The Brookfield Bulldogs, on a 20 yard touchdown run by halfback Tommy Gunn, defeated the Trenton Bulldogs on Friday night by an overtime final of 18-12. The win improves Brookfield to 1-0 heading into this week’s Bell Game showdown with Marceline, while Trenton drops to 0-1, with East Buchanan paying a visit to C.F. Russell Stadium for the second week of the season.
Tom Johnson had the call of Gunn’s game-winning score on Hot Country Z 101.7:
Friday night’s first half was generally controlled by Brookfield, with the Trenton offense struggling to move the football, as the THS defense spent most of the half on their own side of the 50 yard line. Despite the lopsided field position, Brookfield only had a 6-0 lead at the break, courtesy of a 30 yard strike from Colton Parn to Jaden Abongo with 7:57 remaining in the second quarter. The two-point conversion failed, leaving the score 6-0 at the break.
Trenton’s offense got the football first in the third quarter, and drove the football 63 yards in 8 minutes and 12 seconds, with junior quarterback Coleman Griffin, on a keeper around the left side of the Brookfield defense, scoring the tying touchdown from 1 yard out with 3:48 to go in the third quarter:
After the teams battled back and forth for a few minutes, Brookfield, midway through the fourth quarter, picked up what looked to be the game’s deciding score, as Gunn broke two tackles and scampered 49 yards down the sideline for a touchdown run, giving the hosts a 12-6 lead. Trenton, needing a late score, drove inside the Brookfield 30 with less than 3 minutes to play, but two costly penalties and a dropped potential touchdown pass caused the drive to stall, giving Brookfield the ball with just over 2 minutes to go.
Brookfield, with a new offense featuring a shot-gun ‘pistol’ snap, struggled with the snap all night, and on the Bulldogs first play from scrimmage looking to run clock, the ball was bobbled and dropped toward the Trenton defensive line. THS recovered, giving the visitors new life:
A Sam Gibson run between the tackles pushed the ball inside the 5 yard line in the final minute of regulation, with a second Griffin one yard touchdown plunge, this one with 45.8 seconds remaining, tied the game at 12, as Trenton came up just shy of the goal line on the two-point conversion run:
The game went into overtime, with Trenton getting the ball first at the Brookfield 25. Four plays later, the Bulldogs had failed to pick up a first down, giving the ball back to BHS. Three plays into Brookfield’s drive, Parn took the football and veered to his left, pitching the ball out wide to Gunn. Gunn found the sideline for the first down, and broke a tackle at the 5 yard line, scoring the winning touchdown.
Both teams showed inconsistencies throughout the season opener, and Trenton, in particular, struggled with leg cramps throughout the grueling contest played in late summer heat and humidity. Parn threw an interception late in the second quarter for Brookfield, while the Bulldogs lost two fumbles in the game. For Trenton, Griffin threw two interceptions, one in the middle of the second quarter, and the second late in the third, but he and the Trenton team showed marked improvement from the inexperienced squad that failed to crack the win column in 2020.
Here is the high school football scoreboard for Friday, August 27, 2021:
Mid-Buchanan 49, Princeton 6 (on KTTN FM 92.3)
South Shelby 22, Milan 20
Penney 39, Lafayette County 34
Gallatin 62, North Platte 8
Polo 14, Plattsburg 6
East Buchanan 42, South Harrison 14
Highland 50, Putnam County 14
North Shelby 22, Maysville 0
Chillicothe 27, Marshall 8
Blair Oaks 40, Maryville 6
St. Pius X 42, Pembroke Hill 7
Cameron 34, KC Northeast 0
Excelsior Springs 21, Savannah 6
Lincoln Prep 46, Benton 7
Macon 42, Kirksville 41
Mexico 46, Centralia 20
Hallsville 28, Palmyra 7
Clark County 32, Wright City 20
Marceline 19, Scotland County 18
Fayette 40, Carrollton 0
Wellington-Napoleon 38, Slater 18
Harrisburg 48, Paris 14
Westran 45, Salisbury 12
8-Man:
Bishop LeBlond 70, Pattonsburg 20
Northwest (Hughesville) 64, Braymer 20
King City 62, North Andrew 26
Northland Christian 42, St. Joseph Christian 20
Worth County 50, South Holt 22
East Atchison 64, Southwest Livingston 6
Nodaway Valley 60, Stewartsville-Osborn 14
Platte Valley 32, Mound City 22
Albany 68, Osceola 18
Stanberry 58, Appleton City 22
Knox County 78, Schuyler County 26
DeKalb 54, Rock Port 8
Santa Fe 76, Keytesville-Northwestern-Brunswick 14
