CCC BATTLE: Sharpless sharp in Trinity win over Alabama Christian
Quarterback Land Sharpless runs for a first down in Trinity’s win over ACA on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Trinity coach Brian Seymore calls it the “next-man-up mentality,” and the Wildcats are certainly setting the standard after putting together their finest outing of the season in a 28-0 region victory over Alabama Christian on Friday night.
After losing starting quarterback Patton Mitchell with a season ending shoulder injury three weeks before the srart of the season, the Wildcats have scrambled to find an offensive spark, finding four touchdowns in Friday’s region contest from the most unlikely contributors imaginable.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a while,” said senior Tillman Clements, a former 170-pound receiver who didn’t even play last year and rushed on Friday for 114 yards on 16 carries. “This is my first year back and I’ve never played running back so I’ve been adjusting the way I play. Now I’m starting to see all these gaps and the O-line is really clicking. The more reps we get, the better we’re going to get and we’re getting a lot of reps in practice.”
Friday’s matchup was expected to pit two point-challenged offenses against each other, so there was no surprise as the game neared halftime with no score. It was the replacement to the replacement of Mitchell who struck first as freshman Land Sharpless connected with tight end William Hughes on a 20-yard touchdown play for a 6-0 halftime lead.
“He’s a freshman, the third man down the line,” Clements said of Sharpless. “For a freshman and the third man down the line, he’s doing incredible. And he’s only going to get better.”
The Wildcats would strike again early in the third quarter when Sharpless grabbed a high snap off the ground, realized the play had blown up and sprinted to the open part of the field for a 35-yard gain to the 1-yard line. Sophomore lineman Baylor Cox ran the final yard and tight end Luke Hall ran in the two-point conversion out of Wildcat formation for a 14-0 lead.
The Wildcats broke open the game on the first play of the fourth quarter, a third-and-11 pass in the left flat from Sharpless to Clements, who turned on the speed and headed 48 yards to the end zone.
“We’ve been holding that one,” Clements said. “Really, it was just get around the end. The QB put it right on the spot. It wasn’t a hard catch or anything, I just caught it and ran. Really, props to the QB because that was an incredible pass.”
Freshman running back Reed Bledsoe added a 22-yard score to give the Wildcats their highest point production of the season as they improved to 3-1.
“It’s been a slow process,” Seymore said. “We made some mistakes in the first half but I really challenged our kids at halftime to be physical up front on both sides of the ball. I felt like we did that. We made a clutch throw there on third down. Land hit Tillman on a play we’ve been working on if we could get the right matchup and we did. He dropped it in the bucket right there.
“I’m proud of the guys. We’ve faced a lot of adversity, a lot of ups and downs, but our kids keep grinding, they keep finding a way. I’m super proud of them for coming over here and getting a huge region win at Faulkner University against ACA.”
Both Trinity and Alabama Christian (2-2) are challenged by rebuilding efforts and both coaches preached a similar pre-game sermon to their players.
“Our coaches put us in the perfect position to make good plays,” said Trinity linebacker Wilson Cherry. “They said before the game, the most physical team is going to come out on top and I think we were the most physical team out there. And that scoreboard will say it.”
ACA coach Michael Summers praised his players’ efforts, but said the Eagles’ defense wore down against a larger offensive line and the offense struggled to keep a faster Trinity defense blocked.
“We knew when they started hitting weakside, it was going to put us in a problem,” Summers said of the challenge facing his defense. “We just blew too many assignments. Look, those two linemen they have, especially in the second half, as the game went on, their size wore us down.
“(Against Trinity’s defense), I think it was their quickness. I don’t think we blocked ‘11’ (Cherry) all night. We felt like we knew exactly what stunts they were running. We picked them up, we just couldn’t stay on them.”
Alabama Christian dropped to 1-1 in region play and will face a crucial test next week in Prattville against Prattville Christian in a region game. Trinity, meanwhile, should have an opportunity to work on improving, facing a winless Slocomb team in a region game next Friday, followed by a winless St. James team the week after.
“We are getting better and I’m proud of our coaches,” Seymore said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys getting a lot of the reps but that’s part of the game, the next-man-up mentality. This is the best effort we’ve played with all year and the credit goes to them for coming out here and executing.”
Clements, the receiver-turned-running back, praised his team’s effort as well.
“The game plan was just to run it down their throats and that’s what we did,” he said. “The offensive line did an incredible job tonight, both sides of the ball, defensive and offensive. They just dominated. They gave me the gaps to run through and I just took it.”
Christian Snipes completed 6 of 18 passes for 41 yards for ACA, while Micah Merritt had eight carries for 60 yards and Snipes had 11 carries for 42 yards. Defensively, Mekhi Gardner had 10 tackles, followed by LaDarius Walters with eight.
Sharpless completed 3 of 7 passes for 83 yards to lead Trinity, adding 67 yards on seven carries, followed by Hall with 47 and Branbdon Boswell with 43. Cherry and Christian Bailey led the team in tackles.