Aiden Kirkpatrick’s 40-yard bolt to the end zone gave Troy some cushion in the Trojans’ 31-21 Friday win over Butler. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Lee Woolery)
Not as cleanly as they would have liked, but Troy overcame penalties and a pair of big late-game plays by Butler to harness their sixth win of the season.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
Vandalia, OH — Troy’s 31-21 win over Butler was a coach’s dream Friday night.
Sort of.
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Not a good dream, per se. That was evident on Troy Everhart’s face when it was finally over.
Veteran columnist Marcus Hartman writes the OHSAA, Ohio State, and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
A loss would have been a nightmare, of course, but the head coach of the Trojans obviously saw things he didn’t like from his team even as it improved to 6-1 overall and remained undefeated in the Miami Valley League (6-0).
A bunch of pre-snap penalties. A couple of big plays allowed in the fourth quarter when it looked like the game was out of reach. Inability to get a final first down to run the clock out as time was ticking down.
Surely, Everhart had more on his mind as well, but ultimately his team got its sixth win in a row, and that was the most important thing on a muggy, hot October night that felt like late August.
“I’ll take an ugly, ugly win over a pretty loss, but at the end of the day, we didn’t play with any of the intensity that we played with in Week 1, and so that’s what’s disappointing today,” Everhart said. “You know, you’re supposed to keep getting better, and I don’t think there were things that were awful, but it was…ehhh! We’ve had more intense practices on a Monday than we were probably for most of this game today.”
Troy’s Matt Barth kicked this 42-yard bomb to give the Trojans an early 3-0 lead.
Looking to avenge a 21-13 loss to Butler last season, Troy struck first on a Matt Barth 42-yard field goal that landed in the Butler marching band that was seated 10 feet behind the goal posts. That gave the Trojans a 3-0 lead less than five minutes into the game.
Of course, Everhart would have preferred to get seven on that possession. He is a coach, after all, but the Trojans added six more when Aiden Kirkpatrick went up the middle for a 1-yard touchdown late in the second quarter. That capped a 13-play drive that started at the Troy 37. It included a 4-yard run by Kayden Franklin to convert a 4th-and-2 at midfield and a 23-yard pass from Kirkpatrick to Aidan Gorman on a third-and-8. Barth’s PAT gave the Trojans a 10-0 lead with 1:41 left in the first half.
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Butler, which has already been shut out on its own field by MVL contenders Xenia and Tippecanoe earlier this season, had a game response to falling behind double digits this time.
Luke Moeller drove the Aviators 80 yards in less than a minute. After runs of 10 and 7 yards by Cory Rice, Moeller took the snap and quickly fired to his left to Julius Rusk in the flat for a 6-yard touchdown. The hosts botched the snap on the PAT, though, sending the game to halftime with Troy leading 10-6.
Troy center Mitchell Finkes cleared the way for quarterback Aiden Kirkpatrick in Friday win over Butler.
While the Aviators (4-3, 3-3 MVL) had something to feel good about heading into the locker room, the second half was all Troy — at least until the end.
The Trojans drove 95 yards for a touchdown on their first possession after halftime, a march Kirkpatrick punctuated with a 1-yard touchdown.
That was his ninth carry for 35 yards on the drive, which also included a 13-yard run by the quarterback on a fourth-and-1 at the Troy 27 and a couple of personal fouls on the Butler defense.
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Troy was driving again early in the fourth quarter when Butler forced the Trojans into a third-and-12 at the Butler 22. Another Barth field goal — which felt automatic given his huge leg — would have kept it a two-score game, but Kirkpatrick bootlegged to his right and found tight end Michael Tucker wide open in the flat. He scampered all the way to the end zone, and Barth’s PAT kick made it 24-6 with 8:37 to go.
“I’m proud of our team, how we came together,” said Kirkpatrick, who ran for 135 yards on 25 carries (unofficially). “It’s a very tough win, especially the second half. We really did a great job. We had this team circled. We lost them last year, and we didn’t think we should have. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot like the first half in this game, but we came together, and it’s great, great win.”
Butler’s Corey Rice picks up some tough yards against a tough Troy defense.
Butler mounted an impressive drive on its next possession, but that came to a screeching halt when Colton Atkins faded to his right from his safety position and intercepted a Moeller pass intended for Rice in the end zone. Akins brought it out and returned it up the home sideline to the Butler 37.
“We’ve been working now all week with the wheel coming out of the backfield,” Akins said. “And also I was just reading the quarterback’s eyes, watching them go one side to another.”
Two plays later, Kirkpatrick added another touchdown on a 40-yard run, but Butler did not pack it in.
Moeller connected with Davon Smith for a 55-yard catch-and-run, then hit Rusk again two plays later for a 4-yard touchdown.
A two-point conversion pass from Moeller to Jace Love made it 31-14 with 3:37 left, but the Aviators could not come up with the ensuing onside kick.
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And yet … Troy was unable to run out the clock, and Henry Wolke saw the long snap sail over his head while he was preparing to punt the ball away. He was able to cover the ball at the Butler 18, but the Aviators took advantage with Rice’s 18-yard touchdown run with 2:13 to go.
That led to another onside kick attempt, but this one went out of bounds, and Troy was able to run out the clock this time.
Colton Akins returns an interception that snuffed out a Butler touchdown reception in Friday game at Vandalia.
That kept Troy in line for a Week 9 showdown with undefeated Tippecanoe — if the Trojans take care of business next week at home against Sidney and the Red Devils beat Greenville.
“There was a couple times where we weren’t as into it as we should have been, but overall we came out with a win,” Akins said. “Not a very pretty one, but we got one.”
As he watched his players load their gear into the equipment trailer, Everhart praised his pass rush for making Moeller’s life miserable much of the night.
“Pass rush was outstanding — Logan Westerfield, his younger brother Liam, Cole Tasker, Hunter York — those guys were absolutely bringing a pass rush. And I was so proud of them. We had DJ Williams going both ways today to kind of get us in some more thickness on that D line, too.”
But there were other things on Everhart’s mind, too. Not so good things.
“A lot of things we need to fix, right? And the first one was just lack of energy we started the game with,” he said. “Hey, give them credit. They came to play. Did a nice job. They made us homecoming. They played like it was homecoming.
“I was proud that for most of the game, the possessions that we had, we executed. I wasn’t proud of having to settle for a field goal in the first drive, even though we got points. Wasn’t proud of the fact that we draw up a home run ball and we drop it. Wasn’t proud that we didn’t end the game on that last series. Instead, we have to punt and all that nonsense started. So at the end of the day we won. And you know, we move on to Week 8 and see what happens next.”
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