photo by Hannah Reel

Trinity’s Givonni Dent looks to hand off the ball during the game Friday night against Brookhaven Academy. The Saints hope to get back in the winning mode after a two-game losing streak.

Trinity hopes to stop the losing streak

By Jeff Edwards (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Monday, October 12, 2009

NATCHEZ — The Trinity Episcopal Saints are dealing with something they haven’t dealt with in a long time — a two-game losing streak.

After dropping a 27-25 decision to River Oaks on the road two weeks ago, the Saints lost a 25-21 heartbreaker at home to Brookhaven Academy when they were stopped on the 5-yard line as time expired.

The game was played on a muddy, sloppy field after a day of rain.

“It was a tough game,” Trinity head coach David King said afterward. “We just came out on the short end again. We’re not accustomed to losing like this. It’s pretty tough right now.”

The Saints (6-2) are three games through a four-game gauntlet that has them playing four straight Class AA teams that made the playoffs last year.

Trinity defeated Central Private 40-19 to begin the four game stretch, but have lost the last two.

And now two-time defending state champion Centreville is next.

The Tigers (5-3) defeated Wilkinson County Christian 40-13 last week to break their own two-game losing streak.

The game is Trinity’s final non-district game before the Saints close their regular season with district games against Tallulah and Huntington.

A win over one of them will lock up a playoff spot while a win over both gives Trinity the District 6-A championship.

While Trinity has one more non-district game before finishing the season with two district opponents, the Adams County Christian Rebels are in the midst of three consecutive district games that will determine if they make the playoffs or not.

The Rebels defeated District 5-AA opponent Wilkinson County Christian earlier this season but dropped to 1-1 in the district with a 33-21 loss to Central Private last Friday.

And as it was early in the season, turnovers killed the Rebels chances of victory, ACCS coach Paul Hayles said.

“We had turnovers early in the game and you can’t afford turnovers against good football teams,” Hayles said. “I thought we had learned our lesson earlier in the year, but evidently we hadn’t. We dug ourselves a big hole.”

Thanks to the turnovers and the play of Central Private running back Bobby Muse, who scored five touchdowns, the Rebels found themselves down 33-7 in the second half.

That’s when they went to the passing game, and quarterback Kent Yates showed what he can do.

Yates completed 21-of-34 passes for 270 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.

“We went to throwing the ball and Kent did a superb job of getting the ball to his receivers and they did a super job of catching the ball,” Hayles said. “Lee Swinny, Daniel Guedon, Bryce Murray and Dylan Johnson all had big catches in the second half.”

Hayles said that even though ACCS hasn’t thrown the ball a lot this season, they have full confidence in Yates when the need arises.

“That’s an aspect of our game we’ve been knowing is there,” Hayles said. “We work on it a lot in practice. Kent has done a great job for us.”

ACCS faces a huge game on Friday as the Rebels travel to face district foe Silliman.

A Rebels win puts them in prime position for a playoff spot. A loss would severely hurt their chances with Centreville coming up the following week.

“The kids understand what we let get by (last week),” Hayles said. “Central Private is in the playoffs now with that win. Our goal is to find a way to get into the playoffs.”

Over in the MHSAA, Cathedral finally got the winless monkey off its back with a 35-14 victory over West Lincoln.

Green Wave coach Craig Beesley said getting a win was crucial as arch-rival St. Aloysius comes to town on Thursday night.

“That win is big now that we’re going into a short week with St. Al,” Beesley said. “It gives us a little more enthusiasm. The energy level has risen a lot since Friday night.”

The 35 points Cathedral scored against West Lincoln was by far the most the team has scored in a game this year.

The Green Wave’s previous high was 13 against Sebastopol.

Beesley said Cathedral’s defense forced several turnovers and the offense cut down on penalties and negative plays, which allowed the team to score more points.

“We got some turnovers that gave us some good field positions,” Beesley said. “In the second half the offensive line did a good job of blocking and JaDarius Ealey did a good job of running. We still had a couple of plays that put us in long-yardage situations, but in the second half we did cut down on our penalties. As long as we keep it in decent field position, we’ll be OK.”

While Cathedral is celebrating its first win of the season, Natchez High players and coaches are scratching their heads at a stunning 44-15 loss to Brandon.

One week after beating the No. 4 ranked Oak Grove 48-45, the Bulldogs found themselves down 37-0 at halftime to Brandon on their way to the big loss.

“It was a nightmare,” Natchez head coach Lance Reed said. “Right now we’re a very inconsistent program. We’ve got to figure out ways to improve that. We have no answer for it right now other than it’s something we’re not doing right. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and back to work and see how next week will turn out.”

In addition to the loss on the scoreboard, the Bulldogs took just as big a loss on the field, as junior quarterback Javon Washington had to leave the game in the first half with bruised ribs.

Reed said Washington is day to day and is questionable to play on Friday against Jim Hill.

“We’ll have to monitor him closely and see if he can go next week,” Reed said.

In Washington’s absence, sophomore Scott Turner and freshman Derrian Johnson took turns at the quarterback position.

Johnson threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to Santorius Pollard in the third quarter.

Reed said if Washington can’t play Friday, he isn’t sure whether Turner or Johnson would start at quarterback.

“It was tough for both of them (coming into the game in that situation),” Reed said. “Mistakes will be made and they did make mistakes. I think Derrian came in and settled down more than Scott, and closed the game out. We’ll see how they perform this week and make a decision on which one of the guys will be in line (to start) next week.”