Knights down Riverside Prep, 54-0, for their fifth shutout; first win all-time in five tries over Silver Knights
The Trinity Classical Academy football team entered the 2024 season with two goals: make the playoffs, and win the league title.
Check. And check.
Posting their fifth shutout of the season Thursday night at College of the Canyons’ Cougar Stadium, the Knights (10-0, 5-0) clinched the outright Cottonwood League title and an undefeated campaign in a 54-0 senior night win over the Riverside Prep Silver Knights (2-8, 2-3).
“It’s special,” said senior quarterback Noah Visconti, who threw for over 200 yards and five touchdowns in the first win in five tries for the program over Riverside. On the season, he recorded 2,500 passing yards, 41 touchdowns and just three interceptions, completing more than 62% of his pass attempts.
“The goal was to make playoffs, and we did it,” Visconti said. “Stats are OK, but the team, the camaraderie and the brothers is everything.”
Trinity’s offense was nearly perfect, scoring on each of its first six drives, and seven of eight overall. Visconti said knowing Riverside had won this matchup four straight years made it a rivalry game that had the Knights “fired up.”
In the middle off those first six was a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the second half, when senior John Carlson recovered an onside kick and ran half the field to the end zone.
He added his team-leading 23rd touchdown on a reception to close the third quarter, also picking up back-to-back sacks in that frame.
“We got very fortunate on John just making a heads-up, smart play,” said head coach Mike Parrinello. “You know, guys like him with great football IQ, great confidence, great abilities, you know, somebody like him is able to make something out of a play like that.”
Visconti nearly had a sixth passing touchdown near the end of the first half, but senior Jordan Lovelace fell just short of a diving catch in the end zone. Parrinello called Lovelace’s number on the next play, though, and the first-year player took a reverse sweep 29 yards up the right sideline for his second touchdown of the year.
“I just saw my blocks and thankful for the guys that laid the guys out for me,” said Lovelace, MVP of the Heritage League in baseball last year.
Used as a running back and a kick returner, Lovelace is one of many Trinity baseball players etching their names in the school history books along with the rest of the football team. He and a few others joined up in the past couple years, while Visconti and Carlson and a core of veterans helped to overcome what amounted to just five wins combined in the last two seasons.
Senior Adam Hirsch, a four-year player, scored twice on Thursday after scoring once in the first nine games, while freshman Cade Herta finished off the night with his first touchdown catch.
Junior Hudson Sweitzer, a wrestler, ran in the first touchdown of the game, his sixth on the year, midway through the first quarter after a pass interference call on third down set Trinity up.
“We had young guys in at the end. It would have been easy to run the ball, but those guys have been working hard,” Parrinello said. “I wanted to give them an opportunity. It wasn’t to try and, you know, run up a score or anything. It was just, we had freshmen on the field that hadn’t played, that might have been their last opportunity to see the field.”
It’s the first time in three years that Trinity will be in the CIF Southern Section playoffs and finish with a winning record. The program’s last playoff win came when it played eight-man in 2014.
This year’s team looks like a threat to contend, outscoring opponents 489-74. Parrinello said he’s looking forward to being back in the postseason, but is reminding his players that “it all starts new.”
Trinity finds out next week’s opponent on Sunday at 10 a.m. when the Southern Section is set to release the playoff brackets.
“We got to be committed,” Hirsch said. “Just because we’re 10-0, we can’t get thrown off our jam. I want to go to win a championship, and that’s what we need, so we’ve just got to work.”
