TRENTON – It was another game full of frustration for the Trenton High School football team in its 16-6 loss to Eastern Saturday afternoon.
Facing an Eastern team (4-2) averaging 40 points a game, the Trenton defense was having none of it and came up with an inspired effort that on most days would have been good enough.
With quarterback James Hubbard returning to the lineup after missing several games with an ankle injury, Trenton was also able to pass for nearly 200 yards and moved the ball well at times.
In the end, however, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Tornadoes (3-4) from losing their fourth in a game and once again it was turnovers that proved particularly damaging.
Especially at the end of the first half after Eastern had roared down the field on its first possession with a 69-yard drive capped by a 4-yard touchdown by hard-running back Mike Suarez.
With its defense getting a much better feel for Eastern’s up-tempo spread offense, Trenton’s offense then came to life in the second quarter when Hubbard completed three straight passes to move the ball to the Eastern 8 yard line.
On the ensuing play with less than a minute remaining in the second quarter, Hubbard rolled right and after getting hit at the 1 tried to extend the ball over the goal line with his right arm. On the play, the ball came loose and the officials ruled it went out of the side of the end zone for a touch back.
Instead of possibly tying it up at the half, Trenton’s best chance to score until the end of the game was gone.
It only got worse from there when Suarez intercepted a pass on the second play of the third quarter. On the very next play Eastern struck again on a 42-yard touchdown run by Amiel Davis.
Compounding Trenton’s problems was the fact Eastern then successfully converted another two-point conversion on a run by Jordan Diaz to make the score 16-0. The Vikings’ first two-point conversion was off a muddle huddle and came on a run by Suarez.
“I’ll have to take a look at the film, but the bottom line is you can’t fumble the ball,” said Trenton coach Greg Hyslop of Hubbard’s effort to get the ball into the end zone. We also threw two picks. It’s been the story of a season. We played well, but get hurt by a couple of plays here and there.”
Trenton did not attempt to run the ball much against a pretty stout defense and had only 31 rushing yards. On the other hand, Hubbard completed 13 passes for 153 yards before getting knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter.
Trenton then turned to Ricky Brown, who did provide a spark by completing passes to Lavor Funderburg and Jermaine Tillery before scoring on a 1-yard plunge himself to get Trenton on the board with 3:39 remaining in the game.
Forced to go for two with the score 16-6, Trenton tried a sweep around left end with Brown. When he was ruled to have come up just short of the goal line, the game was effectively over right there.
“We wanted to spread them out a little bit and also protect James because he still had a bit of ankle injury,” said Hyslop of the decision to go with a pass-dominated offense.
As mentioned at the top, Trenton’s defense foe the most part was outstanding. Eastern quarterback Connor Stafford came out hot, but in the end was limited to 110 passing yards on 12 completions.
Suarez and Davis did do some damage running the ball, but the bottom line is Trenton only gave up two touchdowns.
Despite this damaging loss to its playoff hopes, Trenton can still can turn its season into a big positive. Next week it will be favored at Steinert and then will come a huge home game against Notre Dame in which you can be sure it will go all out to pull off a big upset.
“I don’t know,” replied Hyslop when asked if his team can still make the playoffs.
Eastern (4-2) 8 0 8 0 – 16
Trenton (3-4) 0 0 0 6 – 6
E-Suarez 4 run (Suarez run)
E-Davis 42 run (Jones run)
T-Brown 1 run (run failed).
