Nottingham pitches shutout, hands Trenton first loss
HAMILTON >> The Nottingham High football team didn’t just have it a chip on it’s shoulder. It was more like a 500-pound anvil.
And no one could knock it off, as the Northstars scored 24 second-half points and got a rousing defensive effort in taking a 24-0 victory Saturday over Trenton.
It was the first loss for the Tornadoes (3-1) while Nottingham improved to 2-2 overall and 2-0 at home.
“This means everything to us,” said junior linebacker Chris McRae, whose two interceptions changed the game’s complexion. “Everybody was doubting us all week long. Everybody. Our own family members were doubting us, our own school was doubting us. We came out victorious and we’ll keep trying as hard as we can in practice.”
“We just wanted to get at it,” said lineman Geordany Alexis, who had three of Nottingham’s seven sacks. “We had people doubting us, people from our own school doubting us. We just had to get after it. The whole week everybody thought, ‘Oh Trenton’s gonna beat us 30-0 like last year.’ We just went hard in practice. I wanted to play 110 percent. People were doubting me so I had to go a little bit harder.”
Nottingham’s entire defense went at it hard, allowing Trenton only 153 yards of total offense and just 59 rushing yards. In fairness, the Tornadoes were without multi-threat quarterback James Hubbard for most of the second half due to injury. But Trenton also committed 11 penalties for 105 yards that constantly hurt its offense and special teams.
“This was like a wake-up call,” Trenton fullback Jaron Encaracion said. “We beat Rancocas Valley (two weeks ago), a team we hadn’t beaten in a long time. So we came out here thinking it was gonna be a walk in the park. You best believe we’re gonna come back next week, we’re gonna fix our mistakes, no more penalties.”
TCHS dominated the first half, running 30 plays to just 16 for Nottingham. But the Stars had the best scoring opportunity when two Trenton penalties on punts gave the Stars a first-and-goal at the 10. But Kyle Anderson’s interception ended the half as time ran out.
Nottingham got a nice return to start the second half and started at Trenton’s 49. It took 11 plays before Diontae Nicholson scored on a one-yard run. Marc Kauffman, who had 43 second-half yards after minus-one in the first half, rushed for 32 and caught a pass for eight during the drive. Isaiah Barnes’ conversion run made it 8-0.
Early in the fourth quarter McCrae returned his first interception 26-yards to the 1-yard line, setting up Kauffman’s touchdown run.
“We were stopping the running plays, I knew they were gonna have to pass the ball,” McCrae said. “At first I thought it was a run play because they had a power set-up, but then the fullback came out and I was watching him the whole time. He tried to cut out and I ran right in front of him to catch the pass.”
McRae got another pick off a deflected pass on Trenton’s next possession that he returned 29 yards to the 14, but the TCHS defense held. Next it was Northstar Kwanir Edwards’s turn, as his 35-yard interception return set up another 1-yard TD run by Kauffman.
“Those interceptions helped us out and we executed on the offensive side of the ball,” Alexis said. “On both sides of the ball we did what we had to do.”
Asked what the game-plan was, exuberant coach Milo McGuire yelled out, “Shock the world!”
Asked to elaborate, the response was, “Shock the world! Run our execution and shock the world.”
No so shockingly, McGuire had praise for his defensive stars, saying, “McRae’s two picks were awesome, especially for a guy who doesn’t get much time. And they couldn’t block Geordany. We wore them down and were able to keep moving.” And shock the world. But not themselves.
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores Trenton (3-1) 0 0 0 0 – 0 Nottingham (2-2) 0 0 8 16 - 24 N-Nicholson 1 run (Barnes run) N-Kauffman 1 run (Edwards run) N-Kauffman 1 run (Kauffman run)