BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The 17th-ranked Trinity football team held on for a narrow 28-27 road win over #19 Birmingham-Southern College to clinch the 2021 Southern Athletic Association conference championship on Saturday afternoon.

Trinity remained unbeaten at 8-0 overall and 6-0 in SAA play with the victory, while Birmingham-Southern suffered its first loss of the year and falls to 8-1, 5-1. With the win, the Tigers also clinch the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs as all other SAA teams had at least two losses coming into the weekend. Trinity reaches the postseason for the first time since 2011.

The Tigers are now 11-0 all-time against the Panthers, though this was obviously the closest game in the series between the two.

The teams exchanged scores all game long and BSC found the end zone with 23 seconds left to pull within one point of tying things up. Instead of the tie, though, the Panthers opted to go for the win with a two-point conversion. That pass play fell incomplete and Trinity remained in the lead.

Head Coach Jerheme Urban had this to say about the two-point play: "I'm really proud of the fact that we had to step up and make a play in a game situation that we've really focused on a lot this year. We have had incredible two-point play competitions between our offense and defense on a weekly basis, and I had all the confidence in the world in our guys on that final play, because of the preparation and focus in those practice situations."

Tucker Horn (Graham, Texas / Graham) accounted for three of Trinity's four scores, throwing a pair of touchdown passes and running in another score from a yard out. Ryan Merrifield (Austin, Texas / Vandergrift) was Horn's top target, catching seven passes for 63 yards and a touchdown in the game.

Caleb Harmel (Burton, Texas / Burton) led a defense that passed its toughest test of the year, finishing with a game-high 11 tackles that included 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack. Michael Jewett (Houston, Texas / Strake Jesuit) added 1.5 tackles for loss among his eight total tackles and three QB hurries.

The Rundown

The two offenses began the game slowly, though Trinity was able to keep BSC deep in its own end with a pair of solid punts from Eli Gehman (Cedar Park, Texas / Leander). He booted punts of 52 and 49 yards on his first two attempts of the day, pinning the home team inside its own 10 yard line on both kicks. Birmingham-Southern got a huge punt to try and flip the field after the first drive, but the second was just a 20-yard kick that left Trinity with a short field.

The Tigers took advantage of the mistake, starting the drive just 29 yards from the end zone. Eight plays later, Trinity took the 7-0 lead with just over five minutes left in the opening quarter. Horn hit Austin Bertness (Richmond, Texas / Travis) from two yards out for the touchdown.

BSC bounced back with its best drive of the game, going 85 yards over 11 plays to tie the game on a three-yard run on the first play of the second quarter.

Trinity responded with a long drive of its own, chewing up more than six minutes off the clock on a 12-play, 65-yard drive that finished with Winston Hutchison (Round Rock, Texas / McNeil) plunging in from one yard out to reclaim the lead.

Neither team was able to do much more the rest of the quarter and the Tigers took a 14-7 lead into the halftime break.

Birmingham-Southern wasted little time getting things going in the third quarter, scoring on its opening drive to tie the game 14-14. That proved to be the only score of the third quarter, though the two teams made up for it with two scores each in the fourth.

Trinity's first scoring drive actually started late in the third quarter, then finished three plays into the fourth with Horn's touchdown run from one yard out. The Panthers tied the game up quickly, though, scoring on the ensuing drive after a 75-yard drive that lasted nearly five minutes.

The flurry of scoring continued as Trinity used up 4:14 on the clock to score on an 81-yard drive. Horn hit Hutchison on a swing pass out of the backfield for a 34-yard gain to move inside the BSC 40. On third-and-10 from the 23, Bertness drew a pass interference call in the end zone, and then Horn found Merrifield for the go-ahead score.

Birmingham-Southern took over with 5:19 to play, down by seven with a chance to keep the game going. The Panthers converted a fourth-and-four play just shy of midfield, then made it to the Trinity six for first-and-goal. The Tigers held the home team out of the end zone for the first three plays, but BSC snuck their way in on fourth-and-goal with 23 seconds remaining to set up the two-point attempt that ultimately fell short.

The Panthers recovered the ensuing onside kick, but one of the BSC players touched the ball before it traveled 10 yards, and the penalty meant the Tigers had held on for the victory.

Coach Speak

"Wow," exclaimed Coach Urban after the game. "What an incredible game between two very good football teams. This is exactly what you envision a championship football game to be, and I can't say enough about the young men on both sidelines who truly left it all out on the field today."

"I'm so proud of our guys for not only making the plays throughout the game to earn the victory," Coach Urban continued. "We had special performances today in all three phases in the game, we played physical football, we had guys step up in big moments when starters went down, and we never gave up."

Up Next

The Tigers will return home next weekend to close out the regular season schedule against Rhodes College (TN), beginning at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 13. Trinity will celebrate Senior Day as well on Saturday.

"I'm looking forward to getting back home in front of an incredible home crowd next week, and honoring all of our seniors in what could be their final home game." concluded Coach Urban.