NATCHEZ — It was a win, but you sure couldn’t tell it from watching the faces of the Trinity coaches and players following the Saints’ first round playoff game.

The Saints (12-0) played arguably their worst game of the season and sweated out a 12-6 win over a Riverfield team they had beaten by 28 points in the regular season.

Trinty advances to the second round where they will host Oak Forest next Friday. The Yellow Jackets destroyed Brookhaven 42-20 in their first round game.

“I am disappointed in myself,” Trinity coach David King said. “I thought I had a good offensive game plan but it apparently was not. I didn’t have the boys ready to play and I apologize to the fans for that.”

The Saints could not take advantage of good field position in the first half, as they squandered three chances inside Riverfield’s 20-yard line. They were stopped on downs twice and threw an interception the other time.

“It seemed like we moved the ball up and down the field to the 20s but couldn’t punch it in. The first half we had the ball inside the 20 four times and only scored once.

Riverfield got on the scoreboard first early in the second quarter. A 58-yard run by Jared King set up a 1-yard sneak by quarterback Sherwood Ransom to put Riverfield up 6-0.

Trinity tied the score late in the first half when quarterback Parker Brumfield found Matthew Freeman for a 22-yard scoring strike with 2:11 left in the half.

Riverfield had a chance to take the lead at halftime after Ransom found Andrew Mills open for a 58-yard gain to the Trinity 9 with 23 seconds left.

However, the Saints defense rose up and stopped tailback Brad Rogers on fourth and goal from the 2-yard line as time expired in the half.

“One more touchdown would have been perfect but the kids laid it on the line and played hard,” Riverfield coach Cleo Head said. A touchdown there would have given us a lot of momentum. We just came up short. Football is a game of inches and we didn’t get the inches when we needed them.”

Trinity jumped out on top early in the third quarter when Brumfield found a streaking Clint Easom down the sideline for a 30-yard touchdown.

Neither team’s offense really threatened the remainder of the game.

Riverfield’s final chance at victory was snuffed out when Tyler Newstrom hit Rogers behind the line on fourth and three from the Trinity 37 with 2:50 remaining.

“I thought the defense, after the initial scoring drive, made some big plays,” King said. “They really played hard tonight.”

However, King was disappointed in his offense which gained only 228 total yards including just 98 rushing yards.

“We were able to make big plays last time (the two teams met) and we weren’t able to do that tonight,” King said. “The bottom line is I didn’t have them ready to play and I apologize for the way we looked tonight.”