Junior Wade Peters and the Trenton offense gave the hometown fans a taste of what the 2003 Trenton High School football team could be like on Friday night.
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Junior Wade Peters and the Trenton offense gave the hometown fans a taste of what the 2003 Trenton High School football team could be like on Friday night.
The Bulldogs amassed almost 300 yards of offense and 35 points in the first half on their way to their first win of the season, a 49-14 victory over Cameron at C.F. Russell Stadium.
?Our offense did a much better job of doing their assignments,? Head Coach Rich Johnson said. ?Our offensive line all went to the men they were supposed to block. That is an improvement over last week. However, we were not able to physically dominate Cameron. We simply executed our scheme better than they executed theirs.”
After being held to just over 200 yards of total offense against South Harrison, the Bulldogs rolled their way to 425 yards of total offense against the Dragons. Peters paced the Bulldogs in the first half with 148 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Peters also connected for 125 passing yards. He threw a touchdown to Jordan Ferguson and then hit Zane Robinson for a second passing touchdown. Peters finished the game with 163 yards rushing on 10 carries.
?Our offense becomes very dangerous when we can run and pass,? Johnson said. ?Having two dimensions makes it so tough on a defense. This is the first year since I have been here that we really feel confident in the passing game. Our kids spent a lot of time in the off-season working on the passing game and I think that work has paid off in the first two weeks.?
Trenton?s junior quarterback left the game with leg cramps after the Bulldogs’ first offensive series in the second half and did not return. Freshman Ryan Bosley stepped in and, with the help of a strong rushing attack, went in for two more scores.
Jesse Ingraham finished the evening with 72 yards on 12 carries, including two touchdowns. Jesse Meek had 42 yards on 10 carries.
THS put together three drives of over 10 plays for touchdowns. The Bulldogs also earned 15 first downs and were an impressive 10-of-11 on third down. Trenton had to punt only once and did not have a single turnover.
?The kids set a goal of getting better each week,? Johnson said. ?I think we accomplished that against Cameron. But if we want to beat teams better than Cameron, we cannot be satisfied with Friday?s performance. This football team still has a lot of growing up to do if we hope to be competitive at the end of the season.?
With all the success Trenton had on offense, it could be easy to overlook the Bulldogs? second strong showing on defense. Trenton held the Dragons to less than a 100 yards rushing and less than 150 yards passing. The Bulldogs? pass rush got to Cameron?s quarterback, Drew Newhart, four times. It also knocked down four passes and allowed only five rushing and seven passing first downs.
?The biggest play of the game came on defense,? Johnson said. ?Cameron had third and short and our defense stopped them. Then on fourth and short, our defense responded again and we took over on downs, went in, and scored, making the game 14-0.?
On the following series, Cameron took the ball in for their first score. After Trenton scored again, Cameron was on its way to another touchdown before THS was able to regroup and stop the Dragons.
?We called timeout and basically told our kids to get their heads in the ballgame,? Johnson said. ?We were not doing our jobs and we were not using good technique. After we settled down and started to play correctly, our defense really played well.?
Last season the Bulldog defense surrendered nearly 28 points per game. But so far this season, THS is allowing just 17 points a game.
Ingraham led the way for the Trenton defense with eight total tackles. Meek had five tackles and a sack while Tyler Greenwood finished with four tackles and a sack. Andy Cox chipped in with six tackles and Robinson had six tackles and two pass deflections.
?Our defense is still playing very hard, which is great,? Johnson said. ?But we still have to play smarter football. We made too many mental mistakes; they just weren?t able to capitalize on those mistakes.?
The Bulldogs improve to 1-1 and next head to Lathrop to take on the 0-2 Mules. The Mules lost to St. Joseph LeBlond Saturday evening.
?After South Harrison, I told the boys to keep playing hard and getting better and it won?t be long before we will be the ones celebrating,? Johnson said. ?Now that we got that first win out of the way, it would be nice to get on a roll and string a couple of wins together. But that won?t be easy against Lathrop.”
?They are going to be hungry and they have lost to two pretty good football games,? Johnson continued. ?The keys for us will be again to stop the run on defense and movie the ball on offense. Our young line has to answer the challenge and play better than they did in the first two games.?