Kevin Hixson went for a walk.
There was a lot to unpack in the immediate aftermath of the Trenton Bulldogs’ 25-24 overtime loss to South Harrison on Friday night in Bethany. So Trenton’s head coach ventured to the far southwest corner of Memorial Stadium. placed his hands atop the fence surrounding the facility and took a moment.
“In games like this we’ve just got to step up and make the plays that it takes,” Hixson said. “To play at a competition level where you are thinking about getting into the playoffs and playing for conference championships you have to make those plays.”
The biggest takeaway was the loss of Tucker Otto, who broke his leg on a punt return in the second quarter. His absence was glaring in the third quarter and in overtime as South Harrison hit Trenton’s secondary for three touchdown passes. Otto, who is in his first season playing football, has been a pleasant surprise for the Trenton coaching staff, particularly for what he brings to Trenton’s pass defense.
Whether or not Otto could have helped stop any one of those three scores will never be known, but the painful truth is even if he had altered one of those scores, Trenton probably would have wound up on the winning end Friday night and probably would be sitting at home this week with a first round district bye.
“We’ve got to get better in the secondary,” Hixson said. “As a team next year that’s going to be one of my main emphases.
“It just seems like there is always something and we’re playing behind the eight ball, emotionally. We come out here and Tucker breaks his leg — there is just always something and some type of adversity we are trying to fight through. Our kids do a pretty good job of it, but I’m disappointed tonight. I wanted this for them and then when Tucker got hurt I wanted this win for him. This was a real winnable game.”
The loss kept Trenton from jumping Palmyra and dropped them below Macon. Sitting at the fourth spot in the district standings, Trenton was still on track to host a first round game in the six-team district, but Brookfield sat in fifth. By virtue of their week 1 overtime win over Trenton, the Blue and White Bulldogs jumped the Black and Gold Bulldogs. Trenton will now travel to where its season began for the district opener in Brookfield.
The Bulldogs led much of the way against South Harrison, striking first with quarterback Coleman Griffin stretching the ball over the goal line in the first quarter. Trenton would show the way until the middle of the third quarter when a lull that ultimately cost the Bulldogs, struck.
South Harrison scored twice on pass plays of 30 and 76 yards. Trenton, meanwhile, marched inside the South Harrison 30-yard line after each score but came away with no points.
Trailing 18-10, Trenton’s defense came up big, however, forcing a turnover on downs with South Harrison 20 yards away from making the game a two-score contest. The offense drove into South Harrison territory, only to turn the ball over on downs with 3:09 left on the clock.
Again, the defense came to the rescue. South Harrison was forced to punt with 1:21 left in the game. Trevor Murphy, who was close to blocking a punt earlier in the game, got this one. He blocked the kick and recovered the ball at the South Harrison 19-yard line with 1:11 left.
A team that was beat suddenly had life.
“Murph plays with heart,” Hixson said. “He’s a gentle giant and a great kid. We will miss him next year.”
With 33 seconds left, Griffin found Gabe Novak in the back corner of the end zone for six. Sam Gibson ran in the 2-point conversion and the game was tied.
“We worked that [pass play] all week in practice,” Hixson said. “Honestly, we’ve worked that for a couple weeks. We’ve been working a couple of those just for that occasion. This situation where we’ve got to have something big and it is late game and it paid off for us. Normally Tucker is our guy for that and Gabe just came through.”
Trenton’s first adventure into overtime this season was anti-climactic. Against Brookfield in week 1, Trenton failed to score then gave up a quick touchdown to seal its fate. This would not be the case in week 9. The Bulldogs moved down the field, punching the ball in the end zone on a 3-yard run by Gibson.
With the ease Gibson scored on the game-tying 2-point conversion and went into the end zone again in overtime, Trenton went for 2, despite the fact Gibson had booted one point-after kick and drilled home a 29-yard field goal in the first half. The momentum was with them, but South Harrison got the stop, dragging down Gibson a yard and a half shy.
Trenton’s defense was able to force a third down-and-two situation, but South Harrison converted and a play later, burnt Trenton with a halfback pass for a touchdown for the second time on the night. The score tied the game and the host Bulldogs trotted out their kicker, who was 0-for-2 on point-after kicks to that point in the game. Again the third round belonged to South Harrison and the successful kick ended the game.
South Harrison celebrated raucously. Trenton sat in stunned silence.
Gibson was held below 100 yards for just the second time this season, rushing for 82 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Novak finished with 52 yards on 12 carries and caught two passes for 75 yards and a touchdown. Ian Elbert added 51 yards rushing on eight carries.
With the loss, Trenton wrapped up the regular season with a 4-5 overall record and finished at 4-3 in Grand River Conference play.
The Bulldogs’ second trip to Brookfield is slated for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday as district play begins. The winner of the game will travel to Maryville to take on the top-seeded Spoofhounds the following week.