Ramblers falln 42-20 to Trion
Distant, but visible lightning illuminated the clouds surrounding LaFayette’s Jack King Stadium for most of Friday night, but the two most intense flashes came from a young man wearing a blue No. 7 on his chest.
Trion senior Jarrett Pierce knifed his way through the LaFayette defense for a 72-yard touchdown run the second time he touched the ball and he added a 59-yard scamper for a second score on the second play of the second half as the Bulldogs claimed a season-opening 43-20 win.
Pierce, who finished with three touchdowns on the night, accounted for over half of Trion’s 309 yards on the ground and did so on just eight carries as he finished with 174. Fullback Logan Blevins bulled his way for 48 yards on 13 carries and one score, while Tanner Railey and Jake Wells both found the end zone once.
After forcing a LaFayette punt on its opening possession, the Bulldogs were called for holding on their first two snaps of the season. Pierce went for a ho-hum four yards on his first carry of the season, but took an end sweep one play later and raced up the sideline, side-stepping one last defender at the LaFayette 20yard line before completing a 72-yard TD run.
Elder Morales added the first of five extra points on the night to give Trion a quick lead.
The Bulldogs defense would hold LaFayette to three-and-out on its first three possessions, while the Trion offense would score the first three times it had the ball.
Pierce capped a 53-yard drive with a 10-yard scoring run late in the first quarter and, after Pierce had a punt return for a score called back on a penalty, Wells polished off a short drive with a 2-yard burst to make it 21-0 less than two minutes into the second quarter.
LaFayette would finally get on track as a nice kick return by Dakota Cathey set the table for a seven-play, 56-yard march. Cathey had a 23-yard run to move the ball into Trion territory and Bryson Smith cashed in on a bruising 16-yard TD run on a fourth-and-three call. Kicker Max Studdard added the placement.
Trion would respond with a 43-yard drive that took just over five minutes off the clock. Railey found the end zone on a 6-yard run and Evan Walker ran it in for the conversion after a bobbled snap on the kick attempt. But Cathey would give LaFayette some life as he ran the ensuing kickoff back 87 yards and the Ramblers would go into halftime down just 29-13.
But two plays in the third quarter, Pierce thrilled the Bulldog faithful by taking handoff at his own 41, running through one tackle and zigzagging his way past three more would-be tacklers for his third and final touchdown of the night.
Walker would block a punt on LaFayette’s next possession and Blevins made it 43-13 with back-toback five yards runs, the last ending up in the end zone.
“Pierce was huge offensively whenever we needed a spark,” Trion head coach Justin Brown said. “His second touchdown was almost a carbon copy of the first. LaFayette had taken a little of the momentum from us there at the end of the first half with that kickoff return, so we felt lot better about having control of things after that.
“Jarrett had a phenomenal night. Some of our offensive linemen got a little tired, but I’m very proud of their effort. We ran the ball pretty well and it was a great offensive effort for us.”
The fourth quarter was played with a running clock. The Ramblers would get the final points of the night on a tackle-breaking 25-yard run by Alan Hu with 57 seconds to play.