Gatewood ground attack gets best of Trinity in Eatonton

The Trinity Crusaders traveled to Eatonton Friday night looking for their third road win of the season, as well as their third-straight regular season win over Gatewood.  

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned as Trinity fell to 2-4 on the season with a 48-13 loss to the Gators.

Gatewood took the opening kickoff and wasted no time getting going. The home team needed just five plays to march 78 yards for the opening score of the contest.  

Quarterback Bennett Haley ran it in from five yards out to give the Gators a 7-0 lead less than three minutes in. 

Trinity couldn’t move the ball on either of its first two possessions, with just nine yards on six plays. Following a second-consecutive punt, Gatewood went back to work.

The Gators, who had a three and out on their second possession, would run just three plays again. This time the third play ended a 68-yard scoring drive as Sean Bennett scored from 11 yards out to make it 14-0 midway thru the opening quarter.

Trinity finally got the offense working on its third possession, marching 67 yards in six plays to get on the scoreboard. Tayt Evans would find paydirt on a 30-yard run to make it 14-6, and the Crusaders appeared to be right back in the contest.

The momentum was short-lived. On the ensuing kickoff, Bennett took the ball at the 30, made a couple of nice moves and outran the Crusader special teams unit for a 70-yard score to put the Gators up 20-6 after a quarter.

Disaster struck on the next Trinity possession as the Gators intercepted a pass on the second play of the drive and returned it inside the red zone. Two plays later, Bennett Haley found Drew Love for a 15-yard TD pass to make it 28-6.

Trinity picked up a pair of first downs on its next drive, but would eventually have to punt again.

Gatewood went 60 yards on eight plays to get on the board one final time in the opening half.  Bennett scored for the third time, this time from eight yards out, to make it 27-7 at the half.

The Gators added two more scores on their first two possessions of the second half.  Brady Haley had both on runs of 47 and 34 yards to make the score 48-7.

Trinity would get one more touchdown in the fourth quarter with a very impressive drive. The Crusaders would march 90 yards on eight plays for the score. Sam Owens ran it in from 25 yards out to make it 48-13, and that would be the final.

Tayt Evans led the Crusaders with 81 rushing yards on 13 carries and added 19 yards receiving.  Owens finished with 67 yards in just six attempts and caught a pass for 13.  

Landon Moreno led Gatewood with 170 yards rushing. Brady Haley ended his night with 89 yards rushing and 33 yards receiving. Bennett scored twice on the ground and added the kickoff return score.

Trinity (2-4 overall) will be back on the road next Friday as it travels to Macon to face Windsor Academy.