Trinity starting over, seeking playoff spot
With one swat of their collective hands over Laurel Highlands and a little help from West Mifflin, the Trinity Hillers, 2-6 now overall, can even their record.
How is this possible?
Well, a Trinity win over Laurel Highlands and a West Mifflin win over Ringgold on Friday, will give the Hillers the final playoff spot in the conference and send the Mustangs, et al. home when their regular season runs out.
And Trinity would be like every other playoff team, starting the postseason at 0-0.
“It’s no secret that we have to win to make the playoffs,” said Trinity head coach Jon Miller. “We’re going to try to start the season over and that’s where we’re at.”
Trinity is 1-3 in the Big Eight Conference, a half-game behind Laurel Highlands (2-3, 5-3), which is currently in fourth place. The top four teams in the conference make the WPIAL Class 4A field.
A win by Trinity moves the Hillers ahead of LH but Trinity would hold the tiebreaker. Trinity plays next week at Ringgold, which is 0-4 in the conference, in the final game of the regular season. Trinity has the tiebreaker over West Miffliin but not Ringgold.
“We’ve played one of the toughest schedules in 4A,” Miller said. “Maybe Thomas Jefferson, which played Gateway and South Fayette, did. Our kids are battle-tested and know what’s at stake.”
Belle Vernon, at 5-0 in the conference, is in first place. BV has an open date this week then plays McKeesport (4-0) in two weeks and Thomas Jeffferson (3-0) plays McKeesport tonight.
Laurel Highlands is led by quarterback Rodney Gallagher. The 5-11 junior, who is being recruited by Division I programs in both football and basketball, has completed 74 of 129 passes for 979 yards with 11 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Gallagher has rushed 95 times for 550 yards and scored 10 touchdowns, all team highs.
Gallagher will attack a Trinity defense that allows 36.6 points per game. That’s the highest average in Class 4A.
Trinity also had problems running the football, gaining 324 yards all season. Most of the offense comes from the arm of quarterback Connor Roberts, who has completed 41 of 80 passes for 706 yards.
“Our running problems starts with using four sophomores up front,” said Miller. “When we played Clearfield, they had all senior defensive linemen. Last week, we ran the ball pretty well.
“Connor has done an outstanding job. He’s set the school’s single-season record for attempts, completions and yardage. He’s a great kid and we run everything through him.”
Playoff suspense
Six area teams – Belle Vernon, Washington, Chartiers-Houston, McGuffey, West Greene and Carmichaels – are playoff bound.
Canon-McMillan is in with a win at Norwin and a Baldwin loss to Central Catholic, Fort Cherry can clinch with a win over Cornell, and California and Mapletown each continue into the postseason with one more win.
Grand athlete
Carmichaels quarterback Trenton Carter is having an outstanding season. The 6-2 senior is zeroing in on passing for 1,000 yards and rushing for 1,000 yards. He has passed for more than 1,000 yards and rushed for 833. The Mikes’ final two regular season games are against Avella and Jefferson-Morgan.
Four names come to mind when talking about 1,000-1,000 players: Waynesburg’s Lee Fritz, the first player in WPIAL history to achieve the milestone; Ringgold’s Nico Law, Washington’s Zack Swartz and Beth-Center’s Bailey Lincoski.