Troy Falls To Pickerington North In Jones Debut, But Trojans Keep Their Heads Up

Troy faced and succumbed to the challenge of a talented and speedy opponent, but the Trojans believe they saw a lot of good things to build on.

Troy, OH – Troy lost a football game Friday night to a bigger, better, faster team.

But the Trojans didn’t lose heart in their 31-14 loss to Pickerington North. Nor did they lose their competitive spirit or the way, the way new head coach Ryan Jones is guiding them.

A coach with Jones’ resume wouldn’t call it a moral victory. Players who grew up waiting their turn to play a role in their hometown’s winning tradition certainly wouldn’t call it a moral victory.

But it was pretty dang close.

“That team is a good team,” said junior defensive lineman Cole Tasker. “I have every confidence that we can build a better team off of this, especially from our effort today. I look forward to seeing where this team goes as the season goes on.”

That isn’t feel-good, pollyanna sap. And here’s the reasons why.

The Trojans, a Division II team this season, didn’t show a weak spine against the Division I Tigers who routinely send players to play Division I college football and are coming off a nine-win season. Instead, the Trojans bowed their back again and again and kept the Tigers thinking this game isn’t over.

“Number one thing you want to see in that first game is what’s their heart,” Jones said. “What’s the character when their back’s against the wall, when we make some mistakes, when they score, when we’re down late in the game, did they keep chipping away? And they did.”

The Trojans got the Tigers’ attention on the sixth play of the game. Tasker forced quarterback Chase McKee to fumble, and senior linebacker Quinn Barhorst scooped the loose ball and ran 51 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

“I didn’t even know I stripped the ball,” Tasker said. “I just hit him as hard as I could, hit his arm, I guess, and the ball came flying backwards. I get up, I turn around, he’s still laying there when see Quinn running down the sideline. I see him score, and I go celebrate with him.”

Jones enjoyed seeing his team celebrate that moment with Barhorst and the energy it brought to the sideline.

“Quinn Barhorst is really one of the heart and soul members of our defensive unit, and to see him run that ball in the end zone makes you pretty proud,” Jones said. “You just want to see those guys experience success.”

But the rest of the half belonged to North.

The Tigers drove 70 yards and tied the score on freshman running back Jayden Preece’s two-yard run. Then the Troy offense put the defense in difficult situations with miscues and an inability to get first downs, finishing the half with one first down and five yards of offense on 12 plays.

Troy’s first play from scrimmage resulted in a 19-yard loss on a snap quarterback Colton Akins didn’t see coming. He recovered it at the one, but the Trojans punted from the three. The Tigers were 40 yards from their next touchdown, a four-yard run by Preece for a 14-7 lead in the first minute of the second quarter.

After another Troy three-and-out, North drove for a 26-yard field goal. Then Akins threw an interception, and North answered with a 31-yard touchdown pass on second and 20 for a 24-7 halftime lead.

“Our defense played better than the score indicated because the offense put them in tough situations,” Jones said. “We got a lot of things to improve on, but we can improve on them because we got guys with the heart and the desire to play hard, play physical, not worry about what the score is and get after it to the bitter end.”

North deployed five ballcarriers and four receivers, none of them slow, all of them shifty and hard to tackle. Preece finished with 119 yards on 23 carries. Dennis White caught five passes for 75 yards, including a spectacular one-hander in the middle of the field under tight coverage. Chase McKee threw for 121 yards and rushed for 32.

On defense, the Tigers took away wide runs, stuffed short ones and covered receivers tightly, led by four-star safety Geo McKnight, a junior with offers from Ohio State, Alabama, Notre Dame and many others.

“They had a lot of speed, and that hurt us at times,” Jones said. “It made it difficult when we got in obvious passing situations to be able to throw the ball. That’s where they want you. And it caused some missed tackles.”

Troy got its back up at halftime and responded in the second half with the kind of effort Jones hoped for.

Sophomore running back Casey Anderson began to find running room behind an inexperienced line that started to win some trench battles. He ripped off runs of 12 and 18 yards to start the second half. And at the end of a 10-play, 71-yard drive aided by two North penalties on pass plays, Anderson scored from the one on a toss sweep to cut North’s lead to 24-14.

“It was a fantastic drive by the offense,” Jones said. “We showed our physicality on the offensive line, we executed well and Casey Anderson ran extremely hard.”

The defense rose up to and didn’t allow any second-half points. Camryn Mangas intercepted a pass tipped by Hayden Steinke. But it didn’t lead to points. Instead, on the next play, Anderson ran into three defenders and fumbled. And North returned the fumble 30 yards for a touchdown for the game’s final points with 10:19 left, a backbreaker on the scoreboard but not in spirit.

After another interception, North put the ball in the hands of Preece six times. But on the sixth time, on fourth-and-1, linebacker Ethan Kirkpatrick hit Preece for a one-yard loss and pulled the ball out of his hands.

Kirkpatrick turned and sprinted from the Troy 23 to the North 32, fighting off tacklers until there were finally too many to escape.

“You could see how hard he was running, he was dragging guys, breaking tackles,” Jones said. “That was the things we were looking for, are we going to play when the back’s against the wall? Are we going to play like it’s the first quarter? And I thought those guys did that.”

Troy won’t play a more athletic team and probably not a better team in the regular season. Again, no moral victory, but not a loss to destroy confidence.

“I only see better things from this team,” Tasker said. “The effort was no question whatsoever. This is the best effort from a team I’ve ever seen. We didn’t quit till the last second, and that’s what we like to see here at Troy High School.”