Kelvin Cook and Colerain grind out big road victory over Trinity

Last week's win over St. Xavier proved Colerain (Cincinnati) may be the best high school football team in Cincinnati. Friday's 42-28 road victory over Trinity (Louisville, Ky.) proved that the Cardinals may be one of the best high school football teams in the nation.

Colerain quarterback Kelvin Cook made big play after big play, rushing for 266 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries, in a game in which the Cardinals never trailed.

Running back Detuan Smith added 112 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, as the Cardinals, ranked No. 23 nationally and No. 2 in the Midwest, racked up an astonishing 461 rushing yards — they only attempted two passes all game.

Trinity's Reggie Bonnafon, a Louisville commit who missed the first two series of the game presumably due to the effects of the strep throat he suffered through last week, kept the Shamrocks in it with 206 passing yards to go along with 55 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Trinity got the ball to start the game with backup quarterback Ryan Young under center. The Colerain defense gave the junior a rocky welcome by intercepting his first pass of the game to give the Cardinals a first down at their own 45-yard line.

Colerain wasted no time getting on the board, scoring on a 16-yard Jordan Asberry run to take a 7-0 lead with 10:21 left in the first quarter.

After a Trinity punt, T.J. Dula's 49-yard run moved Colerain to the Trinity 15, and the Cardinals eventually scored on a 2-yard run by Smith to take a 14-0 lead with 4:51 left in the quarter.

Colerain got the ball back once again after a fumbled kickoff and appeared to be on the verge of another touchdown, but the Trinity defense came up with a huge fourth-down stop and took over on their own 6-yard line.

That wasn't the only good news for Trinity, as Bonnafon entered the game on the ensuing drive. The senior made his presence felt immediately, converting a pair of fourth downs in a 94-yard scoring drive capped off by a Donald Brooks 1-yard touchdown run to cut the lead in half, 14-7.

Cook, who rushed for 113 yards on 17 first-half carries, took over on the next Colerain scoring drive, nearly getting in the end zone on a 29-yard run and then finishing it off with a 1-yard sneak to extend the Cardinals lead to 21-7.

The score remained the same until the 6:22 mark of the third quarter, when a fumble by Cook was recovered and returned 12-yards by Canon Jackson for a Trinity touchdown, once again making it a one-score game at 21-14.

Cook redeemed himself on the next possession, however, when Colerain seemingly had nothing going. On a third-and-16 from his own 5, Cook scrambled and eventually broke off a 95-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 28-14 with 4:28 left in the third.

After another fourth-down conversion by Bonnafon on the ensuing drive, the Shamrocks marched downfield and finished it off with another Brooks 1-yard run to come within a touchdown once again, 28-21.

As they did all game, Colerain responded.

An 80-play drive on eight runs ended with another touchdown, this time a 10-yard run from Smith to extend the lead to 35-21 with 7:02 left in the game.

A turnover on downs by Trinity on the next possession sealed the win for the visiting Cardinals, and a 34-yard touchdown run by Smith was the icing on the cake.

Trinity continued to fight, however, and closed the gap to 42-28 with 1:10 left after a 37-yard Bonnafon touchdown run.

Colerain (3-0) will travel to Lakota East (Liberty Township, Ohio) next week while Trinity (1-3) continues its brutal schedule by playing host to Indianapolis Cathedral on Sept. 27.