Trinity Opens Season with Dominant 36-3 Win Over Bryan Station
It was a devastating end to the 2022 season for the Trinity Shamrocks last December, as they managed just one score en route to a 10-7 loss to Bryan Station in the 6A quarterfinals. Friday night’s season opener completely flipped the script, as an edgier Shamrocks squad, in their third season under head coach Jay Cobb, came out and dominated the Defenders from start to finish. The #11 ranked Shamrocks downed the #19 ranked Defenders 36-3 in a statement win to open the 2023 high school football season.
Trinity senior running back Clinton Sansbury was the star in this one. Sansbury, who scored in all but four games last season, found the end zone on three separate occasions Friday night. “The O-Line was dominating in the trenches and the defense was setting us up with good field position,” Sansbury said. “I had the easy job… finding the holes and making the right cuts.”
The Shamrocks were in total control from start to finish. After starting the game with possession, quarterback Jackson Hepner led a masterful six minute touchdown drive, staying alive with a fourth-and-one Sansbury sneak inside the five yard line. Sansbury was once again entrusted with the rock, bulldozing through untouched for the first six points of the contest.
The Trinity defense had their way with the Station offensive line, sacking Station quarterback Zane Cutwright a total of three times in just the first quarter. Following the third sack of the quarter by junior DL Bailey Vance, Cutwright was intercepted by Trinity senior defensive back Brandon Stafford on 3rd & 31. With the Shamrocks marching right down the field once again, Station senior linebacker Dahvon Frazier secured a huge redzone interception, signaling possible signs of life for the Defenders. However, it wouldn’t last for long.
Just as the Station offense began to experience their first solid drive of the night, disaster struck for Cutwright once again. Cutwright bobbled the snap, recovered it, rolled out to his left, and was tackled and fumbled once again, leading to a scoop-and-score fumble recovery touchdown for Trinity senior linebacker Chase Lockhart. The Shamrock faithful were loving what they were seeing.
Trinity head coach Jay Cobb raved about his defense after the game. “Those are three year starters. We’ve got eight returning guys defensively and most of those eight are three-year starters. So we expect big things from them,” Cobb said. “We played really great defense last year, we just didn’t turn people over. In order to do that, you have to play on the other guy’s grass. You need TFLs (tackles for loss), you need hurries, you need sacks. I think we saw that tonight.”
Following another quick Bryan Station drive, Sansbury wasted no time scoring his second touchdown of the night, this time from 15 yards out. The Defenders attempted to put some points on the board near the end of the first half, but the field goal snap was snuffed and their attempt was unsuccessful. More bad news was on the horizon for Station Nation, as the second half was not any kinder to Cutwright.
Coming out of the locker room, a slant pass from Cutwright was tipped and intercepted by Trinity senior linebacker Andrew Davis. Just one play later, quarterback Jackson Hepner found senior Lucas Nasser wide open down the sideline for yet another Shamrock score. The ‘Rocks were ‘rollin.
A measly two minutes later, the Shammies once again regained possession and put yet another score on the board thanks to Sansbury’s third touchdown of the game, this time a dive from within the four-yard line. With Station down 36-0, running clock was on and this one ended in no time. You could feel a sense of validation from Sansbury and Cobb, overcoming last season’s demons to usher in a new era at Louisville Trinity.
“It feels amazing,” Sansbury said following the win. “We know we had something to prove from last year. We know we’re a much better team and we wanted to come out here and show it.” Cobb reflected on last year’s loss a bit more in detail, saying ” The last two years, we kind of knew we had two small senior classes. This senior class is a little big bigger but it’s similar in terms of what we had. We didn’t play well down there and they played great. We turned it over and didn’t take care of it, we stumped our toe a little bit. But, the kids were better tonight and they were ready.”
With the 36-3 opening night win, #11 Trinity starts off the season 1-0. With the loss, #19 Bryan Station opens the season 0-1. Trinity will now shift their focus to another huge matchup next Friday night, as the Shamrocks will host #2 Frederick Douglass at Marshall Stadium. Bryan Station will look to garner their first win of the season when they play Franklin County at Boyle County next week.
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