All was well in the Trimble High School locker room following the Tomcats’ 60-19 win against Southern Friday. Music was cranking from the stereo, smiles were on the players’ faces and the coaching staff even had Domino’s ordered in.
The Tomcats have hit their stride of late, trouncing every opponent that has crossed their path and allowing less than 50 total points in their last six games, all wins.
Much of the Tomcats’ success can be attributed to the bravado of their offensive attack, though, which took the ball to the house eight times against Southern (2-7.)
Senior back Austin Keith attributed recent improvements to throwing different types of traffic at opposing defenses.
“It definitely gives us a lot of options,” Keith said. “If they are keying in on a certain person, we can spread it out and come out and surprise them.”
Five different players scored for the Tomcats (6-2) to put a good capstone on a game in which the team racked up more than 500 total yards.
Senior quarterback Justin Jewell connected on nine of his 12 attempts for 114 yards.
“Justin is a talent,” coach Phil Faires said. “We’re going to go as he goes if we make the playoffs. We’re going to rely on him being able to throw it and spread some things out for the running game. We cannot be one-dimensional and win a tournament game.”
One-dimensional was something that the Tomcats certainly were not against Southern.
On the ground alone, four players gained significant yardage. Keith led the way out of the backfield with 169 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Sophomore Konnor Standley, a cumulative 155-yard producer, sophomore Bryce Smathers, who earned 95 yards and a pair of scores, and senior Cyrus Jones, who put up almost 30 yards and a touchdown, followed him.
“It’s allowing us to use Konnor Standley a little more,” Faires said of the multiple feature back system. “Austin Keith’s a good talent and our two fullbacks, (sophomore Jacob) Koons and Jones have been doing a great job. It’s just going to make us more dimensional.”
Defensively, Trimble was impressive at times, limiting the Tornadoes to minimal offensive movement in the first half.
But the Tomcats proved susceptible to the big play and allowed a small handful of deep balls to smudge what would have been a perfect rap sheet at the end of the night.
“I think they just fell asleep,” Faires said of his pass defense. “They floated on the ball and (Southern) made some good catches. Those things are going to happen. It’s just the short stuff that I would like to cut down on."
jr992810@ohiou.edu
