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CULVER - Look at the stats from the first quarter in Friday night's Triton game and the first word to come to mind might be domination. However, the Trojans weren't the ones dominating the statistics. Culver held possession of the ball for 9:16 of the first 12 minutes and had three first downs to Triton's one. The Cavaliers only had to play defense for six plays.
Despite the one-sided look, Triton led in the only stat that counts, the score. The Trojans scored the only touchdown of the quarter on a drive that lasted all of three seconds. After blocking a punt on Culver's opening possession, the Trojans gained possession at the 1-yard line. Jack Hackworth scored his first of three touchdowns on the next play to put Triton ahead 7-0.
In the second quarter, Triton looked for the kill after Culver fumbled away a punt. Quarterback Nate Setser rushed 30 yards downfield to the 7-yard line and then scored two plays later to put the Trojans ahead 14-0.
But just when it looked as if Culver was on its way to an 0-3 record, sophomore running back Jeremy Stotler rushed 65 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead in half.
Triton tried to put together another drive before halftime, but it stalled out with less then two minutes to play, and the Trojans went into the locker room leading 14-7.
By halftime the stats had begun to even out as both teams had carried the ball 19 times and Triton had three more yards rushing. Culver still had a substantial time of possession advantage, but the Triton lead negated that.
"We were really disappointed with our defense in the first half," Triton coach Rod Wildman said. "They gave up a lot of big plays. I think we were sleepwalking through the first half. I think we took them for granted. They read the papers and how they had been beaten 82-7 in the first two games. We talked to them at halftime about senior leadership. What we expected for the season."
The third quarter got strange. In the span of three minutes to start the half, there were three touchdowns, 25 yards in penalties, one kick return for a touchdown and one interception.
Triton opened with possession of the ball and went backwards on its first drive. After starting from the 36-yard line, the Trojans put themselves into a punting situation on fourth and 31 from the 15-yard line. However, the punt was fumbled and Kyle Gould threw an incomplete pass to keep from getting a safety.
Tad Hayes tied the game on the next play with a 15-yard touchdown reception from Joe Keller. Suddenly, the momentum had changed and Culver had it.
But just as suddenly as Culver gained the momentum, Triton regained it as Hackworth took the kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown to take a 20-14 lead.
"Jack's return was big, real big," Wildman said. "It was a nice way to get it going."
On Culver's next drive, Keller threw an interception that gave Triton possession at the Cavalier 12-yard line. Two plays later, Justin Grubbs scored from 22 yards out to put Triton ahead 27-14.
Triton tacked on one more touchdown late in the third quarter on a 17-yard touchdown and a two-point conversion run from Setser to finish the scoring at 35-14.
Wildman was impressed with Culver's play.
"You've got to give Culver all the credit in the world," Wildman said. "They came out and played hard. Even though they were down, they didn't quit and I'm impressed. They're a pretty good ball club. They did a super job."
One thing that Wildman did find to complain about was penalties. His team racked up more yards from flags than in the first two games combined.
"Penalties killed us," Wildman said. "We had three touchdowns called back. I lost count on penalty yards. I don't know what the answer to that is. Everytime we would get something going, we would get a holding penalty or something like that."
Triton (2-1) will be at Bremen on Friday in a rematch of last year's 42-26 win by the Lions.
