After back-to-back losses at home and on the road to Gahr and Calvary Chapel, the Trinity Knights kicked off Cottonwood League play with a big win over the Webb Gauls on Thursday.
The Knights defeated Webb, 42-26, and secured the team’s second win of the season.
“Our goal at the start of season was to win enough games to make playoffs. And you know, to do that, we have to place in the league. So, this was a big one for us,” Trinity head coach Dave Eastham said. “We were excited, and the boys were up for it. We didn’t know if we were going to have a couple of our guys, and luckily, they all got to play.”
Trinity (2-3, 1-0) has been battling injuries all year, and although the team managed to escape Thursday’s win relativity healthy, the team did lose junior, Ezra Bly who is expected to be sidelined six to eight weeks.
The Knights opened the game with a 21-6 lead, a feat that impressed Eastham considering the fast-paced offense that is Webb (4-2, 0-2).
The Gauls offense scored 213 points in the five games before Trinity with quarterback Mikey Pino leading the Cottonwood League in passing yards.
“Their offense is extremely electric, and when they catch fire it’s a little scary.” Eastham said. “We were moving the ball on them. We had talked about, that we had gotten a red zone a few times in some other games and didn’t finish drives. So, our goal was to make sure that once we got in the red zone that we punched it in, and we were doing a good job moving the ball.”
With a two-possession lead that was provided by a well-timed Cade Herta interception off Pino in the first half that gave the Knights good field position, Trinity’s defense held Webb at Bay throughout the first half.
But in the second half, the Gauls looked like their usual selves and cut the deficit to nine as the Knights led, 35-26.
With a nine-point lead, the Knights offense answered back with a methodical drive that was led by quarterback Andrew Carlson and running back Hudson Sweitzer who made big plays to keep the drive alive.
On third down, Carlson scrambled for a fresh set of downs and Sweitzer punched the ball into the end zone for a touchdown that winded up being the final score of the game.
In the end, Eastham credited his defense for executing in the win and doing a good job in containing Webb’s offense.
“We were really just trying to contain them, and we did a great job of that,” Eastham said. “I think our defensive coordinator Eric Stoner just does a great job for us. He does everything for our team. And he looked at their team and did some new things for us, new coverages to try to help our guys, and young guys, to be able to handle their air assault. And it really paid off.”
With the win, Trinity continues its success from last year when the team went undefeated to win the league title.
And this season, Eastham believes that feat is possible due to the adversity the team faced in the preseason.
“I would say our adversity in the preseason helped us prepare us for our league competition,” Eastham said. “So, we’re just going to take it one game at a time. We got our homecoming game next, that’s a that’s a big one. And just looking around the different scores, I think we’re going to have a much harder path than what we had last year. And that’s a good thing, you grow a lot more when you have to deal with tough things.”
Trinity returns home hosting Silver Valley on Saturday with the game set to kick off at 6 p.m.
