Head Coach Jay Cobb and the Trinity Shamrocks make the 4+ hour drive west to St. Louis to face the Cadets of Christian Brothers (CBC). Kick off is 6:30 pm CST.

The Rocks (1-0) are coming off a running clock 59 - 13 blowout road win over highly ranked Anderson (OH).

For the Trinity offense, QB Zane Johnson, RB’s JB Berry and Ashton Taylor and TE Jack Stivers all had big games. The Rocks passed for 209 yards and ran for 234 yards vs the Raptors. On defense the Shamrocks held Anderson to 13 points (the Raptors averaged scoring 42 ppg in 2025). Defensive stars for Trinity were DL Sebastian Blue, LB Luke Vize and DBs LA Evans and Elijah Burns Crump.

CBC Head Coach Scott Pingel (18 years, 3 state titles) and the Cadets finished 2025 at 11-1. They enter 2026 ranked #1 in Missouri. This game will be the season opener for CBC.

Cadets to watch are WR’s Isaiah Thomas and Kingston McPike, DB’s Milton Proctor and Josh Beasley and DL Que Porter.

The game is scheduled to be live-streamed at www.youtube.com/@CBCCSN.

Who wins in the City of the Arch?

I'll go with Trinity by 28.

Christian Brothers is very good. If Trinity handles them the Chattanooga game will be a national story.

I don't know too much about CBC other than they are the top team in Missouri. Have had folks tell me it should be a better opponent than Anderson was.

It's gonna be possibly the longest bus ride in Trinity football history. But I believe the Rocks can get it done. Let's see that offense explode once more and the defense continue to clamp down and apply pressure at all angles.

And as @new fan mentioned, I fully expect the week after to have national hype after this coming week.

8 hours ago, St. Matthews Boy said:

I don't know too much about CBC other than they are the top team in Missouri. Have had folks tell me it should be a better opponent than Anderson was.

It's gonna be possibly the longest bus ride in Trinity football history. But I believe the Rocks can get it done. Let's see that offense explode once more and the defense continue to clamp down and apply pressure at all angles.

And as @new fan mentioned, I fully expect the week after to have national hype after this coming week.

One game at a time. CBC and the long travel day are a big challenge. And then the very next Friday, Cincinnati Moeller comes to Marshall Stadium. Who in their right mind would ever overlook the Moeller program?

Rivals is predicting a Trinity loss:

Fri 8/288:00 PM

#1 Trinity(1-0) #2 Christian Brothers College(0-0)

--

28 36

36% 64%

Read that CBC graduated 11 offensive starters, and this is their first game of the season. If true that would mean most if not all of their offense is playing their first varsity game against probably one of the best defenses in the country!

I like the Shamrocks by 3-4 TDs in this one, but I will never underestimate the toll a long bus ride can take on high schoolers after a long week. I hope Trinity continues to represent the state well on this national campaign to start the season!

Just did a little CBC research - around 50 players on the roster, and 20 are seniors

Maybe no Jeremiah Love or Armon Watts on the roster, but still talented.

Kingston McPike is a speedy top '28 WR (Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri, Michigan among the offers)

Corde Gage is a top 2027 WR

Joshua Beasley is a 2028 CB with Power Four offers

Que Porter is a 2028 DL

Milton Proctor is one of the top 2029 prospects in Missouri (safety)

Saw one ranking where the Cadets were ranked No. 2 in Missouri. So, I still like the Rocks but won't be easy.

CBC played a 4 team scrimmage with some other schools in the preseason and showed several different looks. They appear to be playing two quarterbacks in SR Franklin McGinty and JR Daylan Austin-Harvey. They run an RPO spread concept that looks to exploit soft coverage and overactive blitzes. In my opinion Austin-Harvey was the better of the two QBs and probably who will start. He is a fast, shifty runner and can get up field quickly when in the open field. He throws a decent ball over the middle and has two legit playmakers in WRs Kingston McPike (transfer last year, did not play) and Arness Webb. Webb had 7 catches for 130 yards last year and is the only receiver with substantial playing time. RB Caden Shea returns (29/360/12.4/7 td) and appears to start replacing the outstanding Vic Williams who anchored a running attack that went for over 3000 yards last year. The offensive line is all replaced as well and sports two massive tackles in 6'6 315 junior Elijah Carpenter and 6'5 280 junior Hayden Clark. They appear a little slow and not fundamentally polished so hopefully DLs Sebastian Blue and Juleone Carney can make some headway and force some pressure like in the Anderson game.

Defensively, they employ a 3-4 box with very active SAM and WILL linebackers. LB Cole Rivers returns but I did not see him in the scrimmage, as is the case with LB Gabe Wilson. They combined for 94 tackles and 3 sacks and are excellent fundamentally. DL Que Porter played several snaps in the scrimmage and saw limited action last year. Marcus Aljaghbir and Trent Wills also started in the scrimmage but rotated heavily throughout the day, as it appears head coach Scott Pingel is still looking for something on defense. DBs Joshua Beasley, JaKah Cooper, Milton Proctor III and Kameron Terrell received the most time on field and did a decent job in coverage, but appear inexperienced and gave up a few long plays.

Kicker Max Daus graduated from last year's team and it is unclear who will handle punting and kicks. Long snapper Drake Clifton is pledged to Kansas and was the lone D-1 commit I was able to uncover. It appears McPike, Beasley and Proctor all have offers. The toughest news for the Cadets is the absence of WR/DB/P/K Corde Gage who it appears left the team to focus on baseball. He was the team's leading scorer with 11 TDs, 7 FGs and 76 XPs.

All in all the Trinity experience factor will no doubt give them an advantage, but the long bus ride could be difficult to overcome. I have no doubt that Coach Cobb has prepared for this and hopefully can help mitigate that factor. After watching the Springfield scrimmage and the Anderson game, I feel the Rocks are climbing towards their full potential. Zane Johnson looks as good as I've ever seen him and he is making great decisions out there. The secondary had Owen Scalf and the Raptors completely confused and nowhere to go. The offensive line was terrific given the amount of varsity snaps they had coming in and that is very encouraging. I look for the zone blitzing and stout front line of the Green and White to be a major problem for the Cadets on Friday and the multiple weapons on offense with Berry, Taylor and the receiving corps to have another huge game. See you in St. Louis! ☘️

On HSratings.com Trinity is rated 24 points better than CB. Factor in home field would make Trinity favored by 21.

Could be Running Clock #2!

I'm hosting a "tailgate/ watch party" at my place in Sellersburg. No naps this week, as I missed the entire Anderson game.

Rocks- 38

Cadets- 14

27 minutes ago, NLTanker1 said:

I'm hosting a "tailgate/ watch party" at my place in Sellersburg. No naps this week, as I missed the entire Anderson game.

Rocks- 38

Cadets- 14

I thought you shared with us last week you were making the trip up I71 to watch the Rocks in person. It was a fun environment at Anderson. They were very nice folks and a cool little footprint for their stadium.