Photo Courtesy St. Mark's Athletics
St. Marks took on Trinity Christian Academy on Friday, Sept. 19.
The Lions’ varsity football team traveled to Trinity Christian Academy (TCA) for an early season non-conference game on Friday, Sep. 19. The teams came into the game evenly matched, with the Lions having a record of 2-1 and TCA being 2-0.
The Trojans started the game trying to impose a physical, run-oriented style of play, but the Lions defense held TCA to a field goal on the opening drive. The Lions offense went three and out and narrowly escaped disaster on a botched hand-off that resulted in a fumble. After a punt, the Lions defense forced a turnover on downs when cornerback Ford Robinson jarred the ball loose as a Trojans receiver attempted to secure the catch. The Lions, however, offense continued to struggle and were forced to punt again.
TCA took possession on their own 35-yard line and began slowly driving down the field to start the second quarter. Backed up to their own end zone, the Lions defense finally ended the Trojans’ 13 play drive by forcing a turnover on downs. Fueled by a series of big stops, the Lions offense finally found momentum and drove the ball 80 yards to the TCA goal line, but quarterback Blaize Schuhmacher was stuffed on a fourth-and-goal quarterback sneak attempt. Although the offense came up short, the Trojans were significantly backed up and went three and out. With TCA in a tight punt formation to prevent a block, returner Archer Wilburn got a 25-yard punt return to set the Lions up in the TCA red zone. The Lions finally got on the board on a David Dickson 7-yard run to make the score 7-3 Lions. With just two minutes left in the half, the Trojans offense executed the two minute drill to score with only nine seconds left as TCA took a 10-7 lead into halftime.
Wilburn got his second big return of the game when he returned the opening kickoff of the second half 90 yards for a touchdown. After the two teams exchanged punts, the Trojans offense punched in another touchdown to take a 17-14 lead. After a long drive, the Lions tied the game late in the third quarter on a 37-yard field goal from Henry McGill.
TCA responded with a 25-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter, but missed the extra point, keeping the Trojans lead at only six points. Again the Lions quickly responded when Schuhmacher hit Wilburn for a 54-yard pass that set up a 17-yard touchdown run by Dickson to give the Lions a 24-23 lead midway through the fourth quarter. On the Trojans next drive, defensive end Reid Smith forced a fumble which the Lions recovered at midfield. On the next play, Dickson ran for a long touchdown to give the Lions their largest lead of the game at eight.
TCA quickly tried to drive down the field, but Ben Weinstein deflected a pass on fourth and goal to give the Lions the ball back with only four minutes left in the game. The Lions, however, failed to pick up a first down and gave the ball back to the Trojans with just two minutes remaining. The TCA offense went into hurry up mode, scoring on an impressive one-handed catch. TCA, forced to go for two after missing their extra point earlier in the game, failed to convert when Mac Saye broke up a pass on the two-point conversion.
Ford Robinson recovered the onside kick for the Lions, but the offense failed to pick up a first down to end the game. On a last gasp attempt, the Trojans got the ball with 30 seconds left and no timeouts, but TCA ultimately came up short on a hail marry attempt as the Lions secured a 31-29 victory. The Lions improve to 3-1 on the season and will take on John Paul II at home next week before starting SPC conference play.