The Trinity Christian Eagles football team played in its first home game of the season Friday night, Sept. 6, following a season-opening loss on the road to Sacred Heart Muenster.
The Eagles showcased big-play ability on offense, a tenacious effort on defense, and quality special teams work throughout the night, but ultimately came up short in their home opener against the Live Oak Classical Falcons, 22-9.
“We have an opportunity to learn from this and we are inching closer to getting over the hump,” Eagles head coach Cody McKenzie said. “We stalled out on some drives, but the defense really stepped up after giving up over 300 rushing yards last week – we were flying around. We’re young and inexperienced at a lot of crucial positions with the players we’ve lost to injuries, but we are going to go to the film room to learn and grow from this so we can put ourselves in a better position to succeed next Friday.”
The Eagles received the ball first and started the game out well with a successful scoring drive. Senior quarterback Canaan Kaznowski led his team down the field on a six-play, 30-yard drive that was highlighted by a 20-yard Kaznowski run and a 15-yard pass he threw to sophomore tight end Owen Coates. The end result for the Eagles was a 36-yard field goal drilled by senior kicker Micah Harless that put TCA in front 3-0 with 9:32 left in the first quarter.
After each team exchanged three-and-outs, the Falcons put themselves in front 7-3 after scoring on a 30-yard touchdown pass with 4:12 to go in the opening quarter while facing 3rd-and-10. The score remained the same at halftime, although Kaznowski had a 72-yard rushing touchdown wiped off the board due to a holding call.
Two big sacks recorded by junior edge rusher Kadin James helped stall Live Oak momentum and keep points off the board. Both of Live Oak’s possessions in the second quarter resulted in a turnover on downs, but the defense raised its game in the second half – setting the edge more effectively and disrupting the Falcons’ backfield more regularly.
“The defense didn’t play the second half like we did in the first half because of some of the adjustments we made,” McKenzie said. “Our theme this year is to be tough and we came out and played some football while putting ourselves in a position to win in the second half. It’s good to see those guys step up to the challenge, handle some adjustments and execute. We just need to find a way to finish.”
The TCA defense took the field to open the second half and ushered Live Oak off the field in three plays, forcing a punt and a new opportunity for the Kaznowski-led offense. The Eagles offense got to work with a big play on second down.
Live Oak sent multiple defenders into the backfield to try to apply pressure, but sophomore running back Pearson Kuykendall stood tall and strong next to his quarterback, picking up a crucial block that allowed Kaznowski to find Coates deep down the field for an electric 63-yard catch-and-run all the way down to the Falcons’ 12 yard line. From there, the Eagles finished off the seven-play, 75-yard drive with a 27-yard field goal off the foot of Harless.
On the ensuing defensive possession, junior defensive back Dan Southworth broke up a critical Live Oak pass attempt on third down to give the ball back to the Eagle offense, which took over at the Live Oak 48 with 3:02 left in the third quarter. Kuykendall converted on fourth-and-2 with a clutch 13-yard run that allowed TCA to gain some offensive rhythm on a drive that spanned into the fourth quarter.
Then, Harless booted a 24-yarder through the uprights for a 9-7 lead at the 9:44 mark in the fourth quarter, the Eagles’ first lead since 3-0 in the first.
In spite of TCA’s best efforts, Live Oak had the last laugh, scoring the last 15 points of the game.
The Eagles scored three times but tightened up in the red zone, and McKenzie expects continued progress from his players through continued mental and physical repetitions as the season progresses.
“We’ve got to find our matchups and take care of the line of scrimmage when we get into the red zone,” McKenzie said. “We’ve got to lower our pad levels and move the line of scrimmage. We have to tweak our matchups, because we have some guys that can win those one-on-one matchups in man coverage. We just need to learn from this mentally and put it into practice on Monday.”
TCA (0-2) will be back in action at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Era (1-1).
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