Trinity is ‘ready to compete’ at Class 5A
Mark Marietta
For the first time in Dan Knause’s time as coach at Trinity, he won’t have Jonah Williamson as his quarterback.
Williamson is now at Harvard, but plenty of other major contributors return from the first Hillers team to win a conference title since 1986.
Now the new challenge is a bump up in classification.
The Hillers have moved from Class 4A to 5A and will have an almost brand new slate of conference opponents, including perennial powers Upper St. Clair and Peters Township.
Knause said they’ve played plenty of those teams in the past in nonconference play, which should help with the transition.
“I feel like we’re built for this based on the last couple years,” Knause said. “We know it’s going to be a challenge, but we’re excited for the opportunity. We feel it’s the best conference top to bottom in the state of Pennsylvania.”
One thing Knause and the Hillers coaching staff will have to do is identify Williamson’s replacement. Knause said they have three pretty good options to be the quarterback this fall: Owen Samogala, Jake Schreyer and Brady Layhue. Samogala, a junior, played wide receiver last year. Schreyer is a junior and Layhue a freshman.
“We’ve prepared three guys and coached them very hard this summer and each one of them had the luxury of learning from Jonah and seeing our offense,” Knause said. “Owen Samogala, behind the scenes, repped at quarterback pretty much every day last season. Owen is a dynamic athlete who has an offer to play baseball at Richmond. Jake Schreyer probably has the most experience at quarterback and his growth has been amazing to watch through his work ethic. (Layhue) was very successful in the middle school program, which went undefeated last year. He’s a great leader for his age.
“Losing Jonah was huge, but this is the most depth we’ve had at the position where I’m confident in multiple guys.”
Whoever wins the quarterback battle will be paired with an experienced core of skill position players.
Owen Gardner, who recently committed to play at Carnegie Mellon, returns as the lead running back. He had 1,204 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground last year.
He’s part of a group of seniors, along with Daniel Glass, Chase Kostelnik and Braden Berdar, who are filling the leadership void left by Williamson’s graduation.
“I feel like the winter workouts prepared us to take over as the leaders of the team. We had Jonah as the leader of the team and now it’s on all four of us. We each play different positions, so we can lead each of our groups.”
The receiver crops remain mostly intact as well. The top four pass catchers, Ayvari Chandler, Braden Berdar, Daniel Glass and Chase Kostelnik return. Glass is a Davidson recruit.
The quartet combined for 11 touchdown catches last season.
“We’re amped up, because obviously we want to prove it wasn’t a fluke last year,” Kostelnik said. “Everybody knows we’re moving up to 5A, but we’re ready to compete. I know the whole team is ready to go.”
After securing that elusive conference title, Trinity’s season ended in heartbreak in the first round of playoffs against Aliquippa.
The Hillers had the Quips on the ropes, leading in the fourth quarter, but a late touchdown gave Aliquippa a 21-14 win. It was the Quips’ first lead of the game and they went on to win the WPIAL title.
It’s a game that still makes Knause toss and turn at night.
“I still don’t sleep over that one,” Knause said. “We were on the five-yard line to go up two scores and we just didn’t finish. A lot of people focus on the end of that game, but there were a lot of plays within it. That’s one we have to live with and learn from, but it still hurts because we felt we were a championship team last year.”
The loss has provided motivation for the Hillers to get back to the playoffs. It’ll be a new frontier against teams like Bethel Park and West Allegheny, but they feel they are up for the challenge.
“One thing that helped us is that we played a lot of those teams in our nonconference schedule the first five games the last two years,” Berdar said. “We saw we were able to play up there at that level. I think that is a good confidence booster, because we know we can do it.”