Holy Trinity routs St. Francis Prep in season opener
Holy Trinity’s Dylan Braithwaite, left, celebrates his touchdown during a CHSFL game against St. Francis Prep on Saturday. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Catch ‘em if you can.
Holy Trinity unveiled an extensive arsenal of speedy big-play options and deployed them all as it burst past visiting St. Francis Prep and rolled to a 64-8 Catholic High School Football League AA-I victory. The Titans scored the first 22 points in less than 10 minutes of the first quarter and never looked back.
Holy Trinity (2-0, 1-0) moved up a classification after winning the 2021 CHSFL A-II title and returned 10 players from its starting defense and nine from its starting offense. And, as co-quarterback Rocco Rainone explained, “we look around at what we have and we can’t help but think about winning another championship.”
“It’s the last thing I think about when I go to sleep and its right there when I get up,” wide receiver/defensive back Dylan Braithwaite said. “We know that we can’t get ahead of ourselves but our coaches developed us to be great players and great players think about championships.”
Behind center, Rainone was 8-for-9 passing for 179 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for a score and Zion Woodhull-Trippett was 3-for-6 passing for 88 yards and a touchdown.
Catching those four touchdown passes were Braithwaite and Josiah Brown. Braithwaite caught three passes for 123 yards and touchdowns of 58 yards from Woodhull-Trippett and 54 from Rainone. Brown caught two passes for 63 yards including a 50-yard touchdown from Rainone and Andre Kirton had two catches for 52 yards including a 44-yard score from Rainone.
Running back Jameer Reeder rushed 10 times for 83 yards and scored three touchdowns – on runs of 4, 9 and 17 yards – and also recovered a fumble. Devin Gonzalez had a 9-yard TD run and recovered a fumble for the Titans.
“It is rare to have a collection of players like this, who can take the football and turn it into a big play,” Holy Trinity coach Kahmal Roy said. “We’re fortunate that this group of talented individuals have come to our building and we are cultivating that talent. I know this generation of likes to think about results. In our program they have seen that it’s the process that brings those kind of results.”
“We know that our only opponent is ourselves, that we are the only team that can beat us,” Reeder said. “We can be great but there are steps to climb to get there and there’s no rush.”
Holy Trinity scored touchdowns on its first three possessions. Brown returned a punt 25 yards to the Terriers’ 15 and two plays later Redder had his 4-yard score. A shanked punt put the Titans on the Prep 35 and six plays later Rainone kept on the option and went for a 9-yard TD. On the second play of the third possession, Woodhull-Trippett threw a quick pass to Braithwaite on the sideline; he juked the defender in front of him and then weaved through the Terriers to daylight and a 58-yard score.
There was a moment in the second quarter when St. Francis Prep (0-1, 0-1) threatened to get back into the game. John McLoughlin stepped in front of a pass from Woodhull-Trippett and took it 58 yards for a touchdown as The Prep cut the margin to 22-8.
Just 2:29 later, Braithwaite went high for a Rainone pass on a slant pattern, made the grab and raced for what became a 54-yard touchdown reception. Rainone would hit Kirton for the 44-yard touchdown with 2:34 to the intermission and it was 36-8 at halftime.
“It’s hard to explain what it’s like,” Rainone said when asked about the Titans’ constellation of stars. “I can throw it to anyone and feel like we have a good chance to score. Every one of them can break the big play.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
