TJ Tupou did his part to give Euless Trinity the lead in the fourth quarter.
Then the senior quarterback had to watch to see if it was enough to help the Trojans spring the upset.
Thanks to a late stop and a near-interception, the Trojans pulled out a 31-28 win Friday night at Northwest ISD Stadium in a District 4-6A high school football clash. Trinity was coming off a narrow loss to Southlake Carroll in week four.
The Bobcats held a 28-24 lead going into the fourth quarter. Tupou engineered a drive that saw him score twice because the first was negated by a penalty.
Both times, the 6-foot, 190-pound signal caller absorbed hard contact on his way toward the goal line.
“In situations like this, I got to put my body on the line for the team,” Tupou said. “I was willing to do anything it took to get in the end zone and put us up.”
The start of the fourth featured some interesting sequences for both sides.
Trinity (4-1, 2-1) had a 4th-and-5 from the 44-yard line, and Tupou threw an incomplete pass. What looked to have been a turnover on downs was salvaged when Byron Nelson (2-2, 0-2) was called for being offsides.
However, the Trojans moved forward but also moved back as the unsportsmanlike conduct call was whistled and Trinity had its second player ejected from the contest.
However, with a new set of downs, the Trojans kept moving the ball. Tupou had back-to-back completions, an 11-yard gain to Antwan McGee and a 19-yard pass to tight end Lukus Sanchez.
Then, JT Harris busted a 13-yard run down to the 9-yard line.
On the next play, Tupou reached the end zone by lowering his head and bouncing off a Bobcat defender, but holding negated the score with 7:21 to play.
Tupou went to the air the next play and Byron Nelson was called for a pass interference in the end zone. That moved the ball to the 2-yard line, but Trinity moved before the snapped, and the ball moved back again.
On the fourth straight play that was 1st-and-goal, Tupou kept it again and went off right tackle and this time scored without a yellow flag being thrown. Cort Laurence’s PAT made it 31-28 with 6:51 to play.
That was the final score in the offensive shootout, but the drama wasn’t over yet.
Byron Nelson, coming off a bye week, nearly engineered a late drive that could’ve won it.
Senior Grant Bizjack threw into double coverage and Dmitry Schmidt came down with it for a 37-yard gain to get the ball into Trojans’ territory. Bizjack moved the ball to the 30 and then hit Ezra Malamura for a 7-yard gain to the Trojans’ 23-yard line.
The drive stalled and with 1:13 left, head coach Travis Pride called a timeout as the Bobcats faced a 4th-and-1 from the 15-yard line.
Out of the break, Bizjack avoided a rush and ran to his right. He stepped up and threw a pass to the end zone, that was tipped and fell to the ground with 1:05 left.
But like most plays in this game, a yellow flag was on the field.
This one went against the Bobcats and Trinity took two knees to end the game and secure perhaps the program’s biggest win since a 2020 playoff victory against Allen.
“Hats off to coach Pride and their staff and their kids,” Trinity coach Aaron Lineweaver said. “We had a lot of mistakes but our kids are resilient. I’m proud of them for making plays when we needed to.”
Byron Nelson, No. 4 in the Star-Telegram Class 6A rankings , jumped ahead 7-0 early on an 18-yard pass from Bizjack to Malamura.
The second quarter featured a combined 28 points.
Ethan Wright had a 43-yard run only 7 seconds into the second quarter. Malamura hauled in a 21-yard touchdown pass from Bizjack at the 10:11 mark. Trinity fumbled the kickoff return and the Bobcats recovered. Then, Bizjack connected with Parker Almanza fora. 30-yard score only 11 seconds after the previous touchdown pass.
Then, 13 seconds after that touchdown, the Trojans got on the board with a 59-yard touchdown run from Harris, making it 21-14.
The Bobcats were driving on its final drive of the second quarter. Bizjack hit running back Anthony Sexton for a 28-yard gain on a screen pass, and then he bullied his way through a pair of Trojan defenders for a 19-yard gain to the Trinity 25-yard line.
With 32 seconds left in the half, cornerback Keondre Dixon picked off a tipped pass at the 10-yard line to halt the drive.
“We got stuff we need to clean up,” Lineweaver said. “We were getting in our own way in the first half. We had a talk at halftime and for the most part, we played better in the second half.
The Trojans punted and pinned Byron Nelson at the 5-yard line early in the third, which then turned into Byron Nelson punting from the back of the end zone. A return by Wright got the ball to the 23-yard line and Laurence booted a field goal to pull the Trojans within 21-17.
The Trojans went up 21-21 on a 30-yard touchdown run by Harris with 3:41 left in the third. The drive was set up by the defense stopping Byron Nelson on a 4th-and-3 attempt at its own 32-yard line and the defensive front turned back the attempt and forced the Bobcats to lose 2 yards.
Bizjack led the Bobcats to the end zone one more time in the third quarter. His 62-yard touchdown pass to Josh Engstrom came with 1:45 left in the quarter and returned the lead to Byron Nelson, 28-24.
Trinity, No. 3 in the Star-Telegram Class 6A rankings , goes into its bye week with momentum.
“I’ve been on the other end of it and you always want to win going into the bye week,” Lineweaver said. “But we got so much to work on. It just couldn’t come at a better time.”
Meanwhile, Byron Nelson travels to Keller Central in a matchup with both teams searching for district win No. 1.
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