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Trinity Football in First State Final,

Plays 5-Time Class 2 Champ Lamar

By Jim Wieners

For the first time in Trinity Catholic High School history the Titan Football team will be playing for a state championship, a feat only achieved by one of Trinity’s predecessors in Mercy High’s 1969 Class 3A runner up team.

Since the Show Me Bowl is no longer played in St. Louis, 12-0 Trinity will be taking a 228-mile trip to Plaster Stadium on the Missouri State University campus in Springfield for a 3 p.m. game a day after Thanksgiving, Friday, Nov 25. What stands in the way for a possible first state title in Trinity Catholic history is a Southwest Missouri high school, 13-0 Lamar, which has won five Class Two State Championships in a row and won 34 games in a row dating back to Oct. 11, 2013. Since the start of the 2011 season, the first state championship for Lamar, which is only traveling 80 miles to Plaster Stadium, has won 75 out of 80 games.

This is the first time a Florissant Valley area high school is playing for a state football title since 2010. In that season Hazelwood Central had their undefeated season hopes dashed in a 10-7 loss to Kansas City Rockhurst for the Class Six Championship and Hazelwood Central was the last area school to win state football as the Hawks won the 2009 Class Six State title. The last time Lamar lost a State football playoff was in the 2010 Class Two semifinals, 33-19 to Maplewood-Richmond Heights.

STATE QUARTERFINAL — TRINITY CATHOLIC 53, MALDEN 13 — Playing the final home game of 2016 on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, Trinity trailed 7-6 for the last 2:53 of the first quarter and the first 56 seconds of the second quarter. After that the Titans scored 40 unanswered points in the middle two quarters before Malden scored again on a touchdown pass by Mason Brown, who ran for a first-quarter touchdown.

Sophomore quarterback Isaiah Williams, who is reportedly getting interests from major     colleges and universities including Missouri, continued his offensive dominance with his arm and his legs. Williams completed 15 out of 23 passes for 257 yards and a third-quarter touchdowns to Bryce Childress, who scored another touchdown on a fumble recovery to end the third quarter. Williams added scoring pass to James Frenchie, who ran for a touchdown earlier in the third quarter and caught five passes for 107 yards. Williams rushed for two first half touchdowns including the game’s first score 2:41 into the opening quarter and his second rushing score put the Titans up 19-7 with 7:10 left before halftime.

Torre Boland ran for two Trinity touchdowns including a four-yard play 56 seconds into the second quarter that put the Titans up for good 12-7 and wrapped up scoring with 4:12 left in the game from five yards out. Defensively Jabriel Green had six solo tackles and a quarterback sack.

STATE SEMIFINAL — TRINITY CATHOLIC 45, LAWSON 29 — Taking their longest road trip of the year, 243 miles one way on Nov. 19, the Titans got lots of fan support as Lawson High provided the visitors with parking next to the east stands. What they saw was a tight contest for most of the game leading by no more than 12 in the first quarter but the Titans put the game out of reach with 27 seconds left on a Williams eight-yard touchdown run.

Williams completed 15 out of 20 passes for a season high 317 yards and four of those passes were for touchdowns. Five of those passes for 112 yards were to Marcus Washington, who scored the first two touchdowns in the first quarter for a 12-0 Titan lead as both extra points attempts failed.

After Lawson took a 24-23 lead in the second quarter on two of three Cody Glenn Touchdown passes Williams threw a 13-yard pass to Darion Bolden with 2:52 left in the first half to put the Titans up for good at 18-14. With Trinity leading 31-22 after outscoring Lawson 13-8 in the third quarter the Cardinals cut the lead to 31-29 on a five-yard Andrew Stephens touchdown run with 7:54 left in the fourth quarter but Williams hooked up with Bolden for a 65-yard touchdown pass nine seconds later to increase to 38.29. Bolden caught four passes for 122 yards.

Defensively the Titans had eight quarterback sacks with Green having four of them. Shammond Cooper had 17 total tackles of which 12 were solo.

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