Jim Mashek

SOUTH COACH BRANDON SMITH: ‘IT’s TOUGH, BUT WE DEFINITELY HAD OPPORTUNITIES …’

LEXINGTON — South Warren High School’s football team arrived at UK’s Kroger Field as a decided underdog, squaring off with Louisville’s Trinity High School, the perpetual contender, in the KHSAA Class 6A state championship game on Saturday evening.

The Spartans staggered out of the gate, giving up a 51-yard touchdown run to the Shamrocks’ Ashton Taylor in the game’s first minute. And things for the Nashville Road school would get worse, as Trinity took a 21-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.

And then …

South Warren’s Isaiah Bridges made a spectacular play on the second-half kickoff, fielding the ball at the Spartans’ 2-yard line and finding a seam on the left sideline on his way for a 98-yard kick return for a score.

And then …

South Warren’s defense began to tighten, against Trinity’s star quarterback, 6-foot-1, 210-pound junior Zane Johnson. And with about nine minutes left in the third quarter, South’s Camden Page hit senior wideout Jake Carter for a 49-yard touchdown pass, again trimming the Trinity lead to 14 points …

And then …

The Shamrocks’ defense responded itself, and Trinity safety Elijah Burns-Crump made the play of the game, intercepting a pass from South’s Chase Bell at the goal line in the game’s final four minutes.

And that was pretty much that.

Trinity 28, South Warren 14.

The Shamrocks claimed their 30th KHSAA state championship, an impressive record by any measure, while finishing their season at 13-2 overall. South Warren fell short it, in its pursuit of the fourth KHSAA state championship in school history — the Nashville Road school didn’t open until 2010 — while finishing the season 14-1 overall.

“It’s tough … but we definitely had opportunities,” South Warren coach Brandon Smith said when it was over. “(Trinity has) been here (at the KHSAA’s State Championship Weekend), and it had been awhile for us … We were probably a little too pumped up, a little anxious, in that first quarter.”

Trinity claimed its third consecutive state championship. Junior running back Jamaurion Berry, a 5-foot-10, 220-pound bruiser, was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. Berry carried the ball 10 times for 78 yards and two touchdowns, the 29-yard dash to the end zone accounting for all of Trinity’s scoring (along with the extra point) after halftime.

The Spartans went down swinging, as South coach Brandon Smith said was the plan all along. Media outlets might have made Trinity a prohibitive favorite, but the Spartans were having none of that.

“To be blunt, we came here to win,” Smith said. “I’m really proud of what these seniors accomplished … This group, when they were freshmen, won one game all year, in overtime, and here they are playing in the championship game …

“You always want to measure a team by how close they came to playing to its potential. This team came awfully close to doing that.”

Camden Page, a 6-foot-4 junior, and Chase Bell, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, shared the quarterbacking duties for South Warren, as they have all season. Page completed 13 of 31 passes for 221 yards and the TD pass to Jake Carter, while throwing two interceptions and taking four sacks. Bell, meanwhile, completed 3 of 5 passes for 53 yards, without a score, while taking two sacks.

“Our front line, that’s the strength of our defense,” Trinity coach Jay Cobb said.

South Warren actually finished with a significant advantage in time of possession, but the Spartans drew a handful of costly penalties, along with the three turnovers.

Trinity’s Zane Johnson completed 12 of 25 passes for 149 yards and a touchdown, a 26-yard scoring strike to Cross Watson in the final moments of the first half.

I’ll have complete coverage on tonight’s championship game on Sunday. Thanks for reading jimmashek.com