Gallery: Trinity Catholic rides explosive offense and dominant defense to win over P.K. Yonge in Regional Final

Trinity Catholic’s Courtney Patterson (3) breaks up a pass intended for P.K. Yonge’s Calvin Thomas (4) and nearly intercepts the ball during a football game at Trinity Catholic High School in Ocala, Fla. on Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

The Trinity Catholic Celtics football team were back at home for the 1-Suburban Regional Final against the P.K. Yonge Blue Wave on Friday night.

Trinity Catholic beat P.K. Yonge 51-7 on Oct. 28 and were looking to pull off the difficult task of beating them for the second time in one season.

Trinity Catholic’s offense got the fireworks going quickly when running back Beau Beard scampered 37 yards for a touchdown on the sixth play of the opening drive to give his team a 7-0 lead.

P.K. Yonge garnered a bit of momentum when wide receiver Calvin Thomas picked up 15 yards on a reception to put the offense near midfield. A sack and an incomplete pass killed the opening drive for P.K. Yonge, forcing a punt.

Quarterback Preston Wright opened Trinity Catholic’s second drive with a 20-yard run. Following a short carry by Beard, the running back would take off up the middle of the defense for a 47-yard touchdown, the touchdown was called back due to an illegal motion penalty.

The penalty would not stop the Trinity Catholic offense as Wright connected with an uncovered Jewellius Lluberes for a 52-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 14-0 after four minutes of action.

Trinity Catholic forced another punt but Deshawn Shelton fumbled the ball on the return, giving P.K. Yonge the ball and an opportunity to get back into the game. The momentum was short lived as wide receiver Deldrick Goston fumbled the ball away after gaining 15 yards on a pass from quarterback Adrian Curtis.

The third drive of the game for the Trinity Catholic offense got off to a great start thanks to a 20-yard reception by tight end Mekai Griffin. After Griffin’s reception, Beard would get four consecutive carries for 61 yards, with the fourth carry being an 11-yard touchdown to make the lead 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.

On the second play of the following drive, cornerback Courtney Patterson made a fantastic one-handed interception and giving his offense superb field position at the P.K. Yonge 11-yard line. An illegal motion penalty slowed the drive and Trinity Catholic settled for a 30-yard field from senior Justin Arroyo.

Arroyo has been a weapon all season long by making all five of his field goal attempts and 24 for 25 on extra point attempts.

“We have a big senior class, including myself, and we want to make these last few games count,” Arroyo said.

Linebacker Donathan Lecorn and the Trinity Catholic defense continued their stingy play and forced a punt before sophomore wide receiver Gerald Lawton juked two defenders out of their shoes on his way to a 35-yard touchdown.

A sack by senior nose guard Tyler Sims gave the Trinity Catholic offense one more opportunity to score before halftime. During the ensuing drive, Deshawn Shelton would have a 31-yard touchdown run called back, it was second touchdown called back for the Celtics.

Nonetheless, penalties would not stop running back Jamarkus Starkes from gaining 27 yards on the final three plays of the drive before scoring from 11 yards out to give Trinity Catholic a 38 lead with four minutes left before halftime.

Trinity Catholic continued on their runaway train to open the second half when backup quarterback Alan Means connected with Lawton on an 11-yard touchdown pass to put the Celtics up 45-0 with eight minutes left in the third quarter.

The remainder of the third quarter and a majority of the fourth quarter featured punts from both teams.

Curtis would connect with connect with sophomore wide receiver Tony Sanchez for an 11-yard touchdown in the final minute to get P.K. Yonge on the scoreboard before time ran out and end with a 48-7 win for Trinity Catholic.

Wright and his receivers had one of their best performances of the season as the sophomore threw for 127 yards and two touchdowns in just two quarters. The young quarterback said he and his receivers have been working on chemistry long before the season started.

“We put in work over the summer by coming together and throwing on the weekends. I’m proud of how we’ve come together and were starting to get things moving,” Wright said.

The sophomore is rounding into a good player and leader who will be one of the most important pieces of the program the next couple years. Even with his team up 40-plus points in the fourth quarter, he was among many of the teams’ starters cheering on the reserves that were trying to score a touchdown.

Trinity Catholic head coach John Brantley II believes the passing game is the final piece of the puzzle that can launch this team into championship territory.

“I’ve said in the past, if we can round that out in our offense and do some big things in the passing game, we have a chance to do some great things on our offense behind our big boys up front and our running game of Beau (Beard) and Jamarkus (Starkes),” Brantley II said.

The offense was explosive the entire game but not very efficient as 10 penalties negated two touchdowns and put the group in unfavorable scenarios.

Brantley said the competition will only get tougher and Trinity Catholic cannot afford to continue sloppy play if they want to win a state championship.

“I feel good, it’s a big win any time you win in the playoffs because that’s what we strive to do. Everybody’s going to wake up tomorrow and see the score in the paper and say we played well and beat them but we didn’t play well at all.”

He continued: “We got to clean up some things to accomplish the goals we need to. We have to come to work on Monday and clean up those mistakes. This football team has a chance to accomplish every goal they set out to do at the start of the year and it’s exciting but a little frustrating.”

Trinity Catholic’s defense was absolutely dominant as they only allowed two first downs until the final drive of the game and did not let P.K. Yonge cross the 50-yard line.

Linebacker Donathan Lecorn knew his group would be ready because of the amount of preparation put in during the week.

“We work hard in practice, we watched film and we ran hard. It all starts with practice, we work hard Monday through Thursday so that Friday is easy and we just go out and execute,” Lecorn said.

Brantley’s team will be back at home next Friday at 7:30 p.m. to host the John Carroll Catholic Rams in the 1-Suburban state semi-final. Lecorn expressed excitement towards the next week of practice and the game.

“I can’t tell you how practice is going to be because John Brantley is so excited, he’s on us this year because he wants it and everybody wants it. Coaches, trainers, cheerleaders and everybody who is involved. I feel we will go out and execute well Monday through Thursday and make Friday easy again.”