‘A lot of good to take away’ for Bryan Station football despite another loss to Trinity

Bryan Station wants to win when it matters most.

Losing to Trinity on Aug. 23 ultimately doesn’t mean much beyond showing how the Defenders presently stack up against the team that defeated them last December for the Class 6A state title. The latest final score — 28-10 at home on Friday night — was an improvement, at least in margin, over that championship-game loss (41-20) and drastically better than the 36-3 defeat Station suffered in its 2023 season opener to the Shamrocks in Louisville.

Again, it was a loss, but one with immediately evident returns.

From the Defenders’ perspective, perhaps nothing was more encouraging than a goal-line stand inside the game’s final minute. Trinity twice put the ball in the hands of game MVP Jamaurion Berry (135 rushing yards, one touchdown) inside the 3-yard line, and Station twice thwarted his bid to swell the Shamrocks’ winning margin.

“That’s a big thing,” Bryan Station coach Phil Hawkins said. “Stopping them down here at the end of the game? That’s a big takeaway. We know the defense has got some fight in ’em.”

Station’s offense has “some stuff to line up,” but the unit’s ceiling is much higher than the 236 yards mustered in the season opener.

Kalen “Jaws” Washington, a possible Mr. Football finalist who’s been offered by a slew of Mid-American Conference football programs, scored the Defenders’ only TD and rushed 18 times for 122 yards, the bulk of them on a 54-yard burst on Station’s first possession that ultimately led to a successful field goal by John Hannan.

Quarterback James Davis, a senior who before this year played at Madisonville, spent much of the offseason preparing as a wide receiver until a season-ending injury to expected starter Jaxson Branham about two weeks ago. Davis completed 9 of 20 pass attempts for 107 yards with an interception, which snuffed the Defenders’ only possession of the third quarter after they got within scoring range in what at the time was a 21-3 game. Those were more completions (eight) and attempts (13) than Davis had from under center all of last year in western Kentucky.

“I think he just needs some reps and he’ll be fine,” Hawkins said.

He and his teammates will get plenty of quality reps leading up to the start of district play in mid-October. Bryan Station travels to Boyle County on Saturday before a showdown with reigning Class 5A champion Bowling Green, scheduled as part of a bowl event at Lexington Christian Academy. The Defenders then host Ballard, whom they edged 24-21 in the Class 6A semifinals last year, before taking on Tates Creek, which put up 48 points in its season-opening win over Eastern.

“Slow starts” aren’t foreign to Station. It began 0-3 and 0-2, respectively, the last two seasons and both ended in better standing than most would have dreamed.

Hawkins and his team want to win all their games, but state trophies aren’t handed out in August. As far as measuring sticks are concerned, Station largely stayed toe-to-toe with the Shamrocks outside of a three-minute stretch in the second quarter, wherein Trinity capitalized on a pair of big passes to boost its advantage from 7-3 to 21-3 in a blink.

“We got a couple young people we’re trying to break in, it is what it is,” Hawkins said. “We had some breakdowns blocking a little bit that we gotta fix. But honestly, if this is where we’re starting right now, then I like where we’re headed.

“Last year at this time, they laid down and let Trinity beat the s— out of ’em. So I don’t think we’re in that same spot. I don’t like to lose, but that game should’ve probably been a 14-10 loss instead of 28-10. So there’s a lot of good to take away.”

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