Carter’s experience too valuable
down the stretch
Arlington – It was the fourth meeting between the two schools in the last five seasons with Allen holding 2-1 advantage.
With 2:23 remaining in the game, Allen’s onside kick fail when Brandon Carter batted the high bouncing ball out of bounds to help secure the win.
Tyler Orwig kicked three field goals to send Euless Trinity (12-0) pass the Allen Eagles 37-35 Saturday night in front of 40,000 fans in the Class 5A Region I Area Round of the playoffs at Cowboy stadium. The Trojans will face Arlington Martin in the Regional Semifinals Friday at UT-Arlington Maverick Stadium at 7:30 p.m.
It was Senior Tyler Orwig, in his first season at the school that made the biggest difference in the outcome of the game.
Allen made sure it wouldn’t be like any of the previous Trojan routes that they’ve enjoyed most of the season. Yes it was the stiffest test this season for the Might Trojans to this point.
“We just made a few too many mistakes, we had a bigger hole to come back from but the kids fought hard to very end,” said Allen’s Coach Tom Westerberg. Well there a tough team but we’ve played them and beaten them two times in a role, now it’s tied up at two apiece. They made one better play than we did tonight. Well it’s the same thing, only one guy will go home happy this year and that’s the guy that wins the state championship, everybody else regroups and goes back to off season and works hard for the next season.”
Trinity rebounded from a rough first drive to take a commanding 24-14 halftime lead. The offense began to sputter once the Trojans moved down to the 8 yard line of Allen. The Eagles Thaddeus LaGrone dropped Tevin Williams for a three yard loss back at the eleven yard line, a penalty for illegal formation back them up to the sixteen and Carter turned it over when he lost control of the ball in the back field.
The Eagles drove the ball 82 yards to go up 7-0 on Alec Morris 4 yard touchdown pass to Jonathan Lee with 7:18 to go in the 1st quarter.
The answer turned out to be a 79 yard Trojan drive that resulted in a 32 yard reverse touchdown pass engineered from the hands of Quarterback Kailahi Kautai, to Tevin Williams running right, he tossed it to Carter who was running the opposite way. Carter stopped and threw a bomb to Joel Kimpela who was wide open streaking toward the end zone, clearly catching the Eagle defense off guard to draw even at seven.
“I thinks a grind not a pretty win that’s kind of what we called for all week find away pound the rock keep bring it keep bringing it and hope we come out at the end. I try not to think about them too much all week, I gag on my tooth brush every morning trying brush my teeth thinking about Allen. Their just that good and it’s a big win for Trinity, a big win for us,” said Euless Trinity’s Coach Steve Lineweaver.
Carter paced the Trinity offense with 122 yards through the air with two touchdowns and added 85 on the ground. Terrance Tusan led the rushing with 104 yards and Morris finished with 205 yards passing with three touchdowns for Allen.
With great field position at their 48, Allen re-gained a seven point lead when Morris hooked up with Lee again who made athletic over the shoulder catch in the end zone.
Fans watched Euless Trinity respond with a two play drive that covered 82 yards on Carter’s 79 yard pass to Garland Rader, tying the game 14 all with 16 seconds to go in the first quarter.
In the second quarter the Trojans turned up the defense and picked up 10 points to take a 24-14 lead to intermission. Serge Nseka ripped up the middle for 5 yard score while defensive linemen Polo Manukainiu, Suleiman Masumbuko and Andre Young put pressure on the Eagles up front forcing two fumbles, one which resulted in a stunning 47 field goal from Orwig as time ran out to end the half.
“I was really confident come in here, actually the second game we played here Shiloh Christian. I was feeling sick that day so I wasn’t confident coming but this game getting ready all week I was doing field goals, field goals because I knew it was going to come down to field goals,” said Tyler Orwig Trinity’s Kicker
After passing up a couple of opportunities Paul Walker broke through Trinity’s defense for a 48 yard scoring run to pulled the Eagles within three at 24-21.
But each time Allen would get close, the Trojans would come up with a big stop from the secondary, defensive line or with Carter’s big plays.
Right after, Euless Trinity scored 10 unanswered points, Williams had a four yard touchdown run and Orwig tacked on a 41 field goal to stretch the lead 34-21 with 6:58 to go in the 4th quarter.
The Eagles (10-2) came to life with a 72 yard drive that saw Oliver Pierce catch a 6 yard TD pass from Morris to cut the lead to 6 points at 34-28. But the Eagles would get no closer as Carter went to work again picking up 51 yards in two plays, setting up Orwigs 39 yard field goal to ice the game.