Collegeville, Minn. – The fourth-ranked Trinity football team opened its 2023 campaign with a 34-31 overtime loss on the road against sixth-ranked Saint John's University on Saturday afternoon.

Trinity led by as many as 17 points early in the fourth quarter, but Saint John's stormed back with three straight scores to tie the game at 31-31 with less than a minute to play. The Tigers had two plays of 25+ yards to drive inside the five yard line on the final drive in regulation, but committed their second turnover of the quarter and missed their chance to pull off a dramatic win.

Instead, the game went to overtime and Saint John's got the ball first. Trinity's defense held on third-and-one, forcing the Johnnies to settle for a 35-yard field goal to take a 34-31 lead. The Tigers went for it all on the opening play of the extra period, but Saint John's got its third straight turnover with a game-ending interception near the end zone.

Quarterback Tucker Horn (Graham, Texas / Graham) had an outstanding game in the loss, completing 28-of-33 passes for a career-high 352 yards and a pair of scores. He did most of his damage in the first half, completing 21-fo-26 through the air for 241 yards.

Trinity took the opening kickoff and drove 70 yards to the Saint John's one yardline, but was turned away three straight times and turned the ball over on downs. The Tiger defense held its ground and forced a three-and-out, putting Horn and the offense back on the field quickly. Trinity took advantage with another 70-yard drive -this time finishing with an eight-yard scoring strike from Horn to Carter Self (North Richland Hills, Texas / Birdville).

Just over a minute later, Saint John's tied the game with 3:02 left in the first quarter, hitting for a 70-yard pass play to knot things up. Trinity was unfazed and responded with its third drive of the half that lasted five minutes or more. Legend Grigsby (Houston, Texas / Cypress Creek) punched it in from five yards out to put the Tigers back in front 14-7 early in the second quarter.

Another three-and-out forced by the Trinity defense led to another long drive by the offense – capped by another score and a 21-7 lead. Winston Hutchison (Round Rock, Texas / McNeil) had a five-yard rushing score of his own to finish it off. All told, the Tigers ended up with more than 20 minutes of possession in the first half and piled up more than 250 yards of offense.

Saint John's took over and finished off the final 4:34 of the half with its longest drive of the day so far. The Johnnies drove into the red zone, but the Tiger defense held and forced a field goal attempt that sailed wide left as the half ended.

The second half started with Saint John's driving 75 yards over 15 plays and cutting the lead to 21-14 after chewing up nearly half of the quarter. Trinity needed just five plays to cover 62 yards to answer that score and put the lead back to 14 points (28-14). Cole Monago (Houston, Texas / Klein Cain) caught a 37-yard touchdown from Horn with 5:26 on the clock to finish off the drive.

Trinity forced the first turnover of the game on the ensuing Saint John's drive as James Ogunrin (Katy, Texas / Episcopal) picked up a fumble recovery to set up the Tiger offense. This time, Trinity settled for a short 26-yard field goal from Tyler Huettel (McKinney, Texas / McKinney) to take its largest lead of the game (31-14) with 12:47 to play.

Saint John's got another 10-play drive in less than four minutes, beginning what would be the first of 20 straight points. Trinity's first three-and-out of the game on offense put the Johnnies back on the field and this time the drive was less than two minutes to draw within three at 31-28.

The very next play from scrimmage after the score was a fumble and the home team got the ball back with a little over four minutes to try and tie the game – or possibly take the lead. The Trinity defense held tough and got a huge third-down stop at its own five yard line, forcing the tying field goal from 24 yards out.

The Tigers took over with just 46 seconds left, but Horn scrambled for a 27-yard run on the first play to move near midfield. After stopping the clock with a spike, Horn dropped back and found Will Taylor (Houston, Texas / Strake Jesuit) for a 37-yard play down to the Saint John's six yard line. After getting flushed from the pocket on the next play, Horn put his head down for the end zone, but Saint John's dislodged the ball and took over with just seconds to play. Saint John's then ran out the clock, and went on to win it in overtime.

Taylor led the team with five receptions for 84 yards, while Ryan Merrifield (Austin, Texas / Vandergrift) also had five catches for 57 yards. Monago finished with 74 yards on four receptions, and Self had 31 yards and a touchdown on just two grabs.
Trinity's defense was led by Jacob Munoz (Cedar Park, Texas / Cedar Park) with nine tackles that included 1.0 sacks and 2.0 tackles for loss, as well as a forced fumble. Caleb Harmel (Burton, Texas / Burton) also finished with six stops and a pair of pass breakups. Six others had five tackles in the game, including Carson Byrd (Waco, Texas / Midway) and Mac Douglas (Fairhope, Ala. / Bayside Academy), who also combined for 1.5 sacks.

Huettel connected on all three of his extra-point attempts and his only field goal try on special teams. Grigsby finished with three kickoff returns for 60 yards, while first-year Lamont Nickleberry (Childress, Texas / Childress) led the team with 79 return yards on three kickoffs.

Today's game was Trinity's first overtime loss since the 2003 season, when the Tigers lost 42-41 in a road NCAA III Playoff game against East Texas Baptist University.

Trinity will make its home debut next weekend against third-ranked University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, kicking off at 6:00 p.m.