Trojan football bounces back

After losing their starting running back and top two defensive players in recent weeks, the Park Hill Trojans come into Friday night’s game against third-ranked Lee’s Summit West (5-1) on a positive note after their 42-14 victory last Friday against North Kansas City. The 4-2 Trojans face two of the top teams in the state in coming weeks with a matchup against Staley on the schedule next week. Among many other things, head coach Greg Reynolds says his team must play the best they have all season in order to compete with the talented and well-balanced Titan squad. The least of which includes special teams play, something that haunted them in last year's 38-14 loss to Lee's Summit West.

"We have to be better," Reynolds said. "At this point, the focus isn't so much on the other team, it's on ourselves and making sure we're doing the things we need to do."

Despite falling behind in the first quarter last Friday against North Kansas City 7-0, Park Hill exploded in the second quarter after Chris Heustis tied the game on a one yard touchdown run. Dondrell Hardiman rattled off touchdown runs of 58, 17, and 4 yards to put the Trojans up 28-7 at the half. Hardiman had 15 carries for 133 yards on the night.

Heustis added another touchdown in the third quarter before Eddie McDonald capped off the Trojans scoring with a two yard touchdown run of his own putting Park Hill up 42-7. McDonald and Heustis would finish with 98 and 88 yards rushing as part of a 308 yard rushing team performance. The Trojan defense held North Kansas City to just 39 yards rushing, some of which came in the fourth quarter when the Hornets tagged on a late touchdown before the clock expired on the 42-14 contest.

"It was a good win for us," Reynolds said. "Especially in terms of confidence as we head into this next week and district play."

The win represented Reynolds's 100th career victory for Park Hill. Now in his 12th year, Reynolds took over the head coaching position in 2000 after serving as an assistant prior to that.