Senior quarterback Aiden Kirkpatrick scores on this long run. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Lee Woolery)
Troy takes another step in becoming a more complete team, tuning up for the stretch run, a conference title…and that Cowlesville Road rivalry in two weeks with Tipp.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
“The Aiden and Aidan Show” grabbed the headlines Friday night as Troy improved to 5-1 with a 35-7 win over Stebbins.
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Quarterback Aiden Kirkpatrick scored three touchdowns in the first half, and fellow senior Aidan Gorman added two more in the third quarter to stake the Trojans to a 35-0 lead and engage the running clock.
Is that what most impressed Troy Everhart, though?
Of course not. He’s a coach, after all.
“I thought the defense is what stepped up,” the Troy head coach said. “They couldn’t move the ball for anything.”
The Indians brought one of the Miami Valley League’s best quarterback/running back duos to Memorial Stadium Friday night.
Neither could do much against the Trojans’ No. 1 defense, though, as a Andre McConnell was bottled up inside when they tried to run, and Devin McCormick had little time to throw or success finding receivers when he did until late in the game.
Aiden Gorman took the second half kickoff 85 yards to the house.
“McConnell is very, very good, so to see him get stifled like that was reassuring — the way we were running to the ball,” Everhart said.
McConnell ended up with 56 yards on 16 carries while McCormick completed 12 of 22 passes for 139 yards. He hit Marcell Jefferson for a 25-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter to avoid a shutout, though Troy’s defensive starters had already gone to the bench at that point.
“So you have good defense, and you’re playing sound with special teams, which we’ve been all year, thankfully,” Everhart said as he found a desk to knock for good luck in his office. “We’ve had two kickoff return touchdowns and Barth, I mean, he’s his own weapon, right? So, yeah, just playing team ball. Playing complimentary football.”
Junior kicker Matt Barth not only boomed all his six kickoffs into the end zone, they were high and deep enough the Stebbins return men stopped bothering to watch them land by the end of the night.
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They had plenty of opportunities thanks to the work of Kirkpatrick, who staked his team to a big lead in the first half despite the absence of senior running back Kayden Franklin, who entered the night No. 2 in rushing for Troy but was unavailable because of injury.
“Everyone stepped up and did a great job filling in new roles,” Kirkpatrick said. “They do have an explosive offense, but we have a great defense. I was confident every single time.”
Troy tight end Damari Morton stiffarms a Stebbins defender.
After a scoreless first quarter, Kirkpatrick put the Trojans on the board with a 40-yard touchdown run.
He took it in again to cap the next Trojans drive, this time from 16 yards out, and both scores featured some sleight of hand.
The senior signal-caller faked a jet sweep handoff to Michael Tucker then darted up the field through the Stebbins defense his first touchdown then kept the ball on a bootleg and fooled everyone in white except Stebbins safety Marcell Jefferson on the next drive.
Jefferson had enough of an angle to catch Kirkpatrick at the goal line, but the Troy quarterback lowered his shoulder and powered through him for six points.
He completed the hat trick on a quarterback power play, following a pair of blockers over right tackle to score from five yards out and conclude a seven-play drive that started at the Stebbins 49.
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The big play of that march was a 13-yard play-action pass from Kirkpatrick to Tucker, who was wide open in the right flat to convert a fourth-and-3.
Two plays later, Kirkpatrick scrambled for 22 to set up his third score, and everything the Trojans can do was on display even without one of their best runners.
Defensive back Colton Akins returns an interception 43 yards.
“They did a nice job of stopping our interior game,” Everhart said. “You know, kudos to them. Those three big bodies inside were hard to move, so we couldn’t run belly, couldn’t run trap, but we could get the sweep going a little bit. Got the play-action pass going. You know, we’ve just got great kids, and they’re executing. And it’s their fourth year in the system. So, you know, I’m excited — excited for them.”
Gorman gave the Trojans another lift by returning the opening kickoff of the third quarter 85 yards for a touchdown. He fielded a bouncing ball at the 15, made one cut and was gone through the middle of the field for a backbreaking score that removed much doubt about Stebbins’ chances to pull an upset.
He scored again to finish Troy’s next possession, showing off some moves by taking a handoff around right end and making two men miss to get across the goal line and activate the running clock with 4:18 left in third quarter.
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“I think when we’re on, I think we’re a really dangerous team,” said Gorman, who primarily plays defense but expanded his role on offense this week. “I think we have a lot of athletes that can really change the game down the road in the season. And I think even if a guy goes down, the next guy up is equally as good and just has to do his job.”
While Wing-T remains the Trojan’s primary mode of attack, they also have the ability to spread out and get in the shotgun at times, something that helped get the offense untracked against Stebbins.
Senior Michael Tucker breaks free on a short swing pass.
“You gotta continue to evolve and just figure out what people are trying to do to you,” Everhart said. “If we had to just stay under center all night, we probably would have struggled to score points. So having that part in your arsenal — just enough, you know, to get you out of trouble.
“I think we’ve got just about the right amount of offense.”
Troy has won five in a row since opening their season with a 28-20 loss at Middletown, the No. 1 team in the Division I, Region 2 playoff standings entering the night (Troy was second).
If the Trojans look like a team on a mission, they are. They spent the offseason trying to work past memories of a disappointing 6-5 season that saw them come up three points short against both teams that ended up winning their respective division in the MVL — Tippecanoe and Xenia.
Senior Aiden Gorman makes a cut on his way to the end zone on this sweep.
Troy already vanquished the Buccaneers 24-14 in Week 2 this season, and a trip to Tipp is on the docket for Week 9.
The Trojans don’t have to wait that long for another shot at revenge, though.
Their Week 7 opponent is a Butler team that beat them 21-13 early last season, a loss that Everhart said “kind of set the season sideways for us a little bit” and one the players haven’t forgotten.
“Last year we didn’t have the most successful season, you know, going 6-5,” Gorman said. “It’s not what we wanted to be, so I think beating (Xenia) is a big confidence boost for our team, showing that we are better than we were last year.
“We got more guys, and beating them is just one step on our road, and I think we’re a dangerous team right now. I think we could win the MVL for sure. I think we just got to keep playing and improving every week. So obviously, Butler next week — they beat us last year. They’re on our calendar, too. We want to beat everybody that beat us. So that’s what’s marked on our calendars, the teams that beat us last year. We want our revenge.”
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