Bragging rights, Heritage League implications, and a win under the lights at College of the Canyons’ Cougar Stadium were up for grabs in Saturday’s Faith Bowl between the Santa Clarita Christian Cardianls and Trinity Knights.
This year’s Faith Bowl, which was the first matchup between the two schools on the football field since 2018, ended with Trinity prevailing over Santa Clarita Christian, 24-16.
“This game was absolutely circled on the schedule. This was something that we needed to do as a team, as a school, and as a community,” Trinity head coach Joe Visconti said. “It’s great to have a rival again. It’s good for the boys and good for the schools.”
With the win on Saturday night, the Knights secured their first-ever football win over Santa Clarita Christian.
As for Visconti, the first-year head coach spoke on the much-needed win for his program after all the adversity his team faced leading up to Saturday such as the transition from 11-man to eight-man and playing with 13 players on the varsity roster
“It’s something I preach all the time: do hard things,” Visconti said. “This was a hard thing. [SCCS] had us in the first half. Besides that, you couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
Throughout the game, both defenses proved to make their presence felt not just by forcing three-and-outs but also by adding points onto the scoreboard.
In the first quarter’s final minutes, multiple Santa Clarita Christian defenders tackled Trinity sophomore quarterback Samuel Carroll in the Knights’ end zone for a safety and 2-0 lead.
On the following play, the Cardinals extended their lead over the Knights with Isaac Lee scoring a touchdown off a kickoff return for 60 yards.
With an 8-0 lead, the Cardinals carried momentum into the second quarter.
But Trinity’s defense brought life back into the Knights.
Halfway through the second quarter, the Knights delivered pressure on Santa Clarita Christian’s punter Joey Zuniga and forced a fumble that left the ball in the Cardinals’ end zone. Zuniga recovered the fumble but was met with Trinity defenders for the safety.
Although the Knights failed to capitalize in the first half, momentum for Trinity carried into the second half.
In the third quarter’s opening minutes, Carroll tossed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Landon Moberg and tied the game at eight apiece.
And in the fourth quarter, Carroll took over the game and led the Knights with multiple scoring drives, including the game-winning touchdown pass to Matthew Te Winkle.
After the game, Carroll spoke on the win and importance and total effort that led to the victory.
“It was rough after losing half of our team and going to 13 players,” Carroll said. “But all of us contributed to the win tonight, all 13 of us.”
With the win, Trinity improved to 2-1 overall this season. And in Heritage League play, the Knights remain first in the standings with a 2-0 record.
For Visconti, the transition from 11-man to eight-man hasn’t been easy. But after a few early-season wins and triumph over the school’s crosstown rival, Visconti believes the Knights are the team to beat.
“It’s always good to go 2-0 in league, right? But we’re going to learn and build on this,” Visconti said. “We have some other harder teams. We’ll be tested and we’ll be great.”
The Knights will look to build upon their momentum on Friday with a road matchup against the Faith Baptist Contenders of Canoga Park with kickoff scheduled for 4 p.m.
As for Santa Clarita Christian, the loss dropped the Cardinals to 1-3 for the season. And with the loss, the Cardinals started Heritage League play 0-1.
Although head coach Austin Fry didn’t want to end up on the losing side of Saturday’s Faith Bowl, the Cardinals head coach spoke on how his team can learn from the loss.
“The Heritage League is out of our hands now. We’ll have to rely on certain matchups going the way we want, and we’ll need to take advantage of those matchups,” Fry said. “I’m trying to teach these guys, since I only have one senior, is how to keep things in your hand … and learn how to play situationally. We learned a lot of good things from this game, so how can we improve, that’s the push here.”
The Cardinals will look to bounce back Saturday in a non-league contest on the road against the Cate Rams of Carpinteria with the game set to begin at 1:30 p.m.
For more on Trinity’s sophomore quarterback Sam Carroll’s performance, watch his postgame interview at www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-x1adMhKtY.
