Offense dominates as Trinity drops LAMP in Flag Football
Trinity’s Emma Rose Meldrum avoids the tackle of LAMP’s Amira Rudolphi in Thursday’s game at Ragsdale-Boykin Field. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
LAMP’s defense forced a turnover on downs on its first possession, holding Trinity’s short passing game in check.
So Trinity quarterback Emory Causey went deep on the next possession, connecting with Rebi McLemore on a 52-yard bomb over the middle that opened up the offense and led the Wildcats to a 39-0 win over the Golden Tigers at Ragsdale-Boykin Field on Thursday afternoon.
“Every game is a new experience,” Trinity coach Clinton Adams said of his first-year flag football program. “The girls asked me, ‘What do we know about LAMP?’ I say, ‘I don’t know, we’ll find out when we get out here.’ And once you figure out what kind of coverage they’re going to run, you can call some plays off of that. We have enough plays that can go against a lot of coverages.”
The Wildcats moved the ball on their opening possession, but quick, short passes didn’t sustain the drive and Trinity turned the ball over on downs at the LAMP 37-yard line.
The Golden Tigers dropped everyone in coverage and never rushed Causey.
“It’s my fifth-ever flag football game and it’s my first time ever seeing that,” Causey said. “I’m imagine it’s more common than I would think, but obviously the first time seeing that it’s a little weird. Once you see it and understand what they’re doing, it’s easy to adjust.”
Causey completed 20-of-33 passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns, rushed four times for 7 yards and a pair of touchdowns and caught two passes for 7 yards and a touchdown. The decision by LAMP not to rush led to Causey running for a pair of touchdowns in goal line situations and she managed to complete enough intermediate passes to keep the Golden Tigers off balance.
“That was a conscious decision … because they have such an effective short game,” LAMP coach Michael Thornton said. “We were trying to take that away. Maybe that was the wrong decision, but I felt good about it. We just didn’t guard them. When they came through our zones, we didn’t stick with them. They caught the ball tremendously. Credit to them, there were probably four or five plays where we had three people around them and they still made the catch.
“That was the difference in the game. They caught it and we didn’t.”
LAMP quarterback Chloe Thomas was the game’s leading rusher with 48 yards on seven carries, but completed just 5-of-24 passes and was intercepted twice, along with seven drops by her receivers.
“We were getting what we wanted, especially in some of our newer things we’ve put in,” Thornton said. “Basically, everything that worked Tuesday (in a 33-0 region win over Ellwood Christian) didn’t work tonight, but you’ve got to catch the ball.”
After McLemore’s touchdown catch, the Wildcats scored on Causey runs of 2 and 4 yards for a 20-0 halftime lead. McLemore added a 3-yard touchdown reception late in the third quarter, then added two more scores early in the fourth quarter to end the game. Causey threw to Emma Rose Meldrum, then Meldrum threw to Causey for another score and a 39-0 lead that caused officials to end the game.
Marley Sharpless led the Trinity receivers with 78 yards on nine receptions, followed by Meldrum with 51 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions. McLemore added 73 yards on three catches.
“Obviously, this is a new experience for all of us,” Causey said, “so we’re just trying to come out here and be better today than we were yesterday. I think defensively we’re trying to do a good job being aggressive and offensively just trying to score.”
Trinity (3-2) returns to action next Tuesday at Catholic in a tri-match that includes Trinity, Alabama Christian and Catholic. LAMP (2-5) travels to Elmore County on Tuesday and Marbury on Thursday.