Varsity Football – Wet and Wild Season-Opening Win for the Conquerors

Treyaun Webb’s third touchdown of the night gave the Conquerors some insurance with just minutes left, and Jacqary Sineus sealed the win with a game-ending sack as Trinity Christian Academy held off a fantastic comeback effort from the Ed White Commanders. In an offensive explosion from both sides, the Conquerors won 48-40.

The rain, rain did not go away, but the Conquerors and Commanders came to play. In a wet and wild season opener for both teams, the Conquerors outlasted Ed White, who never quit even after falling behind 21-0 in the first quarter.

Webb responded to Commander quarterback Isaiah Teal’s 8-yard touchdown run that pulled Ed White to within a single point at 41-40 with 5:41 left to play. This touchdown followed an hour-long weather delay that sent many fans and media personnel home for the night. When lightning paused the game, Trinity led 41-32 with 8:08 left in the fourth quarter.

Webb gave his team an eight-point margin with a 57-yard touchdown run with 3:36 showing on the clock to put up the game’s final tally. That eighth point may have proved vital had Ed White scored again because the Commanders were already 5 for 5 in two-point conversions.

Sineus, though, thwarted Ed White’s last-ditch effort by sacking Teal on the game’s final play. Ed White drove the ball to the TCA 20 after Webb’s touchdown and set themselves up for a game-tying score. The drive included an incredible 4th-and-24 conversion on a touch pass from Teal to Wake Forest commit Davaughn Patterson, who also threw a key block in the backfield to protect Teal from pressure a brief moment before the pass. Trinity’s Elijah Crocker and Kyle Boylston kept Patterson from scoring.

Boylston then knocked down Teal’s second-down pass from the 20 to set up Sineus’s game-ending sack.

The Conquerors stormed out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead, and all three scores came in the final 5:19 of the period. Webb plowed his way in from 18 yards out for the first touchdown, and Darnell Rogers raced 66 yards untouched for the third TD with 15 seconds left. In between, cornerback Jaykob Jones intercepted a pass and returned it 58 yards for a Pick 6.

Ed White, though, did not wither. Patterson scored twice in the second quarter (10:33, 2:44) on runs of 19 and 31 yards, respectively, and scored the first of the two-point conversions. The teams went into halftime with TCA leading 21-16, then played seesaw football throughout the second half.

Rogers scored his second TD of the night on a 3-yard power run early in the third quarter, but EWHS responded immediately with a Teal TD run of his own less than three minutes later. Webb (5 yards) and Rogers (42 yards) made the score 41-24 late in the third.

Ed White’s Gabriel Garmon recovered a fumble on an over-snap and raced 47 yards to cross the goal line with 8:08 left to play to pull the Commanders to within nine at 41-32, including their fourth two-point conversion (Teal run).

That’s when lightning struck nearby, and the teams left the field for just over an hour.
Rogers (15, 192) and Webb (19, 189) combined for 34 rushes and 381 yards for TCA; each scored three touchdowns. Seth Bialek was 6 for 7 in extra-point attempts.

The rushing quartet of Teal, Patterson, Tavales Thomas, and Benny Lewis combined for 360 yards and 4 touchdowns on 54 carries.
Trinity’s defense (Jones, Boylston) intercepted two of Teal’s passes, and Ed White’s Jordan Jackson picked off Colin Hurley once. Each defense recovered a fumble.

The Conquerors (1-0) will play their home opener against Raines with a kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 2. Trinity will then visit North Florida Educational Institute and return home to battle Bolles and Columbia in the two games that follow.

STATISTICS: Larry Withers, TCA Statistician