Knights conquer Eagles

Football is a game of attrition. It’s physical. Success during a game, as well as over the course of a season, is easier to come by when a team has plenty of fresh bodies to put on the field.

For the Willow Park Trinity Christian Academy Eagles (1-3), depth is a luxury they just do not have. 

Trailing Dallas Covenant 7-6 at halftime, the Eagles lost three players due to injury in the second half – including their starting and backup quarterbacks – as they lost the war of attrition, 42-6.

Starting the game with just 21 players on the roster, the Eagles took flight right away. After the opening kickoff went out of bounds, TCA started their first drive from their own 35-yard-line. On the first play of the game, quarterback Braxton Smith connected with a wide-open Jake Anderson on a go route down the far side of the field. Anderson hauled in the pass and ran untouched into the end zone for the 65-yard pitch and catch to put the Eagles on the board just nine seconds into the game. 

The two-point conversion attempt came up short as Trinity Christian took a 6-0 lead very early in the first quarter.

On the first drive of the game for Dallas Covenant (4-1), the Eagle defense stood tall. The Knights used seven plays to work their way down to the TCA seven-yard-line. Threatening to get on the board themselves, Knight’s QB Brady Shahan dropped back to pass, but was intercepted by Smith at the 1-yard-line. Smith found an opening, returning the intercepted pass 16 yards before being brought down at the Eagles 17-yard-line.

Unable to mount a significant drive, TCA went four-and-out following the turnover as Covenant got its second offensive possession starting on their own 40. The Knights capped off their 60-yard drive as Shahan hit Bennett Sands on a 28-yard touchdown pass. Maddox Reinke added the extra point to put the visiting team up 7-6 with 5:33 left in the first quarter.

Neither team managed to mount much of an offensive fury the remainder of the first half as the two teams went into the locker room separated by just a point.

The wheels came off the proverbial wagon for the Eagles in the second half as attrition began to take its toll. Deep in their own territory in their second possession of the half, TCA faced a fourth-and-28 following a bad snap that led to a 17-yard loss on second down. Set up to punt the ball away from their own 21, the snap sailed over the punter’s head into the end zone where it was recovered by Covenant for the second Knights touchdown of the game. Reinke tacked on the extra point to put the visiting team up 14-6 midway through the third quarter.

During the ensuing possession, TCA’s starting quarterback, Smith came out of the game with an apparent leg injury after being brought down awkwardly on a quarterback keeper. On the next play, backup quarterback Asher Strait was intercepted by Dobson Beaird on his first passing attempt. Beaird scurried 30 yards for the score as offensive turnovers allowed the Knights to pull away. Following the extra point attempt, Covenant led 21-6 with 4:33 remaining in the third quarter.

A bit of trickery with the disguised onside kick kept the Knights in the driver’s seat in the ensuing possession. Seven plays later, Ryder McFarlane scampered into the end zone from 11 yards out. With 1:37 left to play in the third quarter, TCA trailed 28-6.

Covenant scored on each of their two possessions in the fourth quarter as McFarlane and Davis Kerlin crossed the goal line from 28 and 15 yards out, respectively, to put the Knights up 42-6 as time wound down.

With injuries abounding and the game getting out of hand, the Eagles had ample opportunity to quit fighting in the second half. They just didn’t take any. TCA continued to battle, putting together their longest drive of the contest as the game wound to a close.

“I’m proud of our guys for the way they fought,” stated head coach Cody McKenzie. “They didn’t give up. They didn’t lay down. They could easily just throw in the towel. The quarterback’s down. The backup quarterback’s down. The next guy steps up and we move the ball a little bit there at the end. We’re all proud of our guys.”

Jonathan Heep and Cameron Hobbs tore off big chunks of yardage early in the final drive of the game with a pair of determined runs. With Smith and Strait on the sideline nursing injuries, third string quarterback Matthew Sykes took the snap on a first-and-15 from the Covenant 41, and scrambled for a pickup of 27 before being brought down inside the red zone with under a minute left to play. On the next play Sykes fired a shot to Anderson in the end zone that landed just beyond the reach of the TCA wide receiver as the Eagles scoring opportunities came to an end.

“We felt pretty good [going into halftime],” McKenzie said after the game. “That high snap on the punt, and the pick-six, now you have to climb out of that with a young team. They’ve got to battle through that out here on the field. There towards the end we were trying some things on defense, but when you start out with 21 players and you’ve got four guys sitting on the sideline, you start getting gassed. They didn’t give up. They were just out-manned tonight.”

Next up on the schedule, the Eagles go on the road to take on the 4-1 Atlas Rattlers in Fort Worth. That game is slated to kickoff at 7:30 p.m.