Trinity in cruise control in win over Goshen
Goshen’s TiQuan Hodges tries to avoid the tackle of Trinity’s Karlson Hayes in the Wildcats’ win on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
It didn’t take Trinity long to set the tone in its region opener with Goshen at Ragsdale-Boykin Field on Friday night.
The Wildcats recorded a 10-yard sack on the Eagles’ first pass attempt, turned two miscues into defensive touchdowns and cruised to a 48-6 win in the 2020 home opener for first-year coach Granger Shook.
“Our boys came out ready to play,” Shook said. “Our staff did a good job of preparing them. Overcoming adversity (with a loss last week), we were more motivated this week. Still, there’s a few things we’ve got to tighten up as far as penalties and pre-snap alignment on both sides of the ball but I was pleased with how we challenged them at halftime and they came out in the second half and executed to the level we expect.”
Goshen, playing its first game of the season on Friday, looked out of synch in all phases of the game, much the way you would expect a team to look after missing the first two weeks of the season with coronavirus concerns.
“It’s really an unfair assessment,” Shook said. “Coach (Bart) Snyder does a phenomenal job down there at Goshen. Year in, year out, they’re a really successful team. But going into the season that we’re going in, they made a lot of first-game miscues. Our boys capitalized on those miscues and I’m proud of them for that.”
That first pass attempt resulted in a 10-yard sack of Goshen quarterback Will Snyder by Jack Patty and Sam Worthington, setting up a short field following the ensuing punt. William Roberson ran 18 yards on the sixth play of the game and Browder Gulledge added the extra point for a quick 7-0 lead.
Three plays and a punt later, another two-play drive ended with points as Parker Patterson pulled in a pass from John David Bonner and went 48 yards.
Snyder was crunched on his third pass attempt of the night by Joe Handey, resulting in a fumble that bounced all the way from the Goshen 19 to the end zone, where Worthington fell on it for a touchdown and a 21-0 lead with 4:47 left in the first half.
Two more quick touchdowns, the second coming on a 24-yard interception return for a touchdown by David Michael Lieuz, gave the Wildcats a 34-0 lead with 11:28 remaining in the half.
“We have gotten turnovers before, but this is the first time we’ve gotten into the end zone with them, so I was proud of our guys for capitalizing,” Shook said. “I saw a lot of good things out of some young guys. I thought our young guys actually looked better tonight than they did in the JV game. I think the rust from that JV game was gone, so I was proud to see that.”
A late touchdown by backup quarterback Coleman Stanley gave the Wildcats a 41-0 lead and the first drive of the second half resulted in more points as Pruitt Lee took a shovel pass from Stanley seven yards for a 48-0 lead.
By the time Jeff Warrick hauled in a 26-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Peyton Stamey to put Goshen on the scoreboard, a lot of freshmen were playing for Trinity. Warrick was in on all four “big” plays from Goshen, catching passes of 40 and 33 yards from Snyder and running 32 yards for the Eagles’ biggest run of the night, accounting for 131 of the Eagles’ 137 total yards on those four plays.
Goshen coach Bart Snyder refused to let officials run the clock or shorten the game, using the time to help his inexperienced team get some valuable teaching moments on the field. The Eagles finished with zero rushing yards on 26 carries after starting out the first quarter with minus 55 yards on 12 attempts.
Trinity, meanwhile, rushed for 195 yards on 33 attempts, while three different quarterbacks went a combined 10 of 10 for 163 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
The Wildcats (2-1, 1-0) travel to Beulah for another region battle next week.