Trinity took any early lead and never looked back against the Richardton-Taylor-Hebron Raiders on Friday night in Richardton.
Three first quarter touchdowns, then three more in the second quarter put the game out of reach before halftime in a 43-18 win for the Titans.
“We had a great start. It was our best start of the year, and the kids played really confident,” Trinity head coach John Odermann said. “The offensive line was firing on all cylinders. The effort was there tonight, and before the game we talked about setting some goals. We achieved a lot of those tonight on offense and defensively in the first half we met or exceeded those goals.”
Senior running back Nathaniel Jilek broke off a 60-yard run in the first quarter to make the score 21-0 after the extra point, and that was the first of two touchdown runs for him.
Senior quarterback Jake Daniel sat out last week against New Salem due to an injury, but he played during the first half of the win.
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The Titans (4-1, 3-1 in region 4) had seven players carry the ball including Jilek who led them with 117 yards.
Fellow senior Logan Bentz was the most explosive player of the night getting only three carries, but he totaled 65 yards including a 41-yard scamper.
Despite being down heavily, the Raiders (0-5, 0-3 in region 4) came out in the second half and took advantage of some of Trinity’s backups especially in the passing game.
Richardton-Taylor-Hebron scored three touchdowns in three second half drives.
Their first score came on a drive of 70 plus yards when senior quarterback Zayden Schmalenberger found the end zone from the three yard line.
Schmalenberger hit Ashton Hoff to bring the score to 43-12 in the fourth quarter, and then junior Collin Grage scored the final touchdown of the night with under a minute left in the contest.
“You can show kids in practice and on film all day long, but until they actually see it in front of them in full speed it is really hard to coach them up,” Odermann said. “To get this game experience for these younger guys and especially for some of the younger kids who we think may be able to contribute later this year makes more comfortable throwing them out there against another team.”
Richardton-Taylor-Hebron head coach Brady Martin is hopeful that the success at the end of the game can lead to more success next week against New Salem.
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“The first half wasn’t what we wanted, but we came out in the second half and executed the things that we wanted to,” Martin said. “To make some big plays and watch some of our better players adjust to deep balls, I explained to the kids that we have to take that success into next week.”
Trinity hosts Southern McLean next Friday night at home.
