Midland Legacy 57, Euless Trinity 55 2OT

Class 6A-Division I Area Playoffs

November 18, 2023

Pennington Field

Bedford, TX

It seems like any time Midland Legacy (Lee) and Euless Trinity meet up in the post-season fireworks are sure to follow, it was the case in Trinity’s amazing comeback on Christmas Eve in 2020 and it was definitely the case in this showdown in Northeast Tarrant County as Legacy traveling five hours west stunned the homestanding Trojans in an absolute shootout.

Legacy opened the game up with the ball and immediately moved into the Trinity red zone as Damien Johnon ripped off a 65-yard run on the game’s first play, but Trinity’s defense and a couple of bad snaps on third and fourth down left the Rebels with an empty red zone trip and the game still scoreless. Trinity would pick up one first down on their opening series and then punt allowing Purdue commit QB Marcos Davila and the Midland Legacy offense to go back to work. This time Legacy was a bit sharper as Davila put the Rebels up 7-0 with a beautiful 42-yard touchdown pass to Brex Stephens.

After a Trinity punt and Legacy turnover on downs, the Midland Legacy defense came up with the next big play as DB Alexis Chavez nabbed an interception to give the Rebels the ball back at the Trinity 30. Three plays later Midland Legacy was back in the end zone as Davila connected with Aidan Serrano for a 24-yard touchdown pass to put LHS up 14-0 with 7:57 left in the second quarter.

Trinity’s offense, which had been bottled up early got loose from this point on and it was the passing game that did it was Hawai’I commit Jarvis Heimuli got behind the Rebels defense for a diving reception down to the one-yard line from QB TJ Tupou and JT Harris would score on the next play to cut the Legacy lead in half at 14-7.  Legacy’s offense remained hot as the Rebels wasted no time marching right back down and extending the lead back to 21-7 with 3:44 left in the second quarter as Serrano caught a 17-yard screen pass from Davila, perfectly following his blocks into the end zone.

Trinity would answer right before halftime with an eleven play, 64-yard drive capped off by a one-yard touchdown run from QB Tupou to bring the score to 21-14 right before halftime and give the Trojans plenty of momentum going in as Trinity would also open the second half with the football.

It did not take the Trojans long coming out of the break to get the game tied up as RB Josh Bell ripped off a 69-yard touchdown run right through the heart of the Midland Legacy defense to make the score 21-21 with just a minute gone by in the third quarter. The shootout was on just a couple of plays later as Legacy answered with their own long touchdown run as Damien Johnson scored on an 80-yard run to put the Rebels back up 28-21 with 10:28 left in the third quarter.

Trinity was up to the task on the ensuing drive with another methodical march capped off by Tupou’s second touchdown run of the afternoon, this one from from four-yards out to tie the game back up at 28-28 with just under six minutes left in the third quarter.

The back and forth continued on the ensuing drive as Davila would score from one-yard out on the QB sneak to put Midland Legacy back up 35-28 with 2:40 remaining in a wild third quarter.

Trinity would score less than a minute into the third quarter as their massive offensive line started to wear on the Legacy defense, this time Bell would score from two-yards out to knot the game back at 35-35. Midland Legacy would again answer on the ensuing drive although the sledding was much tougher as the Rebels needed two fourth down conversions to keep the drive going with Johnson capping the drive with a one-yard touchdown run to give the underdogs from West Texas a 42-35 lead with 6:50 remaining.

Trinity would again be up to the task on their next drive marching right back down the field with the power running game as the catalyst, but the game tying score came through the air as Tupou found fullback Buddy Leota wide open in the flat for an eleven-yard touchdown to tie the game back up at 42-42 with 4:01 remaining.

Trinity’s defense would hold Midland Legacy on the next drive forcing a punt and giving the ball back to their offense with just over three minutes left in the game. Facing a 4th and 3 on their own 41 with just over two minutes left Trinity elected to gamble and attempt a fake punt, Legacy was ready for the fake and sniffed it out, but a facemask call on the tackle gave Trinity new life and a first down.

Trinity would march to the Legacy 26-yard line with under a minute left in the game and instead of pressing the pace a bit more, the Trojans decided they were going to either win the game with a field goal or go to overtime as the Trinity staff didn’t want to leave Midland Legacy any time on the clock. On fourth down the Trojans let the play clock run down to one before calling timeout and electing to attempt the game winning field goal with a dozen seconds left on the clock. The kick was wide and the wild shootout would head to overtime with the game deadlocked at 42-42.

Midland Legacy would get the ball first in overtime and the Rebels needed just one play to take the lead back as Johnson scored on a 25-yard run to put Legacy back up 49-42. Trinity needed just two plays to equalize as Bell would score on a 25-yard run to even the game at 49-49 and send the game to a second overtime, where teams would have to go for two if they scored a touchdown.

Trinity on the first play of the second overtime nearly had a pass picked off, but the Trojans would escape disaster and find the end zone on 4th and goal from the one as Tupou would get in on the QB sneak to make it 55-49 as the two point conversion failed. Legacy would have the ball on their second series in overtime with a chance to win the game and just like on the first series, Johnson would rip off a 25-yard touchdown run to even the game at 55-55 with the two point try pending. The Rebels would dial up a beautiful call on the two-point play as TE Jordan Williams was open in the flat and Davila found him for the game winner and a walk-off 57-55 win for Midland Legacy.

The game ended with eye popping offensive numbers with the two teams combining for 1,102 yards, both running backs had career games as Midland Legacy’s Damien Johnson finished with 349 rushing yards and four touchdowns and sixteen receiving yards, while Trinity RB Josh Bell finished with 256 rushing yards and three touchdowns along with 83 receiving yards. The quarterbacks weren’t bad either as Midland Legacy signal caller Marcos Davila threw for 209 yards and three scores and added a rushing touchdown and Trinity QB TJ Tupou threw for 234 yards and a score and added three touchdowns on the ground.

Trinity’s season would end with an 8-4 mark, while Midland Legacy would be eliminated in the regional semifinals by Allen the following week wrapping up 2023 with a 10-3 overall record.