SAN ANTONIO – The No. 5/6 Trinity football team finished off another undefeated season in Southern Athletic Association play, and clinched the outright conference title with a 56-7 win over Hendrix College on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers won their ninth straight game to finish off the regular season with a 9-1 record overall and an 8-0 mark in SAA play. Hendrix fell to 3-7 overall and 3-5 in SAA action. Trinity improved to 5-2 in the series with the Warriors.
Trinity piled up over 500 yard of offense in the game, including 328 yards through the air and 190 yards rushing. Despite the high-scoring total, it was actually the defense and special teams that dominated today's game. The Tigers gave up just over 300 yards total, though just 29 of those yards came on the ground. Trinity also picked off three passes in the game and also blocked a pair of punts.
Just about everything was going right for the Tigers to start the game, and the team scored 35 of its 56 points in the first quarter alone. Hendrix never recovered and Trinity took a 42-0 lead into the locker room at the half. The Tigers scored once in the third and once in the fourth to take a 56-0 lead, then Hendrix was able to avoid the shuotut with a late score in the fourth quarter.
Cade Rabson (The Woodlands, Texas / College Park) blocked both punts in the game for Trinity – the first of which he picked up just inside the one yardline and returned it for a touchdown. He also had three tackles in the game, including a tackle for loss.
Johnny Milo (The Woodlands, Texas / Caney Creek) led the Tigers with 95 yards rushing on just 14 carries, averaging 6.8 yards/rush. He also finished with a game-best 112 all-purpose yards. Fellow running backs
Winston Hutchison (Round Rock, Texas / McNeil) and
Legend Grigsby (Houston, Texas / Cypress Creek) scored two touchdowns each in the game, while
Justin Carmouche (Cypress, Texas / Cy-Ranch) also got in on the action with a rushing touchdown.
Quarterbacks
Tucker Horn (Graham, Texas / Graham) and
Ryan Back (Austin, Texas / Vandegrift) accounted for 328 yards passing and three touchdowns. Horn completed 13-of-19 passes for 209 yards and one touchdown in the first half, while Back did most of the second-half damage for the offense with 119 yards passing and two touchdown passes.
Ryan Merrifield (Austin, Texas / Vandegrift) produced his fourth 100-yard game of the season, after he caught six passes for 108 yards to lead the team.
Caleb Crawford (Houston, Texas / Strake Jesuit) had a 30-yard touchdown on his only catch of the game, while
Will Taylor (Houston, Texas / Strake Jesuit) also had a touchdown catch.
Ryan Arnold (Austin, Texas / Vandegrift) had one of Trinity's three interceptions in the game, returning the ball 74 yards to set up a touchdown. He also had a sack among his four tackles in the game.
Kennedy Stewart (The Woodlands, Texas / The Woodlands) led the team with five total tackles, while
TJ Scannell (San Antonio, Texas / Reagan) matched Arnold with four tackles and a sack.
Jacob Munoz (Cedar Park, Texas / Cedar Park) finished with a game-best 2.0 sacks in the game.
The Rundown
The opening kickoff was a taste of what the day would be like as Trinity's
Cam Herron (Abilene, Texas / Cooper) broke a 59-yard return on the first play of the game to set up the Tiger offense. Trinity converted a third down after two short gains to start off the drive, as Horn hit Merrifield for a 27-yard pass that made it first-and-goal at the six. Hutchison slashed his way to the end zone on the next play and it was 7-0 after a drive of less than two minutes.
A penalty on Trinity's kickoff would prove costly as the Warriors were backed up at their own 11 yard line to start their day on offense. Another penalty later in the drive wiped out almost all the cushion gained by Hendrix and the visitors lined up to punt from the 13. Rabson came through the line clean and smothered the punt, though, knocking it straight down and it spun just outside the goal line. He quickly retrieved the loose ball and stepped into the end zone to make it a 14-0 game with less than four minutes gone in the game.
Just as Hendrix started to put a drive together to maybe steal back some momentum, Arnold picked off a pass at the 25 and returned it for a touchdown - or so it seemed. A celebration penalty was called at the one to nullify the score and place the ball at the 16 yard line for the Tiger offense. Horn scrambled down inside the 10, then Grigsby took it the rest of the way and the lead was 21 points before the midway point of the quarter.
Trinity's stingy defense forced a three-and-out on the next Hendrix drive and Herron flipped the field once again with a 32-yard punt return this time. Horn wasted little time putting together a 30-yard scoring drive - most of which came on a 22-yard pass to
Alex Thiel (Georgetown, Texas / Georgetown). Carmouche took it the final 13 yards on three carries, capped by a one-yard plunge for an astonishing 28-0 lead with more than four minutes still left in the first quarter.
Hendrix converted a third down on its next drive, but back-to-back sacks by
AJ Townsend (Spring, Texas / Klein Collins) and Arnold made it 4th-and-20 from the 25 to force another punt. Rabson was there once again for the block and this time Trinity recovered on the six with 44 seconds left in the quarter. Hutchison blasted his way in from six yards out, scoring his second touchdown of the quarter and delivering a 35-0 lead for Trinity. The Tigers just 98 yards of offense in the first quarter and still held an insurmountable lead.
Hendrix didn't cross midfield on its next two drives, and Trinity had an 11-play drive end with a missed field goal in between. The lone scoring drive of the second quarter came next as Horn took the Tigers 75 yards in just seven plays for a 42-0 lead. Merrifield caught three straight passes for 31 yards, then Crawford caught a short pass and sprinted towards the goal line and dove his way in for the 30-yard score. The Warriors made a bid to score on the final drive of the half, but time ran out on a completion to the Trinity five yard line and the game remained 42-0 at the half.
After Hendrix went for it on 4th-and-6 on the first drive of the second half, Trinity went 62 yards for a score on its first chance of the quarter - and the first chance under center for Back. The drive started with Back hitting
Carter Self (North Richland Hills, Texas / Birdville) for an 18-yard gain, and it ended with Back finding Taylor for a 17-yard score seven plays later. Milo also ran for 21 yards on the drive - including a five-yard blast on 4th-and-1 to keep the drive going.
Hendrix drove down to the Trinity 21 before a sack by Scannell pushed them back 14 yards. The Warriors converted a fourth down earlier in the drive, but Powell picked off a pass at the Tiger 19 as the defense came up with yet another stop. A rare mistake by Trinity came on the ensuing drive, which had moved into the red zone when a turnover put the ball back in the hands of the visitors late in the quarter.
Instead of taking advantage, though, Hendrix committed another turnover of its own as Moore nabbed the third interception of the day for Trinity's defense just three plays into the final quarter. Milo was on a mission on the next drive, aiming to atone for his mistake that turned out to be Trinity's lone turnover of the game. He accounted for 36 yards rushing and receiving on the drive, though Grigsby took over for the final two plays and caught a short four-yard touchdown that ended up being Trinity's last score.
Hendrix scored on a long drive after that, accounting for 79 of its 300+ yards on the day, and breaking up a shutout bid for Trinity. The Tigers ran out the final 3:54 off the clock to finish off the win.
Up Next
Trinity qualified for the NCAA Playoffs with last week's victory, receiving the SAA's automatic bid to the postseason tournament. The Tigers await the matchup and location of their first-round game, which will be announced during the NCAA Selection Show at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
