Reeltown responded in a massive way in Week 1.
The Rebels made their way to Montgomery for the second-consecutive week, but they walked away on Friday victorious. Reeltown defeated Trinity, 20-3, in a defensive showing by the Rebels (1-1).
Reeltown limited Trinity to just five snaps in a suffocating third quarter over the Class 3A Wildcats.
“I was proud of the guys for sticking to the plan and executing,” Reeltown coach Matt Johnson said.
In last week’s matchup with T.R. Miller at the Cramton Bowl, Reeltown turned the ball over a uncharacteristic amount of times. Johnson and company focused on ball control and returned to the aspects that made Reeltown football a force — physicality.
“We wanted to clean up the turnover and the penalties,” Johnson said. “We got back to being simple; controlling the clock and just being patient. We stayed ahead of the sticks and controlled the clock. We knew that was what it was going to take to win. And with all that, hats off to our defense. Trinity’s a really good football team and they are going to win a lot of games. But I’m proud of our guys and the way they battled through adversity.”
The Rebels were dominant on defense as they held Trinity’s rushing attack to only 23 yards on 22 attempts. Dylan Brant, Finn Henderson and Baylor Clayton (2) combined for four sacks and seven tackles for a loss.
On the flip side, Reeltown rushed for nearly 200 yards on 41 attempts.
After trading possessions throughout the first quarter, Reeltown settled into its familiar wishbone set and started running straight into the heart of the Wildcats defense.
The physicality took its toll as the Rebels established a march down the field and scored the game’s first touchdown on a 8-yard touchdown run by Tae Martin to go up, 7-0.
Trinity then scored its only points on the game on its next possession. Quarterback Thompson McNees flipped the field with a pair of passes and kicked a 27-yard field goal.
The 7-3 mark stood until the fourth quarter. Ja’Markius Smith - on second and long - took the snap and tossed it to Martin. Martin (112 yards on 12 carries) followed his blockers into the open field and didn’t stop running for 70 yards. The toss-sweep touchdown was the dagger as Reeltown’s 4-point led turned into 10 at 13-3.
“That was huge,” Johnson said. “As well as our defense had been playing up to that point (Martin’s touchdown) put Trinity in a situation where they had to change some things up.”
Trinity’s Phillip Mitchell then replaced McNees at quarterback and moved the Wildcat down the field. He completed five passes for 59 yards, but was intercepted by Reeltown’s Larry Butler.
After Butler fumbled the ball back to Trinity, Mitchell was intercepted again by Finn Henderson who returned it 15-yards for the final touchdown of the night.
Reeltown - with the win - improves to 1-1 on the year and will open area play next week against Horseshoe Bend.