Preps!
To borrow a golf term, Allen Park’s offense took a lot of risk on, but didn’t exactly garner much reward in its homecoming game against Trenton.
Yet the Jaguars did enough to reap the rewards of a 23-10 win, dodging rain drops as often as tacklers on the saturated field. The victory kept the Jaguars undefeated at 6-0, earning a guaranteed playoff berth.
Allen Park’s offense rebuffed using its punter in favor of running multiple plays on 4th down — including its first three possessions of the game, deep in Trenton territory. All three attempts were stopped by Trenton between its 25 and 21 yard lines.
But the Trojans didn’t do much for their own cause, going 3-and-out each time.
Allen Park broke the stalemate open on the first play of its fourth possession, a 77-yard touchdown run by Reid Paffhausen. He started left, then cut back right and broke away down the right sideline untouched.
“That run was supposed to go left but I saw the opening and took it the other way,” Paffhausen said. “Our field is kind of known for being sloppy, so that might have helped.”
A fourth attempt on fourth down was successful and kept the Allen Park drive going to inside the 10-yard line of Trenton. But penalties and a couple plays for loss resulted in a 27-yard field goal by Mike Beyst to close out the first half, 11-0.
“We had a short field on so many of those fourth downs, I didn’t want to kick it and just have it go in the end zone and have the ball come out to the 20, maybe a net gain of 5 or 6 yards. So we went for it,” said Allen Park coach Tom Danosky.
The Jaguars’ defense has been key, giving up only 13 points all season coming into the matchup. Trenton’s 10 points were the most scored by any opponent.
Trenton pushed deep into the red zone before Danosky’s defense stopped the drive and forced a field goal by Trevor Goodman – a 23-yarder to close the gap, 11-3, late in the third quarter.
But Allen Park answered immediately on its next drive when Matt Arnoldy grabbed a 35-yard pass from quarterback Antonio Mangiapane. After stopping Trenton on the next possession, on its try of a fourth-and-1, Paffhausen (120 yards on 11 carries) scored again on a 4-yard run with exactly 9:00 remaining in the 4th quarter.
Trenton (5-1) kept at it and Kenny Styles grabbed a 17-yard pass for a touchdown to pull Trenton to within 23-10 with 2:44 to play.