Friday night was not a good night for the Trenton Bulldogs. As if a long road trip wasn’t enough, the Bulldogs were sent home from Carthage, IL with a 48-0 loss at the hands of the Illini West Chargers.
Illini West controlled the line offensively and defensively, raking up 339 rushing yards while holding Trenton to just 68 yards on the ground.
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“They were a very good football team – as good as advertised,” Trenton Head Coach Wes Croy said. “We knew we were going to have to play extremely well to have a chance to be in the football game and they just controlled the line of scrimmage up front on both sides of the football. Basically, they knocked us off the ball and then, when we were on offense, we weren’t able to get much movement at all and couldn’t get our backs any room to run. We just got manhandled up front and out-physicaled up front.”
Illini West struck first early when Bryton Smith capped the Chargers’ opening possession with a 35-yard touchdown run. Things only snowballed from that point on as Smith and Alex Appel each scored twice in the game and the Chargers went on to blow Trenton out.
“They hid the ball well and had really good deception in their scheme,” Croy said of the Chargers’ offense. “They caused us a lot of headaches and it wasn’t anything we didn’t practice for or see, they just executed extremely well. It was a long, difficult night for us.”
Trenton’s best chance to score in the game came just before halftime. Austin Taul ripped off a 22-yard run and followed it up with a halfback pass to Colby Larson that went for 24-yards and set the Bulldogs up inside the five yard line. An offsides call and an offensive pass interference call backed Trenton up and strong defense from Illini West kept Trenton out of the end zone on four straight plays.
“We ran pitch-pass and got it down to the one or two yard line and had four shots at it,” Croy said. “The thing that hurt us the most in that situation was the offsides penalty that moved us back to the six. We weren’t able to get in and we could have kicked a field goal right there and we feel like we would have made the field goal because Seth (Acton) has been such a good kicker all through the year. It was a 32-point game, though, and at that point we just felt like we needed to get a seven on the board if we could. Again, though, they just took over on the line of scrimmage and dominated us up front. They didn’t allow us to get into the end zone and it was a thing of pride for them. You could tell they were excited when they stopped us and that is the mark of a great football team.”
Trenton was dealt a blow early when leading rusher Dillon Triplet left the game after the first series with a knee injury. Triplet is currently questionable for Friday night’s home match-up with Kirksville. With third-string back Colton Neff nursing a knee injury of his own, Mason Mounce stepped in and ended up leading the Bulldogs with 40 yards on nine carries.
“Mason is a sophomore and we are really comfortable with our backs,” Croy said. “Dillon and Austin, the two starters, have been very productive for us, but we have other guys like Neff, Mounce, Travis Leeper, Bailey Owen and Chance Houghton, before he got hurt. We have a lot of faith in them running the football, so it’s always a bad thing when you lose a talented player like Dillon, but I thought Mason stepped in and did a really good job for us. We were able to get some runs out of him that helped us move the chains from time-to-time.”
Another bright spot for the Bulldogs in the loss was the play of wide receiver Colby Larson, who had a career-high eight catches for 84 yards. The eight catches came just one week after Larson set his previous career high with seven catches in a win over Lincoln Prep.
“(Colby) is starting to play like we thought he would when he was a freshman,” Croy said. “He is a very talented athlete and he is getting more comfortable with the game of football. Unfortunately he is a senior, but he is catching the ball really well right now. He is understanding his route running and his blocking really well and he is turning into a very good all-around football player for us and one that is extremely valuable to us right now. Without his ability to catch the football and move the chains through the air, we would have struggled a lot more than we have the last couple of weeks. It’s good to see him develop and see him and (Jacob Spillman) get a rapport where they can hook up on a regular basis throughout the year.”
Spillman finished 8-of-13 passing with two interceptions, but his 69 pass yards moved him into fifth place on Trenton’s all-time passing list. Spillman now has thrown for 860 yards in his career with Trenton, six more than former fifth-place John Hamilton, who threw for 854 yards in his high school career.
The loss dropped Trenton to 3-4 on the season. Trenton will look to again even its record Friday night as they return home to host Class 4 Kirksville at C.F. Russell Stadium in Trenton. Kickoff between the Bulldogs and Tigers is set for 7 p.m.
INDIVIDUAL SCORING
First Quarter
IW – Bryton Smith 35-yard run (Smith pass from Brody Gronewold)
IW – Alex Appel 17-yard run (Gronewold run)
Second Quarter
IW – Smith 5-yard run (Smith run)
IW – Ben Gittings 1-yard run (Smith pass from Gronewold)
Third Quarter
IW – Appel 2-yard run (Smith run)
Fourth Quarter
IW – Bryor Grotts 2-yard run (Leighton Johnson pass from Gronewold)
TEAM STATISTICS
THS IWHS
First Downs 9 15
Rushes-Yards 27-68 48-339
Passing Yards 93 11
Comp-Att-Int 9-15-2 2-3-0
Total Yards 161 350
Penalties-Yards 4-40 1-5
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-0
Punts-Avg 3-33.3 0-0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Trenton, Mason Mounce, 9-40; Austin Taul, 8-34; Dillon Triplet, 3-3; Dalton Ellis, 1-(-1); Jacob Spillman, 5-(-8). Illini West, Alex Appel, 9-113; Bryton Smith, 8-83; Ben Gittings, 11-53; Dayton Huss, 6-33; Brody Gronewold, 5-26; Jacob Sholl, 2-20; Bryor Grotts, 2-8; Brayden Carroll, 1-3; Leighton Johnson, 1-3; Gabe Thompson, 3-(-3).
PASSING – Trenton, Spillman, 8-13-2, 69 yards; Taul, 1-2-0, 24 yards. Illini West, Gronewold, 2-3-0, 11 yards.
RECEIVING – Trenton, Larson, 8-84; Chris Kurtz, 1-9. Illini West, Smith, 2-11.
INTERCEPTIONS – Trenton, none. Illini West, Alex Ourth, 1-3; Smith, 1-0.
PUNTING – Trenton, Seth Acton, 3-100; 33.3 avg. Illini West, none.
KICK RETURNS – Trenton, Taul, 3-50; Travis Leeper, 3-48; Triplet, 1-14.
DEFENSE – Trenton, Dalton Burkeybile, 8 tackles; Garrett Runnels, 8 tackles; Spillman, 5 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack; Charlie Hoffman, 5 tackles; Mason Mounce, 5 tackles; Taul, 4 tackles; Larson, 4 tackles; Dakota Galvin, 3 tackles; Wyatt Coffman, 2 tackles; Landon Hughs, 2 tackles; Cree Mullenix, 2 tackles; Triplet, 1 tackle; Josh Davis, 1 tackle.