Jack Leahy
When the most hyperbolic rivalry in Irish University sports meets the most showmanlike and brash sport known to man, the one thing of which you can be sure is a spectacle. That was exactly what came to pass in a 20-16 victory for Trinity over fierce rivals UCD in the American Football season opener.
In a patchy game of few clear-cut opportunities, running-back Rob McDowell set the stage for himself to steal the spoils for Trinity, charging home two touchdowns to put his side in command.
It was no all plain sailing, however, and having established a 14-0 lead with two touchdowns from McDowell and an early safety, complacency crept in early in the second half and two well-worked touchdowns from UCD gave them a surprise 18-16 lead on home turf. Fortunately, only a few seconds separated UCD’s second 2-point conversion when McDowell returned a kick with blistering place to give his side a lead which eventually saw them home.
Trinity started by far the brightest, receivng the kick-off before driving upfield and consistently gaining new sets of downs. David Corcoran managed to get the ball in the endzone early on but the referee called play back for a penalty on the line. When UCD did manage to get hold of possession, they were driven backwards by a vigorous Trinity offence and when a poorly placed long pass missed its target on the fourth down, they could not prevent the ball from entering the endzone and Trinity took a 2-0 lead with a safety.
Trinity quarterback Alex Canepa was finding his men with ease and pulling the strings in the first half. Having driven his side upfield with the help of the peerless McDowell, he scrambled for the first touchdown of the match and, having narrowly missed an attempt to convert, he say his side lead 8-0 by the second quarter. Trinity struck once more when a meticulous pass from Canepa found McDowell in flying form on the left, with the running back beating off tacklers to increase Trinity’s lead to 14-0.
QB Alex Canepa (SF Hist-Pol) Runs the ball himself
Having started the third quarter looking like they would rather hit the showers early, UCD suddenly came to life mid-way through the third quarter when they capitalised on shoddy passing and lax defending to reach the endzone with a series of long passes, the touchdown supplemented by a two-point conversion. Another long ball into the Trinity endzone found the same running back less than five minutes later as UCD, looking so one-dimnesional and apathetic until this stage, suddenly held a 16-14 lead with seven minutes left on the clock.
Thankfully, McDowell caught the resulting kick-off and, after some crucial blocking from Amir Alsaffar and Tom Gonzalez, he sprinted the 80 yards between the catch and the UCD endzone to regain the lead for his side, the conversion once again missed by Trinity’s offense.
In the face of a desperate UCD effort, Trinity managed to remain calm and run down the slow-ticking clock to take a valuable win in the 2011 season opener. Having dominated for large periods of the game, the Trinity coaching staff will be less than impressed with how sloppy their side’s play became having taken what looked like an unassailable advantage. They will, of course, take heart from the comprehensive manner in which McDowell regained control for his side, having complacently substituted him to preseverve his immense talent for a fixture the following weekend.
