BOURBON - The Triton coaching staff watched the game tape, the one that showed the Trojans' 27-0 win over North Miami last week.

There. There it was.

They saw it again. And again. And again.

They saw their defense dominate the Warriors, holding them to 78 yards in this sectional game. The coaches also saw proof right before their eyes on the television screen that the players had listened to defensive coordinator Jason Hunter's four favorite words: fly to the ball.

"They were all finding the ball," Hunter says. "Once the play stopped, we would have 10 guys at the ball and one guy on man coverage."

Fly to the ball.

Hunter's defense has done that well recently.

Yes, Triton's overall record is an unimpressive 3-6. But in all three wins, the defense shut out the other team. Three losses were by seven points or less. Triton head coach Brad Shields will tell you his team is this close to being 5-2.

But all he cares about is 1-0, the 1996 postseason record. Shields has been head coach at Triton for five years. This is the first time in those five years Triton won a sectional game. Shields knows the defense played a big role in getting that first win.

Every Triton player and coach will promise you one thing about this year's defense: the Trojans will hit you.

"We have a lot of physical people on our team who just like to hit," Triton linebacker Marc Gould says.

"They pack a wallop," Hunter says.

Other teams will stand by that.

"One of my ends came up to me this past week and said after Jimtown and North Miami, their players were telling us that was the hardest they had been hit all year," Hunter says. "That's a tribute to our players."

David Zink. Bill Salyer. Scott Blackford. Shain Ross. Kevin Klotz. Josh Gross. Mark Gould. David Sauer. Buba Weldy.

These are all of the Triton senior football players, and eight of the nine defensive starters. Ross, Sauer and Gould are linebackers. Zink, Clotz and Gross are tackles. Salyer is an end, and Blackford heads the Triton secondary.

Weldy is the only senior who doesn't start, but he's Shields' type of guy. He's a motivator.

"Buba's biggest job is to make the other seniors mad in practice," Shields says. "I mean, he just doesn't back off of them."

The Triton secondary won't back off any receiver, no matter who he is. Every Triton opponent attempted at least nine passes in the regular season. Only two teams completed 50 percent of their passes.

"We take it personally when they catch a pass," Blackford says. Blackford is Triton's leading tackler with 137, 85 of which are solo. He also leads the team with six interceptions, and he has caused four fumbles.

Here are the tell-tale numbers posted by the Triton defense: 30 tackles for loss, 13 fumbles caused, eight fumbles recovered and 10 interceptions.

Players and coaches say the defense was subpar earlier this season. Now they think they've struck gold with a new defensive scheme that plays to the strengths of their physical players.

"We've switched our whole defense the last two weeks," Hunter says. "We've put in a new package, and they've met the challenge.

"They're flying around. We have tackles moving all over the place. They are physical. I think it's because of their speed. We're not the biggest people by any means, but we're fast. We're quick off the ball. We found that out last week."

Still, Hunter is cautious.

"Last week I touched on not being overconfident, because we can't take anything for granted," he says. "Going into the playoffs 2-6, you can't take anything for granted."

The 78 yards allowed to North Miami was against a team that went 1-8 and scored less than 10 points per game this year. But Shields could also probably tell you that was the same North Miami team that had more than 300 yards rushing against Whitko, a 7-2 team.

And while the Jimmies were impressed with Triton's big hits, Jimtown still beat the Trojans 41-0.

Still, Shields tells you a lot of good came out of that game. He thought that physically, his team slugged it out toe to toe with No. 1 Jimtown. Jimtown's postgame comments would support that.

Flying to the ball. That's the bottom line, Hunter will tell you. Do that, and the winning and losing will take care of itself.

Getting them to fly to the ball wasn't quite as tough as getting them to pick a nickname for the defense.

When Shields was a defensive coordinator at DeKalb for two years, Hunter played on the team. Shields has been at Triton for five years, and he brought Hunter in as defensive coordinator this year.

When Hunter arrived, he gave them the chance to pick their nickname. Coaches enjoy nicknames because they pull players closer together by building team unity. But when they weren't coming up with one on their own, he prodded them.

"It was week three or four, and I said I wasn't going to wait for them anymore," he says. "So I slammed Thunderstruck, the AC/DC song, on right before we went out to a game.

"From then on, it's been 'Thunder.' They let the Thunder roll last weekend."

Three wins.

"They don't score, they don't win," Ross says.

Three shutouts.

"Our goal is to settle for nothing less than a shutout," Klotz says.

Captain Shutout - Hunter - deserves the credit, Shields says.

"Captain Shutout?" Hunter queries. "I think he just made that one up now. I don't know what he's talking about.

"But it seems like it's a trend. We've won three, and they've been three shutouts. Hopefully, we can go for a fourth."

Last week, North Miami.

This week, South Adams.

Let the Thunder roll. [[In-content Ad]]