Friday rewind: Trinity romps before 34,326

Another remarkably large crowd showed up – a whopping 34,326 fans at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in Louisville – to watch the most lopsided game since the very first of 70 meetings between arch-rivals Trinity (Louisville, Ky.) and St. Xavier.

Sophomore Travis Wright was razor sharp, completing 16 of 20 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns as Trinity rolled to a 48-0 victory, tying the largest margin in the series.

Trinity also won by 48 in 1956, the first meeting between the squads.

James Quick caught a career-high nine passes for 150 yards and a touchdown and senior tailback Derek Bishop added 127 yards rushing on 17 carries for the winners, who improved to 5-1. St. Xavier dropped to 4-2.

Trinity took advantage of four turnovers and held a 407-159 edge in total yards.

West wins Alaska playoff opener
West (Anchorage, Alaska) evidently learned its better not to be safe or it would be sorry.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, the Eagles used a fake punt to keep a game-clinching touchdown drive alive and open the Alaska large-school playoffs with a 20-12 win over West Valley (Fairbanks, Alaska).

West (9-0) is the top seed and the victory helped erase an opening-round defeat in last year’s playoffs when the Eagles were also the top seed and undefeated. They now face the winner of Saturday’s Chugiak-Juneau winner in the semifinals.

Alaska is the first state in the country to start its playoffs.

West came back from a 12-7 deficit to defeat West Valley, which finished 4-5.

Will Sharp caught and touchdown pass and added a 32-yard run off the fake punt that helped seal the victory.

West was up 13-12 midway through the fourth quarter when Sharp’s long run put the ball at the 14. That set up a 9-yard touchdown pass from Brady Grisham to Marcel Dion.

According to the newspaper, Conor Feckley completed 17 of 32 yards for 208 yards and two touchdowns for the winners before going out with a head injury. Joe Nottie returned an interception 16 yards for a score for West Valley.

Armwood shuts out Plant
They call it Dad’s Stadium in Hillsborough County, and 10th-ranked Armwood (Seffner, Fla.) showed it’s definitely the authority figure in the region.

Armwood handed two-time defending state champion Plant (Tampa, Fla.) its first shutout defeat in six season with a 17-0 win.

According to TBO.com, it is also the first time since 2005 season Plant (3-2) has lost two games in the regular season since 2005.

Plant’s last shutout loss was also to Armwood, 49-0.

Josh Grady threw for 104 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 37 more, according to the website, and Kyle Wilcox rushed for 88 yards and a score.

The story, of course, was Armwood’s defense which limited Plant to a scant 81 yards. Plant played more than half the game without the nation’s top recruit, Florida State-bound running back and defensive end James Wilder, who injured his ankle in the first half.

Alabama-bound quarterback Phillip Ely was just 7-for-18 for 64 yards and three interceptions, all by sophomore Leon McQuay. All the interceptions led to all of Armwood’s points.

Plant, ranked among the top 10 in most national polls to start the season, has had a rough go of it early in the season. Besides the losses to Armwood and Abilene, it also lost a preseason game that doesn’t show up in its overall record.

Hamilton flexes again
In a battle of the top two teams in Arizona, all the streaks continued for Hamilton (Chandler, Ariz.), which won its seventh straight game this season, 38-20 over Chandler (Ariz.), 32nd overall and 14th consecutive over its cross-town rival.

Kyren Poe was superb with three touchdown passes and a huge trick play paid dividends for Hamilton, which contained highly-touted quarterback and UCLA-bound Brett Hundley.

According to Arizona Republic reporter Richard Obert, Hamilton dropped seven players into coverage and dared Hundley to throw. It was the same defense implemented last season in the state semifinal playoffs, a 49-21 Hamilton win.

Hundley passed for more than 200 yards but completed less than 50 percent of his throws.

Poe, meanwhile, completed TD passes of 5 and 8 yards to Jacob Andrews and Kendyl Taylor respectively.

Then, while leading 24-14, Hamilton rode its stellar offensive line, which includes a pair of Division I commits, Texas-bound Christian Westerman and Oregon-bound Tyler Johnstone, to a 70-yard scoring drive that chewed up more than nine minutes.

That sealed it.

Hamilton, No. 24 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 national rankings, also scored on a 71-yard double pass from backup quarterback Blake Kemp to Tanner Clay. Chandler dropped to 4-3.