Trinity gets sloppy homecoming win

Published 12:12 am Saturday, October 8, 2011

Trinity Episcopal’s Demarcus Fleming tries to get past Prairie View Academy’s Garrett Laird during their game Friday night at Trinity. The Saints won 34-6. (Eric Shelton \ The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — About the only thing that was pretty at Trinity Episcopal’s homecoming win Friday night was the girls on the homecoming court.

Even though the Saints (7-1) came away with a 34-6 victory against Prairie View Academy (2-5), Trinity looked sluggish at times, highlighted by nine penalties the Saints committed for minus-90 yards.

Head coach David King said he was happy to get out of the game with a win, but he didn’t see much from his team to think they got any better.

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“It was just a win,” King said. “We didn’t do anything to improve our football team tonight. We won a football game, but we just have a tremendous amount of work to do before we play Oak Forest, because they’ll be an outstanding football team.

“We won the football game, but that’s all there is to say, really.”

Trinity’s Tanner Cage tries to fight off Prairie View Academy’s Nathan Byrnside during their game Friday night at Trinity. Trinity won 34-6. (Eric Shelton \ The Natchez Democrat)

Although the Saints lost almost an entire football field’s distance with penalties, King said that didn’t bother him as much as his team playing down to the level of competition, he said.

“That’s just high school football,” King said. “Sometimes we get different crews that call different things. I’m not upset about the penalties, that’s just part of football.

“We just won a football game, but we weren’t very pretty tonight. Honestly, we played down to the level of competition. I don’t like to do that, but these are high school kids, and sometimes you get games like this.”

Trinity scored on its first play from scrimmage when quarterback Scott Turner hit Tip McKenzie with a 47-yard touchdown pass at the 11:38 mark in the first quarter. Jake Winston missed the extra point — his only miss of the night — and the Saints had an early 6-0 lead. Later in the first, Turner added another touchdown on an 11-yard carry.

McKenzie scored his second touchdown of the night on an 8-yard pass from Turner with 8:45 left in the second quarter.

A fumble recovery by the Saints’ Caleb Cross at the Prairie View 11-yard line put Trinity in position to get a quick score late in the first half. Several penalties pushed the Saints back to the 35, but Tanner Cage caught a quick pass and ran it in 35 yards for the score, giving the Saints a 27-0 lead at the half.

McKenzie scored his final touchdown with 5:40 left in the third on a 46-yard interception return.

With Trinity’s backups getting some playing time in the fourth quarter, Prairie View managed its only touchdown of the night on a 4-yard run by Nathan Williams with 3:40 left to play.

Cage led the Saints in rushing with 54-yards on six carries. Turner was 6-for-14 in passing with 154 yards and three touchdowns. Cage lined up at quarterback late in the game, but only attempted one pass, which was incomplete.

McKenzie had two catches for 55 yards and two touchdowns, and Jake Winston led Trinity in receiving with three catches for 64 yards.