The Collinwood Middle School Trojans, sporting a 7-1 record, traveled to Mount Pleasant on Thursday to take on the undefeated Tigers. Collinwood’s lone loss on their record was a result of their first meeting at the first game of the season. Collinwood’s last trip to the Championship game came 8 years ago, so the Trojan Nation is extremely proud of this accomplishment. This translated to many miles being driven as the Collinwood faithful traveled well, filling the visitor bleachers more than the home field side. Both teams were led by an explosive and powerful rushing attack. Mt. Pleasant’s offense was much more explosive yet lacked consistency and could not sustain a drive yet capitalized on 4 defensive mistakes and several broken tackles for their scores. Collinwood, on the other hand, was methodical, calculated, overpowering, and for lack of a better term, brutal with their rushing attack. After trading jabs early, the tigers scored first on a long 87-yard run with only 25 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The conversion attempt was no good as Collinwood’s defense forced a fumble on the play. Collinwood quickly answered by pounding the football down the field with runs of 14, 5, 6, and then a score from 9 yards out by #18 Fletcher Thompson. Thompson wasn’t satisfied with just 6 points, so he added 2 more on the next run off tackle. Collinwood leads 8-6. The Trojan defense held strong for the remainder of the half, with the same score reflected going into halftime.
Mt. Pleasant took the ball in the 2nd half and quickly broke another long run of 49 yards, plus a 2 point conversion to bring the score 14-8, Mt. Pleasant with 6:31 remaining in the 3rd. Collinwood did what Collinwood does and returned to the ground and pound with runs of 6, 8 and 7 yards before #12 Blake Whitten broke loose from 23 yards out. The 2pt conversion attempt was no good and the scoreboard was locked at 14 apiece with 2:59 remaining in the 3rd. Mt. Pleasant finished up the scoring in the 3rd quarter with a 55 yard touchdown run as time ran out. The 2 point conversion was good, score Mt. Pleasant 22, Trojans 14 going into the 4th quarter. Collinwood pounded the ball again with runs of 9, 5, 9, and 8 yards, but were hit with a costly holding penalty. Mt. Pleasant loaded the box and stuffed the Trojans on 2 consecutive plays. Collinwood ran a play action pass, but the Tigers were not fooled as they intercepted the pass and then had a 15 yard personal foul added to the return. Mt. Pleasant broke another long run, this one for 66 yards to finish up the scoring. Final score Mt. Pleasant 28, Collinwood 14. This was a “heavyweight fight” type of game with one team throwing haymakers and connecting on 4 punches. The Trojans stuck to the game plan and controlled the football, holding it for almost 3 of the 4 quarters, but fell short on matching Mt. Pleasant’s score to end the 3rd quarter. Collinwood’s running backs ran the ball with power and force not seen much on today’s fields of play. We are proud of the effort shown by our Trojans!
Collinwood finished the night with 210 yards rushing on 41 carries. Blake Whitten had 108 yards on 13 carries and 1 touchdown. Fletcher Thompson finished with 97 yards on 15 carries with 1 TD and 1 2pt. conversion.—-Submitted
