First Half Haunts Trojans On Friday The 13th
BOURBON — After their dominant showing over Caston in Week 3, you might have expected a faster start from the Trojans in their non-conference contest with Bremen Friday. Triton head coach Rodney Younis certainly did.
But, alas, the home team took the better part of two quarters to get rolling, spotting the visiting Lions a 21-0 halftime cushion. The Trojans played evenly with their guests through the second half, but that first half came back to haunt them in a 27-6 loss on Friday the 13th in Bourbon.
“Our kids didn’t quit, so I’m proud of them for that. They fought,” said Younis. “I felt like we started off a little soft and then they finally decided to start playing. Once we decided to start playing, it was a ballgame and could’ve gone either way. But when you come out not ready to fight from the start, you put yourself in a hole, and Bremen is a good program. They know how to win, and you just can’t spot them points.”
The Trojans owned just 78 of their 261 total offensive yards over the first two periods. Connor Pitney was a 7-for-18 for 46 yards with an interception in that span, but once Hunter McIntyre and the Triton run game got rolling in the second half, it opened up the Trojans’ passing game, too.
McIntyre churned up 73 rushing yards in 18 carries — including a 15-yarder during a 75-yard drive in the fourth period — and Pitney finished the night 16-33-1 for 201 yards and a score, hitting Chance Baxter five times for 87 yards, Bryce Coppes four times for 56 yards and D’Angelo Shumpert four times for 31 yards. He also connected twice with Nate Amsden, the second time following a fake handoff for a 7-yard touchdown pass over the middle with 48.3 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
It wasn’t quite the balance Younis is looking for, but he does see improvement in his team’s run game.
“Our offense is best when we’re balanced. It’s been that way for the last couple of years, and I feel like the first three games we’ve been unbalanced — we haven’t been able to get that run game going,” he explained. “I felt like we stepped in the right direction tonight with the running game. Hunter did a good job of running hard. My goodness, we’ve got basically three new offensive linemen playing, and they’re learning on the fly. So overall I was pleased as a whole. Obviously, the holding, the chop blocks, that’s stuff we have to clean up, but it was a rookie kid that was doing it and he’s going to learn.”
Untimely mistakes were a bugaboo for the Trojans Friday.
They finished with eight penalties totaling 67 yards compared to three Bremen infractions worth 20 yards, but it was the timing that stung more than anything. Triton’s lone touchdown drive of the night — a 16-play, 61-yard push in the third period — could actually have been completed much sooner if not for a holding penalty on a would-be 18-yard TD connection from Pitney to McIntyre at the 3:34 stop of the clock. A key fourth-down conversion extended the drive and the Trojans were eventually able to punch it in with under a minute remaining in the frame, but a fumbled snap out of the shotgun on third and goal on Triton’s next possession gave the Lions the breathing room they needed for a goal line stand at the 7:35 mark of the fourth. The Trojans were again moving the ball on their last possession of the night, but a chop block penalty on what would have been another fourth-down conversion with just 2:01 left to play stalled the drive, sealing the Bremen win.
While Triton finished with 261 net offensive yards, the Lions accumulated 431 yards in Bourbon.
The majority of those came running between the tackles, but Ethan Nunemaker did complete 5-of-12 passes for 57 yards and two scores — a 19-yard pass to Hunter Bennitt at the 3:49 mark of the first period and an 11-yard pass to Bryce Wogoman early in the third — and Hunter Bennitt completed his only pass of the night with a 33-yard TD strike to Zach Miller on some trickery that put the Lions on the board at the 8:43 stop of the first stanza. Bremen’s run game was powered mostly by Wogomon, who finished with 125 yards and a second-quarter score in 17 rushes, and Brady Ginter, who needed just 10 rushes to amass 154 yards on the ground.
“Both of their backs run hard. One is a little bit more of a scat back — (Wogomon), he’ll thump you,” Younis said. “Their blocking schemes were caving our defensive tackle down and kicking out our defensive end. We weren’t closing the way we should have, so we were out of position, but that does have something to do with what Bremen was doing.”
The Lions finally get into the win column and move to 1-3 with Friday’s road win. They’ll return home to play South Bend Clay in a Northern Indiana Conference game next week.
Triton slides to an even 2-2 and will hit the road for a Hoosier North Athletic Conference game at Culver Community next Friday.
“Like I told them, there are some bright spots we can take away from tonight but then obviously a lot of things that we have to clean up. Every week is a battle. We play a good schedule, and Culver, they’re loaded. They’ve got size, they’ve got a stud running back that will run you over, and we’ve got to bring it next week,” said Younis.