Inside Holy Trinity football's amazing comeback

Zero, seven, zero, 35. You don’t see lines like that all that often, but last weekend, those were the scores by quarter for Holy Trinity in its come-from-behind win against St. Francis Prep, a 42-41 non-league stunner that was decided as time ran out.

Now, because I care (and because that raises approximately seven million questions), I called Titans coach Tony Mascia to ask him to break down what he called one of the wildest games in his coaching career.

“We were having a rough day,” Mascia said of the first three quarters, after which Trinity trailed 27-7. “We were making a lot of mental mistakes.”

And then?

“It was crazy,” he said. “We scored 35 points. In five minutes, there were six scores.”

Let’s break it down:

With 9:30 remaining, St. Francis’ Alex Misterman scores on a 40-yard run to make it 34 7.

With 8:50 left and on the very next possession, Holy Trinity quarterback Chris Laviano connects with Matthew Sheehan on a 28-yard scoring pass. It’s 34-14.

St. Francis answers back on the next possession, as Misterman takes off again, this time for a 49-yard TD run. It’s 41-14 with 7:41 left.

One minute, 30 seconds later, Laviano finds Sheehan again, making it 41-21 with 6:30 remaining. “That [touchdown] took up hardly no time,” Mascia said. “It was huge.”

St. Francis Prep receives the kickoff and immediately fumbles. The fumble is recovered by Andre Devieux at the Buffalo 28. “After we fumbled, things really started clicking,” Mascia said.

On the next play, Laviano takes it 18 yards to the 10. Ryan Alexander scores on the second play of the drive, a 10-yard pass from Laviano, making it 41-28. On the touchdown, Buffalo is flagged for roughing the passer, and the 15-yard penalty is applied on kickoff.

Holy Trinity opts for the onside kick and recovers at the Buffalo 33. It takes them three plays to go 33 yards, capped by Laviano’s 34-yard pass to Alexander with 4:30 to play to make it 41-35.

St. Francis goes three-and-out and punts it to the Trinity 20 with 1:59 left. In 12 plays, the Titans get to the 1-yard line with 13 seconds remaining and no timeouts. That’s when Joe Ferguson runs it in for the tie with no time left. Matthew Russo, who, up to that point, had gone 5-for-5 on PATs, sails it true again, and Holy Trinity wins with no time left

Some big-game stats:

Laviano, a three-year starter, compiled about 140 of his 305 yards in the fourth quarter, including four of his five TD passes. He completed 24-of-36 passes in the game, but had only two incompletions in the fourth. Rossi had 17 carries for 116 yards, plus two catches for 51 yards. Alexander had 12 receptions for 130 yards for and 3 TDs.