Trojans enter tough stretch

A 21-3 victory over Truman last Friday night will bring the Park Hill Trojans (3-1) into the first of a three week span in which they will being playing some of the top teams in the state including Jefferson City, Lee’s Summit, and Staley. The first of those three will be Jefferson City, ranked seventh in Class 6, this week as Park Hill holds homecoming festivities. Jeff City comes to the Northland with a record of 4-0 as they come off a 31-14 victory over Columbia Rock Bridge. Last season when the Trojans traveled to Jefferson City they held the lead going into halftime before the Jays opened the flood gates on the way to a 40-14 Jeff City victory.

“The next four weeks we probably play one of the toughest schedules that anyone can play. It will be a big stretch for us to see how we react to an environment of possibly not being favored. Sometimes that’s not what you want, but you’ve got to have the attitude of ‘let’s see what we’ve got,” head coach Greg Reynolds said.

While Jefferson City, one of the most storied programs in Missouri high school football history, will have a solid football team top to bottom, the Park Hill defense’s top target will be running back Devon Moore who is coming off a four touchdown game just a week ago.

“Everyone knows when you play Jeff City it’s one of the top programs in the state, possibly the nation. I don’t think our kids will back down to them, it’s these types of games where you find out who is going to step up and play,” Reynolds said. “We’re going to need to be on top of our game and we’ll have to take advantage of the opportunities we get.”

Last Friday, Park Hill didn’t come out of the gate in the first half like they would have wanted to against Truman. While their defense only allowed what would be the lone score of the game with a 27-yard field goal on the last play of the first quarter, the offense was unable to get into a rhythm and establish the running game so pivotal to the Trojans game plan. Only facing a 3-0 deficit to start the second half, Park Hill was able to capitalize on Truman’s fumble of the opening kickoff and began to move the ball the way they had hoped they would have in the first half. Starting from near midfield, Tyler White capped off a ten play drive with his one-yard touchdown run to first put the Trojans on the board 7-3.

“We just got our heads back on and came back to what we should’ve been doing,” Reynolds said. “We were able to establish our running game there.”

Truman battled mistakes and penalties of their own which cancelled several of their bigger plays out. To begin the fourth quarter, Park Hill kept to the ground and put together a 63-yard, nine play drive completed when Chris Heustis ran the ball in for a three yard touchdown to put the Trojans up 14-3. Dondrell Hardiman sealed the victory on a 4th and 3 play when he preceeded to catch and run 24-yards for a touchdown widening the margin to the final score of 21-3. Running back Eddie McDonald led Park Hill’s rushing game with 104 yards on 22 carries while Heustis followed it up with 68 yards of his own on 15 carries.

The Trojans defense is currently battling several injuries, including top linebacker Will Gaye who sat out last Friday’s game, but has allowed less than an average of one touchdown per game so far this season, just a total of 23 points in their first four games.