Kirk Herbstreit Varsity Football Series at Texas Stadium
Presented by Burger King
Saturday
Buford (Ga.), 42, Mansfield Timberview (Texas) 21
Cedar Hill (Texas) 38, La Salle Catholic (Cincinnati, Ohio) 14
Justin Northwest (Texas) 13, Woodland Hills (Pa.) 12
Arlington Bowie (Texas) 48, Trotwood-Madison (Ohio) 0
Monday
Euless Trinity (Texas) 28, John Curtis (River Ridge, La.) 12
Klein Oak (Texas) vs. Mandeville (La.), cancelled
Colleyville Heritage (Texas) 41, Clovis East (Calif.), 26
Other stories
Herbstreit Texas: Hill is King for Heritage
Herbstreit Texas: Big Plays Vault Trinity
Herbstreit Series Texas: Georgia Power Rolls
Hurricane Gustav Keeps Mandeville (La.) Grounded
Blue Collar Approach Powers Trinity to the Top
Videos
Trinity (Euless), TX vs Curtis, LA
Buford, GA vs Mansfield, TX
Bowie (Arlington), TX vs Trotwoo...
Cedar Hill, TX vs La Salle, OH
Northwest, TX vs Woodland Hills, PA
By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
IRVING, Texas – Many people’s No. 1 team in the country defeated the 22-time Louisiana state champion by 16 points on Monday.
But don’t be fooled.
The Euless Trinity Trojans’ 28-12 victory over the John Curtis Patriots of River Ridge in the premier game of the Kirk Herbstreit Varsity Football Series-Texas at Texas Stadium was much closer than the score indicated and came down to three pivotal plays.
After being controlled much of the first half, the Trojans turned the tables in the third quarter when they held the ball all but four plays and scored on short touchdown runs by Dontrayevous Robinson and Christo Lisika.
The duo combined for the team's other two touchdowns, senior quarterback Denarius McGhee made huge clutch plays all day and the stubborn Trinity defense gave up just 189 yards to lift the defending Texas 5A champions.
“You either come out shaking or you come out ready and I think we came out shaking a little today,” said Robinson, who rushed 11 times for 53 yards. “But I think we came out hungry the second half and showed what we can do.”
Trinity, ranked seventh in the country by MaxPreps, wasn’t flashy or all that electric but it didn’t commit a turnover and was whistled for just four penalties.
Curtis, meanwhile, missed a couple extra points, muffed a punt and was called for 11 penalties, all which did in the perennial national power which battled the mental distractions of Hurricane Gustav.
“I think we had them rolling the first half but then we couldn’t keep up the intensity,” said Curtis senior quarterback Evan Ingram, who scored both of his team’s TDs on 1-yard sneaks.
No one could blame the Patriots if they played with little or no intensity at all.
The team, which persevered through Hurricane Katrina two seasons ago to win a state title that inspired the book "Hurricane Season,” flew from New Orleans early on Saturday to beat Hurricane Gustav to Dallas.
Another Louisiana team, Mandeville, opted to stay home rather than travel to Irving. The Skippers were scheduled to play Klein Oak (Texas) the game after Trinity-Curtis. Asked why the two schools came to different decisions, coach J.T. Curtis, the nation’s second winningest coach, said:
“Every one has to do what’s best for their school. We’re not at all critical of their decision. We felt that Trinity was very much looking forward to playing us and any way we could be there we were coming. .. My experience with hurricanes is the one thing I know about them is I don’t know. There’s no telling what can happen. We felt like the percentages that the national weather people were telling us was that New Orleans wasn’t going to take a direct hit.”
Coach Curtis, thought, in fact, the players and families were safer in the Dallas region than Louisiana any way. He failed to use the distraction as an excuse for the defeat or mental lapses. He did laud his team for their effort.
“We couldn’t ask them to do much more,” he said. “At the same time we won’t allow them to make excuses. Trinity played well and we hurt ourselves. We made uncharacteristic errors, especially in the kicking game. I thought we had a chance and we did what we wanted offensively when we had it. We just didn’t have the ball enough.”
Curtis pointed to Trinity's experience and big play prowess, especially from senior quarterback McGhee as keys to the Trojans' victory.
The three plays that proved pivotal:
* Down 6-0 late in the first half and with only 52 total yards, McGhee avoided a big rush and zipped an intermediate pass just between two defenders to H-back Stetson Smith, who turned it into a 35-yard gain. Trinity seemed to gain sudden life from the completion as Damien Hart immediately ripped off a 15-yard run before Lisika went for a 4-yard touchdown run over the right side, to give the Trojans a 7-6 lead with 1:05 left in the half.
“I just read the outside corner and linebacker on the play and flipped the ball out there,” McGhee said. “It kind of gave us new life.”
Said Curtis: “Once again that was their quarterback making a big play. That’s what he’s supposed to do and why they’ll make a strong run at another state title. We had pressure on him and he just went up on his tip toes and flipped it right where it had to be. If we tackle him or tip the ball then maybe it’s a whole different situation.”
* Trinity was forced to punt after the first three plays of the second half, but Isaac Arellano’s high booming kick glanced off the helmet of upback Seth Jones, who was blocking for returner Jonathan McKnight. The ball scrambled around before Trinity’s Lisika recovered at the Curtis 27. Five plays later, Robinson catapulted over a huge pile for a 2-yard TD and the Trojans started to take control, up 14-6.
