East Texas Baptist and Trinity each earned dominant wins last Saturday thanks to incredible defensive play.
The ETBU defense nearly equaled the scoring output by the offense in a 44-16 win at home over Belhaven while forcing the Blazers into four turnovers.
The Tigers defense scored three touchdowns with KJ Kelley responsible for two of the touchdowns via interception returns.
The Hardin-Simmons transfer and former Abilene Cooper standout scored the Tigers’ first touchdown of the game on a 94-yard interception return. He returned another interception 52-yards for a touchdown to end the third quarter.
Is Kelley the Small College Player of the Week? I say yes.
Forney High School product Donovan Graham put the finishing touches on the victory with a fumble recovery in the endzone in the fourth quarter.
The Trinity defense was equally impressive in a 37-7 road win over Millsaps.
The Tigers’ offense was humming to the tune of 504 total yards, but the defense was the story holding the Majors to a paltry 213 total yards of offense.
The Trinity run defense was especially stout allowing only 29 yards on 29 carries.
“We had a long trip yesterday and they showed some great mental toughness to come out and play the way they did today,” Trinity coach Jerheme Urban said to trinityutigers.com. “I felt like we once again fed off of the energy of our defensive box, which continues to play really good run defense, and we saw some guys on offense start showing the explosive potential that we have.
“We also had some guys who really stepped up today with some injuries and played great football as well. We'll get home tonight and heal up for a really good Hendrix team next weekend.”
Leading the Tigers’ defensive charge was Texas Football 2020 Preseason All-Texas Small College Team linebacker, Michael Jewett. The junior from Strake Jesuit High School led the defense with seven tackles and two sacks.
Freshman and former Vandergrift standout Ryan Arnold registered his first career interception on Millsaps’ final drive of the contest.
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