Yahoo Finance Euless Trinity runs wild past improved Weatherford squad in district football showdown
Euless Trinity running back Ollie Gordon rushed for 300 yards and five touchdowns as the Trojans put a stranglehold on the District 3-6A title race with a 49-21 win over Weatherford on Friday night at Kangaroo Stadium.
Trinity (7-1 overall, 5-0 district), ranked No. 16 in the Class 6A state rankings and No. 2 in the Fort Worth area, had already clinched a playoff berth. Despite the loss, Weatherford (5-3, 4-1) is headed to the playoffs as well after Chisholm Trail’s loss to North Crowley.
“They’re really tough to stop with lots of formations and shifts,” said Trinity coach Chris Jensen. “They have some big guys back there and have a shifty back, and they had us on our heels early, but that was good for us. It’s good that it wasn’t easy.”
Weatherford took the opening kick and looked impressive on an 11-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 28-yard scoring pass from quarterback Ryan Clark to a wide open Isaiah King.
Gordon, an Oklahoma State commit, reeled of runs of 24, 17 and 8 yards to move Trinity from its own 33 to the Kangaroos 18, but three penalties, including two unsportsmanlike fouls pushed the Trojans back to the Weatherford 40 where they had to punt.
Ryan Clark hits a wide open Isaiah King with a 28-yd TD pass for the Kangaroos. Weatherford 7, Trinity 0 6:51 1Q. @Gosset41 @IAR2_Football @WHSRooNation pic.twitter.com/MaHA9zVIQT
— Darren Lauber (@darren_lauber) October 23, 2021
From that point Trinity got on track on both sides of the ball.
The Roos picked up four first downs on their initial drive, but only had one more the rest of the first half while the Trojans were building a 28-7 lead.
The Trinity defense was solid forcing three punts and holding Weatherford on downs the rest of the first half.
Gordon ripped off a 54-yard gain on the Trojans’ second series to set up a 7-yard TD pass from Cade Barthelemess to Buddy Leota to tie the game at 7 with 1:11 left in the first quarter.
.@CowboyFB commit Ollie Gordon rips off 54 yds to set up a Trojan TD. Gordon has 169 yds on 17 carries in the 1st half. @Gosset41 @IAR2_Football @WHSRooNation @Ollie_Gordon2 pic.twitter.com/gIxqA6bVWy
— Darren Lauber (@darren_lauber) October 23, 2021
Gordon scored on runs of 1 and 20 yards and Keshawn Berry added a 21-yard touchdown run on Trinity’s next three series.
“We have never trailed in a district game yet, so for us to come out down 7-0 it was kind of different,” said Gordon, who carried 30 times in the game and added two catches for 76 yards. “But we knew that there was going to be some intensity in the game and not every game is going to be a walk through.
“We knew we were going to have to work for this dub and I like games like that.”
The game was chippy from the start as both teams were guilty of extracurricular activities after the whistle. Trinity, however, was flagged 15 times for 175 yards including six, 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct fouls and two ejections that drew the ire of Jensen.
“I’m not very proud at all,” snapped Jensen about his team. “The stupidity is embarrassing. It was an embarrassment to their teammates, to the school, to the city of Euless and everybody that fought the two-hour traffic to get out here.
“We played really well between the whistles, we really did, but it was marred, severely, by our stupidity. And it’s the same guys over and over and I guess we’re just going to have to put them on the bench.”
Weatherford was flagged seven times for 51 yards.
Gordon carried seven times on an 8-play drive to start the second half and scored on an 8-yard run to up the lead to 35-7 with 8:19 left in the third quarter.
The teams traded scores from that point with Clark adding a 60-yard scoring pass to Melvin Polk, who got free after two Trinity defenders collided and fell to the turf. Clark was 8 of 12 through the air for 126 yards and rushed 14 times for 78 yards including a 2-yard TD run with 10:27 left that cut the lead to 42-21.
Brayden Bork rushed for 71 tough yards on 16 carries for the Roos.
Gordon added touchdown runs of 6 and 14 yards to close out the game. Trinity rushed for 438 yards behind linemen Peni Masima, Dakari Fantroy, Misi Maluia, Jared Foni, Jacob Foni, Junior Tuipulotu and Alex Luna and had 648 total yards.
“They are great,” said Gordon of his linemen. “When I say great I mean that we practice every day, but you can’t really practice the stunts that they threw at us at practice. For them to come out here and just adapt after the first drive made it to where we were A-OK.”
