Following a convincing victory in the Cottonwood League opener over Webb, the Trinity Knights won again at home on Homecoming night — but by a narrow margin.
The Knights defeated Silver Valley, 39-36, and began league play with two straight wins.
“They gave us everything that we could handle. You know, our backs were on the ropes, quite a few times, but we found a way to win,” Trinity head coach Dave Eastham said. “We were lucky to win this game tonight. And sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. But our boys deserve this.”
Knights (3-3, 2-0) quarterback Andrew Carlson led his team to victory with a stat line of two passing touchdowns and a pick-six on defense in the final seconds of the first half.
“He’s a warrior,” Eastham said. “He came out, he was hurting. He took a shot in the thigh, early on, and he, you know, battled through it. And I told these guys, I said, hey, you know, we didn’t get dressed like this for nothing. We’re going to war tonight. And it ended up being exactly that.”
And went to war they did, as the Knights and Trojans went for a shootout all game.
The Knights opened the game with lead following a fumble from Silver Valley’s (2-5, 1-1) offense that gave Trinity’s offense field position in the red zone.
Carlson threw a touchdown pass to Cade Herta, but the lead would be short-lived as the Trojans equalized on the next drive.
Following big runs from Silver Valley running back Noah Durrah, Silver Valley took the lead following a touchdown by the back and successful two-point conversion.
On the next drive, the Knights had a methodical drive of their own with Carlson 60-yard touchdown pass to Aiden Visconti.
With a 13-8 lead, the Trojans didn’t back down, especially Durrah, who on the next drive snatched the lead right back as he ran down the sideline for a 66-yard touchdown.
In the second quarter, Trinity took a nine-point lead after a Hudson Sweitzer touchdown and Carlson pick-six on the last play of the first half.
After the game, Carlson spoke on the play and what he saw on that play he took to the house.
“We saw that they were in empty and I was kind of just reading the quarterback’s eyes and flowing to the ball,” Carlson said. “So, I’m lucky that I could help our team with this win.”
In the second half, both teams had their offense explode, and the game went into a scoring frenzy.
Silver Valley’s Javion Taylor scored a touchdown and cut Trinity’s lead to 25-22. And on the next drive, Visconti ran the ball across the goal line and extended the lead to 32-22.
With less than three minutes left in the third quarter, Trinity was trailing following back-to-back Durrah touchdowns.
But in the fourth quarter, Trinity came up big with a crucial touchdown by Carlson, who ran the ball into the end zone following a drive down the field to take the lead, 39-36.
With three minutes left to go in the game, Trinity began to run the clock down.
And on a flea-flicker type of play, Aiden Visconti had a pass intended for Carlson intercepted by a Silver Valley defensive lineman who nearly ran the ball back for a pick-six.
With Silver Valley having possession, Trinity ran back out its defense in effort to stop the Trojans’ offense from scoring.
In the end, the Knights’ defense came up big, forcing the Trojans to commit a turnover on downs.
“Luckily, my defense came out, so I’ll probably, possibly could have a job still tomorrow,” Eastham said jokingly. “But we had talked about that play, and we weren’t supposed to throw it short. We were supposed to let our quarterback get up field more. And I mean, if you watched the film, he would have been wide open. Luckily, it didn’t turn into, you know, a game loss for us.”
With the win, the Knights opened league play 2-0, and Eastham credits the good start to the adversity they’ve faced all year.
“We have three more games in league. Three more tough opponents,” Eastham said. “All of them are going to be battles. We are going to have to fight our way through this and, like I’ve talked about before, I think some tough preseason games help prepare us for things like tonight.”
Trinity hits the road next week at Riverside Prep with the game set to kick off at 7 p.m.
