Blackhawk turns back Koroly, Hillers
During the first half of Trinity’s football game, someone in the Hiller Stadium press box wondered out loud whether tailback Joey Koroly would tire in Friday night’s game against Blackhawk.
It was a fair question.
In the first half, Koroly ran for 179 yards on 19 carries and scored both of the Hillers’ touchdowns. The only other rush play in the first two quarters was a sack for an eight-yard loss. Trinity ran 28 offensive plays in the first half.
Koroly didn’t get a rest on defense either, starting at cornerback and making several tackles. The junior running back’s standout performance against Blackhawk in a Class AAA non-section contest gave the Hillers a lead at halftime but Blackhawk rallied in the second half to take a 28-20 victory.
“He was the focal point of our game plan,” Blackhawk coach Joe Lamenza said of Koroly. “We knew we had to stop him, if we were going to have any chance of winning the game.”
Koroly finished with 235 yards on 34 carries and the two TDs.
Blackhawk made adjustments at halftime and limited Koroly to 50 rushing yards on 16 touches in the second half, though he scored Trinity’s final six points on a 33-yard screen pass early in the 4th quarter to pull Trinity to within one.
Blackhawk blocked the resulting extra point, and the rest of the Hillers combined for just 85 yards of total offense.
Despite this one-dimensional approach on offense, the Hillers had a late opportunity to send the game to overtime. Blackhawk quarterback Mike Savilisky had punched it in on a quarterback sneak from a yard out to put Blackhawk up 28-20 with 5:32 to go.
The Hillers had two more chances but couldn’t score. The Hillers failed to convert a fourth-down attempt from their own 49 with 3:26 remaining. Blackhawk began to run down both the clock and the ball, moving well into Trinity territory with a minute and a half to go. But Trinity recovered a fumble, allowing one final chance to extend play. But two successive penalties helped doom the unsuccessful comeback attempt. Trinity committed five penalties for a combined 52 yards.
“It’s stuff we prepared for,” Trinity coach Jon Miller said. “We talked all week about making them drive the field. Don’t give up big plays. And for the most part we did except for those two plays. That kind of turned the tide.”
Trailing 14-7, the Cougars (3-1, 2-1) received the ball to begin the second half and preceded to build momentum, scoring first when receiver Tyler Hill caught a screen pass from Mike Savilisky along the right sideline and sprinted 62 yards for a touchdown. The resulting extra point tied the game and Blackhawk took its first lead 21-20, a few minutes later when Savilisky kept an option play for himself and ran straight up the middle past everyone 69 yards for the score.
Savilisky rushed for 153 yards and scored three times and completed 11 of 14 passes for 151 yards and a score. Hill caught five passes for 105 yards and a TD.
Miller added he thought his offense did a good job moving into Blackhawk territory, but that final bit of yardage to reach the end zone repeatedly proved elusive. The Hillers had a forth-and-six play from the Blackhawk 13 with 2:43 left in the third quarter dissolve with and an incomplete pass.