Photos by Jessica Packenham-Money
Trinity Football opened the season in style against rivals UCD today at Belfield. The game from start to finish. This game was a tale of two halves. Trinity found early form and capitilised on errors by the UCD’s Defense. Trinity got an early lead when on 4th down, and on 4th UCD’s center snapped over the head of the Punter and the result of the play was a safety putting Trinity up 2-0.
Trinity took to the field again on offense, and after some nice running by Garrett Dargan, QB Canepa found his way into the endzone. On the two point attempt UCD’s Defense led by Nick Hal held strong and they managed to shut down the two point attempt. 8-0 TCD.
QB Canepa found open men with a couple of his few completions on the day and Trinity found themselves on the march downfield, but UCD’s solid defense held firm and shut down the long drive. Early in the 2nd quarter, with a mistake made in the UCD Secondary, Canepa capitilised and found Rob McDowell wide open for his first touchdown of the season, as he reeled in a beautiful catch. UCD again held firm on the 2 pt…14-0 Trinity.
Richie Whelan OLB and Nick Hall and Kevin McFadden rallied UCD’s Defense for the remainder of the 1st half and shut Trinity’s offense down. 14-0 Trinity going into the half.
Coach John Collins fired up his men during the interval and UCD came out firing in the 2nd half. With UCD’s O-line led by Patrick Buttner and Niall Daniell making solid blocks UCD started marching down the field with success. 2nd Year QB Colin O’Meara who on the day had over 200 yards on the day found the room and time he needed and began to march his offense downfield. O’Meara Found WR Dave Bennett in the endzone and he leapt above the CB and pulled in the football Touchdown UCD, Bennett also had a spectacular catch on the day leaping above two Trinity DBs to pull in the Football for 30 yards. The two point conversion was successful O’Meara finding Conor Redmond in the Endzone. 14-7.
On the next drive Trinity put Rob McDowell in and he ran 70 yards yet again for another Touchdown…or so he thought, as the line judge judged him to have slightly stepped out of bounds.UCD received a huge lift and held firm.
UCD rallied once more and some more great blocking by his O-line including Chris Scollard and Ben McLarney and Jonny Cosgrove helped O’Meara make some excellent completions. Shane Kenny a 3 year WR had a huge day and helped march UCD downfield yet again making some key catches. Kenny got the ball and made his way to the endzone for a bringing this game back to a 14-14 tie. UCD then completed again O’Meara finding Redmond in the Endzone. Coach Collins and UCD performing a solid comeback.
UCD’s lead was short lived and on the following Kick Off Trinity’s Special Teams Coach David McGrath sent on his starting kick return team and with good result…some solid blocks by Amir Alsaffar and Conor Bates saw McDowell speed 80 yards into the endzone. The ensuing 2pt conversion failed and UCD Defense stood strong knowing they could still win this game. Colin Harper and Brian Leonard making some important stops on the day.
UCD’s Defense held firm for the remainder of the game and pinned their faith on O’Meara and unfortunately for UCD Trinity’s defense found the necessary vigor to stop UCD’s Offense. The game went to the final minutes with UCD found Kenny once more but some crucial plays by Fionn Chen and Hunter Inman forced UCD to go for it on 4th down, O’Meara fired over top to the outside and found Geraghty one and one with Trinity’s DB. Unfortunately Geraghty couldn’t find the stride to catch the ball and UCD turned the ball over. With just over a minute remaining in the game, Trinity came on one last time, and rookie RB Garrett Dargan drove the ball on several carries from the midfield to the 1 yard line as time expired
