October 8, 2006Trinity's Comeback Comes Up Shortfrom The Stamford Advocate STAMFORD -- As the chains were brought out onto the field with 15 seconds left yesterday, the fate of a spirited comeback attempt by the Trinity Catholic High School football team was coming down to a measurement. And as the result found them short by a few inches, the irony of the moment was not lost on the Crusader players as they came off the field, their helmets removed and heads pointed toward the ground. On a day they turned the ball over five times and spotted Brien McMahon a 20-point lead, there were just too many mistakes to overcome. Led by Chris Hawthorn and Kyle Foti, the Crusaders produced a frenzied second-half rally. But in the end, a team that has moved beyond moral victories was left to contemplate a dejecting 26-20 loss that left it 2-2 and searching for answers. So close, yet so far. "I've seen our team come out and play our best in desperate situations," Trinity coach Bryan Fox said. "We have to realize the first snap is a desperate situation." Led by Ken O'Brien's two touchdowns and two interceptions, and a strong first half by quarterback Peter Raymond, the Senators (3-1) had a 26-6 lead after O'Brien's 33-yard scoring run on their first play of the second half. Hawthorn, the bruising tight end, was sensational in the second half, finishing with nine catches for 169 yards. A pair of touchdown runs by Foti made the score 26-20 with five minutes left. An interception by Foti gave Trinity the ball back at its own 43 with 3:19 left, but four players later O'Brien stepped in front of Hawthorn for what appeared to be a game-ending turnover. "I just saw it coming and I was right there to get it," O'Brien said. But the Crusaders got a final chance when McMahon tried to pass the ball instead of run out the clock and Raymond, who was 1-for-5 for minus-three yards and two interceptions in the second half, was picked off by Mike Romaniello, who was playing because starting cornerback Ryan Durkin suffered an elbow injury early in the second half. Romaniello caught the ball between two defenders, and the Crusaders had 90 yards and 1:30 separating them from a storybook ending. "I made a bad call on that play," McMahon coach Joe SantaLucia said. "I was pretty certain it was going to be open, and if Peter had waited one more second it would have been open. I didn't want another tackle for a loss." Koummal hit Hawthorn for nine yards and Foti on a screen for 18, but on fourth-and-3 from his own 44, Koummal's last-gasp dive fell just short. "I'm disappointed," Hawthorn said. "We've been in this situation before. We just came out flat. We're a fighting team and we came back like that. I just wish things turned out better." Raymond, who threw for 136 yards in the first half, led the Senators right down the field on their opening possession, resulting in O'Brien's 3-yard score. The Crusaders turned the ball over the first two times they had the ball, the second leading to Raymond's 7-yard pass to Vivaldi Demas and a 12-0 lead. Raymond then hit Willie Epps (six catches, 73 yards) in stride for a 15-yard touchdown that made the score 20-0 with 2:05 left in the half. "Even then I thought we were going to win the game," Hawthorn said. "I always feel that way." Trinity's John O'Leary made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch from 27 yards out in the left corner of the end zone with 48 seconds left in the half to make the score 20-6. The momentum proved fleeting as Trinity went three-and-out to open the second half and then O'Brien, who finished with 79 yards on 14 carries, burst free to expand the lead back to 20 points. "I felt confident," O'Brien said. "(SantaLucia) gave me the ball a lot more and I was going to do something. I was not going to disappoint him. I felt good." It was a surprising showing from a Trinity defense that had been the backbone of the team thus far. "If we are going to hang our heads on the defense you can't give up 26 points," Fox said. Still the offense almost compensated. The Crusaders, who are built around their ground game, rushed for 181 yards. Koummal was the revelation, completing 18 of 31 passes for 259 yards, albeit with three interceptions. Foti, who had 105 yards of total offense, scored on a 9-yard run in the third quarter and from 8 yards out in the fourth, and Fox's conversations on the sideline when the Crusaders got the ball back left no doubt he shared his players' expectations. "The decision in our head was whether we were going to go for one point or two if we scored again since we hadn't kicked an extra point all day," he said. "We talked about what we would do but we couldn't finish off that drive." Instead, Trinity fell inches shy. On this day, it seemed like a mile. Copyright © 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
 Big senior defensive tackle Vladimir Joseph swims by an offensive lineman in a 28-20 home victory over Fairfield Ludlowe on October 29, 2005. (CrusaderNation.net / Dana Maul)
 Junior defensive tackle Santiago "Teggy" Steele wraps up a Darien
rusher as his
 Junior center Cory Johnson prepares to snap the ball to fellow classmate
 The Crusader offensive line pushes Bassick around in the mud. The
Crusaders
 Senior wideout Rob Hawthorn races downfield to block as junior fullback
Eric Stephens
 2005 All-FCIAC East Offense Row 1, Left to Right: Eric Wells, Bassick; Willie Epps, McMahon;
Pete Raymond,
 2005 All-FCIAC East Defense Row 1, Left to Right: Joe Luchesi, Danbury; Greg Sabo, Danbury; James
Taylor, Danbury;
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