“Defense is something we’ve preached all week,” said Cardinals first-year coach Zach Winslow. “To be honest, our defense hasn’t been great. It’s been a lot of bend and not getting the turnovers we’ve been talking about. Coming into this game, our focus was that we were going to have opportunities and we had to make the best of those opportunities. I thought our defense came up huge. With six turnovers, we took advantage of everything they gave us.
“That’s one of the funnest games I’ve ever been a part of,” he said.
Triad junior Coleman Hauck scored on a 1-yard run with less than six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Cardinals an 18-14 lead. Hauck led the Cardinals with 98 total yards and had six tackles, an interception, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble in the win.
The Trojans drove the ball deep into Triad territory in the final two minutes, but couldn’t convert on fourth-and-12 inside the 15-yard line.
“Those turnovers definitely killed us. You can’t do that,” Printz said. “I thought we established our run game and threw a few of our screen passes when we needed to and were successful there. If you can’t hang onto the football consistently and have ball security, you’re not going to win the game.”
Triad senior Jordan Simonelli threw two first-half touchdown passes, one to Logan McCoy and another to Kohl Eggleston.
The Trojans trailed 12-0 in the second quarter, but made it 12-7 on a 5-yard TD run by Tanner Stoops with 2:41 remaining in the first half. They took a 14-12 lead on a 38-yard TD pass from Wade Eriksen to Austin Sanders with 1:38 remaining in the third quarter.
After stopping Southeastern on fourth down in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals were able to run out the clock to seal the win against the coach who went 86-72 in 15 years, guiding the program to five playoff berths.
“This win meant a lot to them,” Winslow said. “It meant a lot for our seniors and for our season. It was a great game.”
Before the game, Winslow and Printz met for the first time.
“Coach Printz is a legend in the Triad area,” Winslow said. “He’s what Triad football lore is built on football-wise. We had a great pregame talk. There’s a lot of mutual respect there.”
The current senior class were incoming freshman when Printz stepped down in North Lewisburg. The former coach was greeted by several former students and players after the game.
“It was different,” Printz said. “I hadn’t coached any of them, but I taught them in junior high. I know a lot of the kids personally and their parents. I’m a football guy and the kids I’ve known that go out and have success, I’m happy for them. I’m real happy for those kids. I wish we could’ve beaten them, but we didn’t.”
Southeastern fell to 0-5. The Trojans open Ohio Heritage Conference South Division play next week against Greeneview (2-3) in South Charleston.
The Cardinals (2-3) travel to unbeaten West Liberty-Salem (5-0) in an OHC North Division game.
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