Titans Lose Heartbreaker in Football Championship Game

By Mike Blum

Atlanta, GA -- If there is a more disheartening way of losing a championship football game, you would have a hard time convincing the Blessed Trinity Titans.

After dominating the game well into the second half, the Titans gave up a 14-point lead against region rival Westminster, with the Wildcats taking the Class AAA championship 38-31 in overtime at the Georgia Dome.

Blessed Trinity was poised to send the game into a second overtime period, but standout tailback Milton Shelton fumbled into the end zone trying to stretch the football across the goal line.

Shelton’s knee appeared to have touched the ground before he fumbled, but there is no replay in high school football, even for televised championship games. Westminster recovered in the end zone for a touchback, ending the game and BT’s title hopes in crushing fashion.

“We played a hell of a game,” Blessed Trinity coach Tim McFarlin said minutes after the painful loss. “There won’t be a better game played in the Georgia Dome. It’s not OK right now, but it will be. This team took hit after hit after hit this season. I’m so proud of these kids.”

The Titans have battled key injuries the entire season, and that was again the case in the championship game. Linebacker Logan Craighead, the team’s top defensive player, was hampered in practice by an ankle injury, and did not play in the second half, when the Westminster offense came alive.

Blessed Trinity limited the Wildcats to three field goals in the first three quarters, with Westminster picking up a first down on just two of its first six possessions. With Craighead on the sidelines and the BT defense gradually getting more worn down, Westminster scored three touchdowns in the final 10 minutes to erase a pair of 14-point deficits.

The Westminster comeback was aided by standout kicker Blake Gillikin, who starred in every aspect of the kicking game. Gilliken connected on all three field goal attempts, including a 53-yard attempt in the opening period after a fumble recovery in BT territory by the Wildcats.

Gilliken’s three punts covered 58, 62 and 65 yards, and he put six kickoffs in the end zone for touchbacks. The one time he did not reach the end zone turned out to be the pivotal play of the game – a perfectly executed onside kick in the fourth quarter that scooted past both walls of BT players before being recovered by Westminster at the BT 21.

Elusive tailback Zay Malcome scored on the next play to the game with 3:39 on the clock, and BT failed to move the ball for the only time the entire night, punting for the first time with less than 20 seconds on the clock.

After beating two of the state’s top teams in AAA en route to the finals, BT drew a red-hot Westminster team in the championship contest, with the Wildcats winning four straight road games to make it to the Georgia Dome.

The Titans won the regular season meeting between the two teams 24-10, but Westminster raised the level of its game in the playoffs, averaging 48.5 points in its first four victories.

Until Craighead went out, the Wildcats were unable to score a touchdown, with the Titans stopping the Wildcats’ only two drives at the BT 15 and 4 to force a pair of field goals. The Blessed Trinity offense moved the ball at will against the Wildcats, driving 49 and 65 yards around a fumble on the first play of the Titans’ second series.

After just missing a 46-yard field goal on their opening possession, BT’s Brooks Hosea connected from 29 yards to cut the Westminster lead to 6-3.

The Titans followed with four straight touchdown drives covering 80, 84, 80 and 80 yards to take a 31-17 lead with 8:25 on the clock. But the Wildcats responded with a pair of 80-yard touchdown drives prior to their successful onside kick.

When BT was unable to score on its final possession in regulation, the game went to overtime, and the Wildcats covered 15 yards in three plays with Malcome scoring from the 3. The Titans nearly matched that score on their first play, but a Colin Davis pass was tipped away in the end zone by Westminster’s Rankin Woley, who did double duty as a quarterback and defensive back.

Shelton, also a two-way player, fought for a first down at the 5, but a false start penalty pushed the Titans back to the 10. Shelton broke away from several tacklers on the next play before being dragged down the near the goal line, and he lost control of the football while reaching for the goal line. The ball bounded into the end zone and Westminster recovered, ending the Titans’ hopes of their first undefeated season and state championship.

Despite battling injuries in recent weeks, Shelton finished with 255 yards on 37 carries, going over 2,050 yards on the season. He ran tough the entire game, fighting off numerous attempted Westminster tacklers and evading others. He scored BT’s first touchdown late in the second quarter to give the Titans a 10-6 lead at the half, and broke runs of 43 and 64 yards in the second half, leading to a pair of touchdown sneaks by Davis.

Shelton also had a touchdown saving tackle from his cornerback position on Westminster’s first play from scrimmage, and was instrumental in helping keep the Wildcats out of the end zone for more than three quarters. It was the first time in 15 games the BT defense yielded more than 14 points.

Davis, who has been hampered by an ailing throwing shoulder the entire season and missed one playoff game and most of another with an injury to his clavicle, completed 12 of 15 passes for 143 yards. He connected with Matthew Higgins, who was sidelined for the entire regular season, on a 46-yard strike to the Westminster 11 to set up BT’s field goal early in the second quarter.

A 29-yard strike from Davis to a diving Higgins preceded Shelton’s 2-yard scoring run late in the period. Higgins caught nine of Davis’s passes for 107 yards.

Garrett Dupuis gave the Titans a 17-9 lead early in the third quarter with a 10-yard run, two plays after he broke loose for 48 yards while spelling Shelton at tailback. He and Shelton were also the team’s two leading tacklers in the game.

Although McFarlin thought Shelton was likely down before he fumbled, the BT coach had no problems with the officials.

“Things even out,” he said, referring to a favorable ruling that went the Titans’ way on the second of the two scoring sneaks by Davis, which came on fourth and goal. “We were up two scores in the fourth quarter, but the defense was out of gas. We had our center playing middle linebacker in the second half.”

The Titans finished the season 13-1-1, the tie coming in the 4-AAA championship game against Cedar Grove when heavy rains made the field unplayable for overtime. Cedar Grove won the toss and elected to play as the region’s No. 2 seed, forcing the Titans to play Calhoun and Jefferson on the way to the finals while Cedar Grove had a more favorable draw before losing to region No. 3 Westminster (11-4) in the semifinals.

BT has made the playoffs all five years McFarlin has been the team’s head coach, reaching the quarterfinals in 2012 and ’13 and the semifinals last year. McFarlin also coached Roswell to the state championship game in 2006, with that game ending in a tie with no overtime.

“I’d tired of ties,” he said. “I’d rather lose and go down swinging.”

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Photo credit: Blessed Trinity Catholic High School’s Facebook page