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A swarming Arcanum defense smothers a National Trail runner Friday in a
Cross County Conference game.
Arcanum won its first game of the season,
53-0 over the Blazers. CNO Photos by Dylan Knoop
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Arcanum
dominates Trail on homecoming night
Trojans earn first victory of the season
By George Starks
ARCANUM- It’s been a disappointing year for the Arcanum Trojans in 2015.
With nine returning seniors, led by quarterback Daniel O’Donnell, the
Trojans were primed to have a stellar year and a possible shot at the
post season.
With five games in the books (before Friday), Arcanum came in to game
six sporting a dismal 0-5 mark.
It was homecoming night in Arcanum Friday and the Trojans finally
received that elusive first win.
With the offense running rampid in the second half, putting up a
whopping 34 points, Arcanum posted a big 53-0 victory over National
Trail in Cross County Conference action.
“Our kids have been working hard all year,” Arcanum coach TJ Powers
said. “And we had a tough loss last week. They could have easily tucked
their tails a little bit, but they didn’t; they did the exact opposite.
We knew we were a heck of a lot better than 0-5, but you’ve got to
prove it. We’ve been through a lot already, and we’ve still got a lot
left so we’re just going to build on this and continue to improve and
have fun. I’m happy for our guys. It feels great to get a win and a
shutout. We really dominated the game.”
It didn’t take long for the Trojans to put points on the board.
After the Blazers went three and out on their opening possession and
being forced to punt, everything that could go wrong for Trail did at
that point.
A bad snap would elude the Blazers punter and Andrew Baker would
recover the ball at the Trail five yard line.
Arcanum running back Brandon Kinney would run the ball in and the
Trojans were up by a 7-0 count at the 9:50 mark of the opening frame.
Both teams would trade several possessions before Kinney would run 90
yards for the score only to have it nullified by a holding call.
With the first quarter ending in a 7-0 score, the Trojans would strike
again on a 43 yard run by Daniel Coates at the 11:47 mark of the half
for a 13-0 lead.
The Trojans would hold a 19-0 advantage at the break when Kinney would
recover a fumbled ball in the National Trail end zone with 9:50 left in
the opening half.
On the night, Kinney would score five times including a 64 yard scamper
in the third frame.
“Kinney is one of the best football players I’ve ever been around,”
Powers said. “I mean this in a good way, he’s a football computer. You
tell him to do one thing, and he just programs it in his brain, and he
does it. He plays hard. He gets after it. He runs hard. He hits hard.
He’s smart. He’s just a great kid and a great football player.”
On defense, the Trojans were near perfect, stopping the Blazers on all
possessions.
“Our offensive line, I’ve got to give them all the props in the
world,” Powers said. “They did a great job up front – O-line and
D-line. We controlled the line of scrimmage, and that’s a key to the
game. We were just swarming tonight, flying around. Getting a shutout,
man. No matter how many points you score offensively it’s always great
to that goose egg.”
Now 1-5, Arcanum will head to Ansonia next week and a date with the
Tigers.
Ansonia won its opening game of the season against Africentric with a
44-42 non-conference victory.
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Trojan senior Daniel O'Donnell runs the ball for a sizeable game
against National Trail.
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Jordan Dubbs and Shelby Howard were crowned the 2015 Arcanum Homecoming
King and Queen.
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