two-point run and an 8-0 lead.
Webber McClinton’s 29-yard interception return set up Trinity on a short field and Chase Letner’s 2-yard run trimmed the deficit to 8-7, but Jamal Cooper pushed the lead back out to eight points at 15-7 entering the fourth quarter.
“We were down eight points going into the fourth quarter,” Trinity coach Granger Shook noted, “and the style of play they play, we didn’t know if we were going to get the ball back more than once.”
The Wildcats actually had the ball twice, using a 25-yard punt return by Norris Pemberton to set up a three-play, 30-yard drive capped by Letner’s 8-yard run and Coleman Stanley’s conversion pass to Letner that tied the game at 15-15 with 9:25 left.
“We just knew we had to respond,” Letner said. “We came out and did it. We did feel that they were getting tired. It really showed when they were cramping up. We just tried to hurry to the ball and get it to the official (to prepare for the next play) as quick as possible.
For the third consecutive time, Montgomery Academy’s offense would fail to pick up a first down in three plays and punted back.
“Our D-line did a great job,” Handey said. “I know they have some young guys up front, so we had some experience up front and were able to get more movement up front on defense.”
Trinity ran three plays and punted back, but Wilson dropped the punt on the Montgomery Academy 22-yard line and Webber McClinton was there for the recovery. The Wildcats picked up a first down, milking nearly three more minutes off the clock before Flowers booted the game winner.
“So proud of how (quarterback) Coleman Stanley played late in the game,” Shook said. “Late in the game when we needed it, we were locked in and focused and were able to take four minutes off the clock and really put them in a bind with the style they play.
“Hats off to Coach Johnson and Montgomery Academy. They’re a very good football team, coached extremely well and they have two of the best backs in the state. But our boys fought their tails off. I’m so proud of them. Our boys played with a lot of heart tonight.”
Jamal Cooper broke open for 26 yards on the next possession to boost his total to 89 yards on nine carries, but four plays later the Eagles turned the ball over on downs and Trinity ran out the clock.
Trinity (2-0) travels to Goshen next week, while Montgomery Academy (1-1) returns home to play Hale County.