“The kid didn’t hear us yelling ‘Peter’ (a football term to stay clear of the ball),” Curtis said. “It happens. You just hope it doesn’t in a game like this.”
* On the next drive, McGhee turned a broken play into a 36-yard completion to Alex Jones that set up Lisika’s second TD, a 4-yard touchdown with eight seconds left in the third quarter. A quick snap surprised McGhee and everyone else, but he had the presence to scramble around for several seconds before heaving a bomb downfield that Jones caught at the Curtis 28.
“Our center thought he saw (Curtis) moving so he thought he’d catch them offside,” McGhee said. “(The snap) surprised me and everyone else. So I just had to do what I do.”
The ensuing TD seemed to deflate Curtis, which eventually pulled it together to close to 21-12 on a second 1-yard TD sneak by Ingram with 6:03 remaining. But Patriots’ kicker Stone Speer just missed his second extra point right leaving Trinity nine points down.
Trinity put it away with a nine-play, 65-yard drive capped by a 19-yard TD scamper around right end from Robinson, a 6-foot-1, 214-pound specimen who gained 1,000 yards rushing the last two seasons.
“We knew that (Curtis) prides themselves on conditioning and we just took it as a challenge to try to out-condition them,” said Kansas-bound linebacker Earnest Norman. “We might have done that the second half. It was a great win.”
The first half was dominated by a massive, time-consuming, paint-drying 20-play, 87-yard touchdown drive that was capped, appropriately enough, by a 1-yard sneak from Ingram with 7:43 left in the half.
Riding an experienced and physical offensive front, the Patriots used their famous Houston veer attack to chew up 10:03 of the half.
Other than 10-yard runs by Ingram and Kenny Cain, the rest was three yards and a cloud of synthetic turf. Ingram, who looks bigger than his listed 6-2 and 215 size, actually snuck four times on the drive, including one on first down.
Trinity, not as physically imposing as it has in previous years, was getting pushed around.
“We thought we were doing just what we needed to do,” coach Curtis said. “Keeping their offensive off the field was a good idea.”
Said Curtis senior running back Kenny Cain, who finished with a game-high 66 yards rushing on 11 carries: “That’s our game to control the clock. We just kept driving and driving and it was hot and they were breathing hard. That’s just how we knew it was going to be. Coach compared it to the Frazier and Ali fights that went 12 rounds and the last man was left standings. That’s how we thought this game was going to play out.”
Robinson definitely didn’t like it was playing out in the first half.
He said: “Man I was getting frustrated because I was ready to be on the field.”
It was Curtis which was frustrated at the end of the drive when the extra point missed.
Trinity then put together its late scoring drive keyed by McGhee’s completion to Stetson and Curtis, despite dominating much of the half, found itself down 7-6 going into the locker room.
“ ‘Down’ was the operative word because we were down,” Coach Curtis said. “We felt like we controlled things yet we were a point behind.”
Despite the defeat, the Patriots weren’t down after the game however. Other than winning, the team accomplished all that it wanted. It was the second straight season Curtis lost to a Texas team, last year dropping a 24-20 decision to Longview before eventually winning another Louisiana state crown.
“We have to find a game in Texas we can win,” Curtis joked. “Hey, seriously, if we’re invited to play teams like Longview or Trinity we’re coming to play. We’re not coming to play the little sisters of the poor. We’re going to play the best to help us get better and make a run at the state championship. This game is going to help us with our confidence and get better.”
Trinity 28, Curtis 12
Curtis 0 6 0 6 - 12
Trinity 0 7 14 7 - 28
Second quarter
C – Evan Ingram 1 run (kick failed), 7:43
T – Christo Lisika 4 run (Isaac Arellano kick), 1:05
Third quarter
T – Tray Robinson 2 run (Arellano kick), 6:59
T – Lisika 4 run (Arellano kick), :08
Fourth quarter
C – Ingram 1 run (kick failed), 6:03
T – Robinson 19 run (Arellano kick), :40
Team statistics
First downs: Curtis 11, Trinity 13
Rushes-yards: Curtis 38-147, Trinity 36-145
Passing: Curtis 4-7-0-42, Trinity 7-13-0-129
Total plays-yards: Curtis 45-189, Trinity 49-274
Turnovers: Curtis 1, Trinity 0.
Penalties: Curtis 11-73, Trinity 4-30.
Possession: Curtis 22:21, Trinity 25:39
Individual statistics
Rushing
Curtis, Kenny Cain 14-66, M. Patterson 13-48, Ingram 10-30, Pierce 1-3; Trinity, Robinson 11-53, Damien Hart 6-27, Stetson Smith 1-23, Tevin Williams 7-12.
Passing
Curtis, Ingram 4-7-0-42; Trinity, McGhee 7-13-0-129.
Receiving
Curtis, Darrien Allen 1-14, Chris Guillot 1-12, Patters 1-9, Hansberry 1-7; Trinity, Smith 4-79, Alex Jones 1-36, Christian Brown 1-10, Tyree Tucker 1-4.
Tackles
Curtis, Matt Stansbury 10.5, John White 5, Jordan Hanberry 4.5, J. Collins 4.5; Trinity, Elikena Fielo 7, Sioeli Pauni 6, Earnest Norman 6, Andrew Murphy 4.5.
E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com