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Jeff Gilbert
Saturday, 30 August 2025 / Published in Features, Home Features, MVL

Kirkpatrick, Defense Lead Troy Past Xenia

Troy’s TJ Murray scores on a screen pass. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Lee Woolery)

Expectations to win and for senior quarterback Aiden Kirkpatrick to lead the way pay off in the Trojans’ first win of 2025. And beating a program like Xenia allowed head coach Troy Everhart to smile a little bit.

Troy, OH – When Aiden Kirkpatrick was a sophomore in 2023, Troy head coach Troy Everhart didn’t weigh his quarterback down with heavy expectations.

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Just manage the game, hand the ball to 1,200-yard rusher Jahari Ward and let him lead the way to an 11-win season. Now Kirkpatrick is a senior, and Everhart has expectations.

“Go win us a game,” he said. “And he can.”

Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.

Kirkpatrick didn’t do it all by himself Friday night in Troy’s 24-14 Miami Valley League victory over Xenia. Far from it. The defense did its job of not letting Xenia senior tailback Deaunte White run wild. Other speedy ballcarriers did their part for Troy in moving the chains. The offensive line made room for all of them.

Yet, when Troy (1-1) needed a fast start and a strong finish, the football stayed in Kirkpatrick’s hands. Not because others aren’t capable. But because you lean on your senior leader.

“He’s going to make great plays for you, and then he punts, he kicks, and he does it all, he’s a tremendous advantage to have,” Everhart said. “He’s the best player in the league, hands down.”

On the second play of the game, on second-and-12, Kirkpatrick read the defense, didn’t hand off, and burst through an opening in the middle big enough, he said, for his Buick Lucerne. He hit the open field at full speed and was untouched for a 69-yard touchdown.

Troy’s Kayden Franklin breaks free from an arm tackle.

“The line did outstanding,” he said. “The hole was so big I could have drove my car through. It was amazing.”

Last week in a 28-20 loss at Middletown, the Trojans scored the first 14 points. Against Xenia they never relinquished the lead.

“Once you open that lead, it’s hard for them to come back from,” Kirkpatrick said.

From there, Kirkpatrick shared carries almost equally with Kayden Franklin and Aidan Gorman, a pair of seniors who are more like sports cars cornering at top speed on the outside than a Buick up the middle.

But when the game was far from clinched late in the third quarter with Troy up 21-7, Kirkpatrick and company opted for straight-ahead four-wheel drive. They ran 16 plays, all on the ground, and moved from their 11-yard line to Xenia’s three. And that was enough.

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Matt Barth kicked a 21-yard field goal for a 24-7 lead with 4:31 left, completing a drive that lasted 10 minutes and 26 seconds.

In the middle of the drive, Kirkpatrick carried the ball on five straight plays. On the drive, he gained 38 yards on eight carries. Everhart said the idea was treat Kirkpatrick like the tailback and get an extra blocker.

Troy’s defense stopped Dionta White in the second half.

“Basically, the plan was just running down their throats,” Kirkpatrick said. “We knew our line could handle all of them up front, get downhill and get first downs. The numbers allowed me to get the ball.”

Kirkpatrick finished with 123 rushing yards on 16 carries. Franklin carried 13 times for 37 yards and Gorman six for 39. The Trojans outrushed Xenia 234-148.

Kirkpatrick also finished two drives with touchdown passes to wide-open receivers.

The first put the Trojans up 13-0 late in the first quarter. On fourth-and-seven, TJ Murray got open on a crossing pattern underneath the defense and scored easily from 29 yards out.

The second came midway through the third quarter to push the lead to 21-7. Xenia pressured Kirkpatrick out of the pocket and to his left. Fortunately, Gorman broke free on a wheel route on that side. Kirkpatrick, running to his left, lobbed a pass over a defender and Gorman caught the ball at the two and scored.

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Earlier in the game, another play gave the Trojans the idea the wheel to Gorman would work.

“I saw No. 8 kind of sit there, and I just knew he wasn’t gonna catch me as soon as I got past him,” Gorman said. “So I just saw him throw it up, and I knew it was a touchdown.”

Everhart likes a lot of what he sees on offense. But twice against Middletown he had to settle for field goals and once again on Friday.

Troy’s Aiden Gorman stretches for yardage.

“Between the 20s I’m excited about our offense,” he said. “Inside the 20s I want to trade them all out right now. We’ve got to do a better job. But it’s early in the season, and when you can beat a quality opponent like we just did, and still not hit on all cylinders, you got room to smile a little bit.”

Defense made Everhart smile too. Xenia had good moments to gain 262 total yards, but they never hit for the explosive plays like Middletown did. In keeping their attention on White, the Trojans dared Xenia to push the ball downfield to Shawn Fishwick, an Eastern Michigan commit, but sophomore Gage Stephan didn’t always connect.

“The defense played outstanding,” Everhart said. “Great job by our defensive staff. Great job by our defense players.”

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White, who gained over 1,900 yards last season, gained 130 yards on 20 carries and scored a one-yard touchdown to cap an 80-yard drive in the second quarter. But White never broke the big one.

“Just group tackle him,” said Gorman, who plays in the secondary. “He’s a big running back, but we got some hitters too. We kind of took him out of the game and his explosive plays.”

Troy’s soccer player Matthew Barth kicks a field goal to make it 24-7.

Xenia (1-1) was its own worst enemy at times with untimely penalties and special teams problems. They fielded a kickoff next to the sideline at the 1-yard line and couldn’t help but step out of bounds. They botched a punt and turned the ball over to Troy at their 32 to set up Murray’s touchdown.

“We just have to realize that the little things matter, and we can’t put ourselves in bad situations against a good football team,” Xenia coach Maurice Harden said. “We allowed some of the mistakes to haunt us, and that’s what put us in some really bad situations. Still had a chance to win the football game, but we just couldn’t close it out.”

Troy had that problem last year in a 21-18 loss at Xenia. The Trojans trailed 14-10 entering the fourth quarter, but a big play put them in a hole they couldn’t escape. To start fast this year and keep the lead, meant everything to the Trojans.

“We lost to them last year, and this year we’re going for revenge in all of our losses,” Gorman said. “We want to win the MVL, so this is a big one for us.”

The Trojans believe their defense and an offense with more weapons and options than at any point in Everhart’s tenure will carry them to more victories.

And Everhart likes the mature personality of this team to understand how to handle adversity and find ways to win when everything doesn’t almost always go right like it did in 2023.

“We got a great locker room with great senior leadership and great captains, and it’s been a point of emphasis all offseason,” he said. “We had meetings before school once a week just to focus on the locker room.”

And he has a quarterback ready to meet high expectations.

Trojans coach Troy Everhart likes what he sees.

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