Calhoun loses region match up against Blessed Trinity
The Calhoun Yellow Jackets hosted the Blessed Trinity Titans in the biggest game of the night in Region 7-AAAAA that will undoubtedly go a long way in determining region supremacy. It was a hard-fought game, but Blessed Trinity (3-0, 1-0) ultimately came out on top 35-21. Calhoun head coach Clay Stephenson was proud of his team’s performance in the game.
“I am very proud of our guys,” Stephenson said. “Give credit to Blessed Trinity. They’re a good football team. We knew that going in. I asked our guys to do four things – play with great emotion and passion, fight until the end, play together and play with great trust. They did all four of those. We just got to figure out a way to put them in a better position to win the football game at the end.”
The story of the night was the outstanding rushing performance of Blessed Trinity running back Justice Haynes. Haynes rushed for 370 yards on 39 carries and scored all five of the Titans’ touchdowns. Stephenson tipped his cap to Haynes after the game.
“We knew he was a great back,” Stephenson said. “He’s tough out there in space. We knew we’d have to make some one-on-one tackles. We made a few of those and missed a few of them. We just didn’t get it done.”
The game was tied at 21 going into the fourth quarter, and that’s when Blessed Trinity’s power running attack arguably had the unit’s greatest success on the night. Haynes took a handoff and scored from nine yards out to cap a 12-play drive that took over six minutes off the clock.
Calhoun (5-2, 1-1) drove down the field on the next series, and with a little over four minutes to go, it felt like Calhoun had to score a touchdown to tie the game at that moment if they wanted any chance to win the game. Unfortunately for the Jackets, quarterback Christian Lewis’ 4th-down pass to Cole Speer in the end zone was ruled incomplete, and that proved to be the ball game. Haynes scored once more to make it 35-21, and a Dylan Faulkner interception sealed the deal.
Yellow Jackets’ running back Jerrian Hames had another nice night for his team, as he rushed for 118 yards on 16 carries with an electric 74-yard touchdown run on the first offensive play of the game. Lewis also made his presence felt on offense with 56 and 29-yard touchdown passes. Stephenson commented on the play of Hames.
“He’s solid,” Stephenson said. “There’s nobody in there hurt more than him. He wished he could’ve done more. He played a great game.”
The Yellow Jackets will travel to Woodland next Friday night for another region test at 7:30 p.m.