Euless Trinity and Flower Mound Marcus duel till the end in high-scoring football thriller

Something had to give when winless Euless Trinity and winless Flower Mound Marcus met on Thursday night.

The teams traded score after score, but when the dust settled Trinity had pulled out a 59-49 win over the Marauders in a thriller at Pennington Field.

Trinity running back Josh Bell rushed for 341 yards on 29 carries and five touchdowns for the Trojans, but it was Lemariea Smith who sealed the game with his second interception of the game with 6:02 left.

“We went over a lot in practice and I came out here and just did what my coaches told me to do, but I made a couple of mistakes,” said Smith, who also had a pick on Marcus’ first possession that led to Trinity taking a 7-0 lead. “We adjusted to it and on those picks I just listened to them from the previous play before and it worked.

“We really needed this win because a lot of people had already counted us out. We had two close games to begin with, but we just had to capitalize. We had to send a statement.”

Bell out dueled Marcus quarterback Dane Parlin who passed for 353 yards and four scores completing 22 of 32 passes, but suffered three picks.

“I’m a little tired,” said Bell, justifiably, who scored on runs of 35, 71, 73, nine and six yards. “I just love my line. They make it so easy for me.”

The Trinity line composed of Toa Katoa (397 pounds), Phillip Tuipulotu (322), Josheph Pilcher (267), Peni Lasalosi (278), Mapu Katoa (275) and tight end Lukus Sanches (230) pounded the Marauders’ defense all night allowing Bell to run wild.

“On those explosive plays, my coach told me to hit it running and I did,” said Bell. “I went full speed as hard as I could and made some work.”

“Bell is a phenomenal kid,” said Trinity coach Aaron Lineweaver. “He’s deceptively fast, he’s really strong and he knows when to go and when to be patient. He’s gotten a lot better and our offensive line just wears on you.

“It’s a physical game and that’s our mindset at Trinity and that paid off as we went.”

There were three ties in the game and the lead changed six times. The six lead changes started with 5:49 left in the third quarter when Marcus took its first lead of the game. It lasted until the 7:35 mark of the fourth period during which 42 points were scored.

Trinity quarterback T.J. Tupou took advantage of a free play early in the fourth quarter when Marcus was pulled offsides on a fourth and five from the Marauder 20. Tupou dropped a perfect pass into the arms of Jarvis Heimuli in the front corner of the left side of the end zone to give the Trojans a 45-42 lead.

Marcus marched right down the field to take the lead back on a six-yard scoring run by Mason Jones just a minute later.

Tupou and Heimuli connected again, this time for a 70-yard TD, to answer and retake the lead at 52-49 with 7:35 left.

Tupou was an efficient seven of eight passing for 153 yards with five of the passes going to Heimuli who recorded 141 yards receiving.

Following Smith’s second pick that set up the Trojans at the Marcus 39, Bell carried five consecutive times for 37 yards to set up a one-yard TD run by Tupou.

“This game was unbelievable,” said Lineweaver, whose team lost by one to Prosper and by seven to Rockwall-Heath to open the season. “Our kids are resilient and they have great hearts. This is a high-character group and I’m really, really proud of our coaches and kids for sticking with it.”

Lineweaver said that the Trojans are suffering from several injuries to key players, but should have them back soon.

“We just fight and play to win and that’s what I love about our kids,” said Lineweaver. “It was just a great game and we just made a couple of more plays than they did.”

Karic Grennan was Parlin’s favorite target with 11 catches for 146 yards and a 12-yard TD. Rhett Garza had 136 yards on five receptions with touchdowns of 35 and 72 yards for Marcus.

Ethan Wright picked up 80 yards on six rushes for Trinity and caught two passes for 12 yards.

“This was a huge win, because we were 0-2 and started off 0-5 last year,” said Bell. “Starting off 0-2 was a little rocky, but it’s good getting this win. We had to pull it out...we had to.”