Huntingdon’s Top-20 winning streak ends at 18th-ranked Trinity University
SAN ANTONIO – The Huntingdon football team put together some impressive wins during the past month.
The Hawks knocked off then-14th ranked Hampden-Sydney on Sept. 24 and took down then-11th-ranked Wittenberg last week. But on Saturday, 18th-ranked Trinity University was too much for Huntingdon to overcome.
Trinity scored three times in the first half and took advantage of some crucial turnovers to beat Huntingdon 24-7.
"Trinity is a good program. They always have really good teams and they're tough to play at home," Huntingdon head coach Mike Turk said. "We've really been playing well the past few weeks and we've gotten up for all of these big games. Today, it looked like we ran out of gas.
"We turned the ball over and we made mistakes you can't make against a good team like Trinity. We didn't look inspired and that is my fault. It's my job to make sure we're ready to play. Now, we've got to find a way to put this behind us and get ready to play next week. We've got some big games ahead of us and we've got to be ready to play."
The Hawks (5-2) return to action at Samford Stadium on Oct. 22, playing host to Webber International.
Trinity (6-0) wasted little time establishing itself on Saturday. The Tigers marched 78 yards on the first possession of the game. Quarterback Nyk McKissic capped the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.
Trinity gained 128 yards of offense in the first quarter and finished the game with 287 yards of offense. The Tigers had 205 yards and a 17-7 lead at the half.
Linebackers John David Swiger and Kirk Johnson led the Huntingdon defense. Swiger had 12 tackles and Johnson had nine. Johnson also had a sack and a tackle for loss and Swiger had 1.5 tackles for loss.
"We didn't start well on defense, but the defense played well enough to keep us in the game," Turk said. "We just couldn't get anything done on offense. We weren't consistent and turnovers hurt us. We gave them a short field a couple of times and they took advantage of it."
The Huntingdon offense was able to answer the Tigers' first score as Trevor Manuel scored on a 4-yard run with 3:57 left in the first quarter. The rushing touchdown was Manuel's 21st as a Hawk and set a new career record for the Hawks. Manuel became Huntingdon's all-time leading rusher on a 20-yard run in the second quarter. The junior finished with 56 yards in the game and now has 1,821 career rushing yards.
Following the Hawks' score, Trinity drove 62 yards and scored on a 25-yard McKissic-to-Jonathan Osei-Kuffour pass, 10 seconds into the second quarter.
Trinity's final two scores were set up by turnovers. A Neal Posey pass was tipped and intercepted at the Huntingdon 21-yard line, setting up a 38-yard field goal by Garrett Biel. In the third quarter, Antonio Debouse picked off another tipped pass at the Trinity 43 and returned it to the Huntingdon 11. Four plays later, Matthew Kennemer scored on a 7-yard run.
Huntingdon still had opportunities in the second half, but couldn't find the end zone. The Hawks reached the Trinity 1-yard line late in the third quarter but the Tigers forced Manuel to fumble on second-and-goal. Huntingdon's final scoring opportunity came with less than two minutes to play in the game. On fourth-and-goal at the Trinity 7, the Tigers broke up a Posey pass to end the threat.
Posey finished with 306 yards on a 31-of-50 day, was picked off three times and sacked three times. Austin Worley led the receivers with 114 yards on seven receptions.