Thunder edge Raiders in overtime
Blessed Trinity beat Holy Cross 21-20 Monday in NCAA senior football action. Photos by William Vanderland.
It won’t go down as the best-played high school football game of the season, but Monday’s senior battle between the Blessed Trinity Thunder and Holy Cross Raiders will be hard to beat in terms of excitement and drama.
In the end, Blessed Trinity improved to 1-2 on the season in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association play with a 21-20 overtime victory over the visiting Raiders (0-2).
Blessed Trinity looked to have the game won with a 20-13 lead late in the fourth quarter before Holy Cross quarterback Josh Barber hooked up with Christian Bradley for a 17-yard TD pass to cut the lead to 20-19. Again Blessed Trinity seemed to seal the deal when Dillon Todd blocked the convert with less than 20 seconds left in the game. But Holy Cross had other ideas. Bradley was able to recover the ensuing on-side kick, setting up a game-tying rouge by Dan Smith in the dying seconds.
The single point set the stage for a wild overtime following a format of each team taking possession of the ball from 35 yards out and trying to score.
On its first possession, Holy Cross got to the one-yard line before getting stopped on third down. Blessed Trinity responded by getting to first and goal from the one-yard line before it too failed to score.
Holy Cross was stopped on the one-yard line on its second possession and it took until the third possession by Blessed Trinity before Thunder quarterback Hunter Oakley booted the winning rouge from the eight-yard line.
Oakley, who came on in the second half in relief of starter Gavin Banga, played a key role in the Thunder’s victory. He tossed a pair of TD passes to rally his team and his 53-yard pass to Jacob Kohut capped a 105-yard drive.
“We had a couple of kids go down in the backfield which limited our options early so we made a quarterback change which gave us a bit of a lift at halftime,” Blessed Trinity head coach Sean Jones said. “He (Oakley) has been repping in practice as our backup so he knows the offence and he is familiar with it and he came in and did a heckuva job.
“He’s a courageous player and he made some big plays for us that kept us in the game.”
The Grade 12 student came on in relief in the fourth quarter of his team’s game last week against Notre Dame so he was familiar with the role.
“It’s tough when your team is down and you are going in as QB and you have to get things going, but you just have to learn how to motivate your guys, make a play and be able to make something out of nothing,” the 17-year-old said.
Being prepared is crucial.
“You have to ready beside the coach, watching the game and always making sure that you know what is happening out there,” the 5-foot-11, 150-pounder said.
Oakley quarterbacked the BT junior team to a championship in his Grade 10 year, but his Grade 11 season was one he would rather forget.
“I played last year but I was kicked off the team for personal reasons,” he said. “My dad passed away last year and I wasn’t on the team very long.”
He is glad to be back playing football for the Thunder.
“I just wanted to play football this year,” he said. “I had a fun time this summer playing summer ball and they asked me to come and play quarterback and it has been fun ever since.
“I just like it.”
Jones would have liked to have done without all the drama of Monday’s game.
“That triple overtime round was a first for me,” he said. “There are a lot of fundamentals that we need to work on and we are not where we need to be in order to compete properly.”
Holy Cross had its chances to win but came up short.
“I am proud of the way the kids played,” Holy Cross head coach Gerry DiSanto said. “They never gave up and we played another full game of football and we can build from this as we restart the program.”
The game was a good test of playing under pressure.
“We’ve got Notre Dame next and hopefully we can bounce back and give them a good showing too,” DiSanto said.
STATS PACK
Thunder 21 Raiders 20 (OT)
Johnny Rocco’s/Mick and Angelo’s/Cracker Jacks Player of the Game: BT quarterback Hunter Oakley who threw two second-half TD passes and kicked the winning single in overtime.
For the Blessed Trinity Thunder: Hunter Oakley, 27-yard TD pass to Cole Arnold and 53-yard TD pass to Jacob Kohut, two-point convert on pass to Jimmy Hillyard and single point on punt; 53-yard TD pass from Gavin Banga to Corbin Paterson; Gabe Lavender, fumble recovery.
For the Holy Cross Raiders: Christian Bradley, four-yard TD run and 17-yard TD catch from Josh Barber; Dan Smith, one-yard TD run; fumble recovery; Kyle Schild-Murray, fumble recovery.
Game stats: First downs: Blessed Trinity 14, Holy Cross 16. Net offence: Blessed Trinity 310, Holy Cross 290. Turnovers: Blessed Trinity 4, Holy Cross 3. Penalties: Blessed Trinity 17 for 110 yards, Holy Cross 6 for 75 yards.
