Titans stand strong

In a close contest, ball control is the name of the game.

Late in Saturday's game, the Dickinson Trinity football team had it and Carrington didn't.

Leading by a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Titans embarked on a 17-play, 88-yard drive that turned into nothing but allowed Trinity to keep the ball out of the Cardinals' hands in a 16-7 victory in Class AA, West Region action at the Badlands Activities Center, which saw the home team win for the first time in three tries.

"That was a nice offensive drive," Trinity coach Randy Gordon said. "We were able to move the ball all the way down to the (4)-yard line."

On second-and-goal from the 4, Carrington (0-3) stuffed the Titans (3-0) four straight times. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Trinity had taken 7 minutes, 7 seconds off the clock and there was only 15 seconds remaining in the game.

Carrington senior quarterback Erik Collins threw a 10-yard pass to Ben Klein, who pitched it to another teammate. When the circus was over, Trinity was awarded a safety as Carrington had to dive on it in the end zone to stop it from being a Trinity touchdown.

"Carrington put us in a tough situation and we need to know how to respond in a close game," Trinity quarterback Aaron Grinsteinner said. "We responded today."

The long drive came after the Titans made an impressive stop on a fourth-and-goal from the 8 that was originally a first-and-goal from the 1. A holding penalty cost the Cardinals a prime opportunity to tie the game, and forced them to work from farther out.

"That goal-line stand was a big momentum shifter," Grinsteinner said.

Scoring was hard to come by in the second half as the only score was the safety at the end of the game.

That didn't stop Trinity from piling up offensive yards. Grinsteinner finished 6 of 11 for 124 yards to go with 107 rushing yards on 20 carries. Senior Tommy Peters finished with 171 total yards including 121 on the ground.

"We used traps; they were working well," Gordon said. "Aaron became a runner."

In addition to those two racking up almost all of the yards on the ground, it was senior tailback Kohl Koppinger that became a trivia answer.

The question? Who was the first person to score a touchdown for the home team at the new BAC? Dickinson State and Dickinson High were held to field goals in their debuts on the new field.

Carrington held Trinity to a three-and-out to start the game, but the Cardinals muffed the punt and gave the Titans the ball on Carrington's 44-yard line. Koppinger capped a 12-play drive with 2-yard TD run to put Trinity up 7-0. Koppinger finished the game with 20 yards on 16 carries.

Trinity cornerback Mason Schiff intercepted Carrington quarterback Erik Collins and the Titans came back with a long drive that benefited from a 46-yard catch by Robbie Morey. Koppinger punched it in from 4 yards out for his second score and Grinsteinner found Dylan Fridrich for the two-point conversion, giving the Titans a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.

Three minutes later, Collins found senior Ben Klein on a 45-yard TD strike to draw within one score. The two battled to a stalemate the rest of the way until the safety ended the game.

"Carrington's a good short-yardage team," Gordon said. "This was a good experience for the kids. I don't think we came out as focused we could have, but this is the best team we've seen all year."

Trinity finished with 372 yards of total offense while Carrington had 229. Klein had four catches for 101 yards and the Cardinals' leading rusher was senior Chris Bahm, who ran 15 times for 54 yards.

Carrington coach Marty Hochhalter declined to comment.

Carrington 0 7 0 0 -- 7

Trinity 6 8 0 2 -- 16

DT-Kohl Koppinger 2 run (kick failed)

DT-Koppinger 4 run (Dylan Fridrich pass from Aaron Grinsteinner)

C-Ben Klein 45 pass from Erik Collins (Jake Nelson kick)

DT-Safety

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: C, Chris Bahm15-54, Jordan Mittleider 10-53, Collins 6-7, Casey Caylor 1-(-15). DT, Tommy Peters 18-121, Grinsteinner 20-107, Koppinger 16-20.

PASSING: C, Collins 6-11-2 130. DT, Grinsteinner 6-11-0124.

RECEIVING: C, Klein 4-101, Jake Nelson 2-29. DT, Robbie Morey 3-74, Peters 3-50.