Trojans at 3-0 see lots of room to improve

From a record standpoint, the Euless Trinity football team is right where it wants to be at 3-0. But as the Trojans step away for a bye week before heading into district play, the team knows there’s still plenty to work on.

“These past three games we’ve seen a lot of kinds of football and been through a lot,” quarterback Malini Maile said.

Indeed, each of the Trojans’ first three games played out differently. Most importantly, Trinity found a way to win them all. From starting slow and dominating the second half in the opener against Broken Arrow, to starting slow and eeking out a win against Spring Westfield, to starting fast and holding off Colleyville Heritage, Trinity has found itself in plenty of different situations.

“That’s the purpose of playing a tough pre-district schedule, to learn where you are and where you need to be,” coach Chris Jensen said. “We saw a lot of different styles of offense and saw a lot of things defensively. We’ve grown up at an accelerated pace by playing tough people.”

Part of that growth has come from Maile himself, in his first year as the starting quarterback.

“I’ve really been impressed with him,” Jensen said. “I know a lot of people are saying, ‘Well, he’s made a lot of mistakes,’ but that’s what has been impressive is that he made some big mistakes early against Broken Arrow and some big mistakes early against Spring Westfield. You take those mistakes out of the game and he’s played extremely well.

“He’s shown a huge amount of mental toughness and persistence to stay at it and execute. That’s a really good sign that he can hang in there after making some mistakes.”

Maile recovered to toss a game-winning TD pass with under a minute left on the road against Westfield.

“It’s been kind of nerve-wracking,” Maile said. “Right now it’s just a matter of executing. I know what I’m doing, I know the offense, I just need to execute and do what Coach is asking me to do. As long as I do that, we’ll be fine.”

The offense looked better from the outset against Heritage, jumping to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter — a lead it extended to 35-7 in the third quarter.

“We’re really encouraged after Friday night’s game,” Jensen said. “The things we focused on were the things missing in the first two games. Our goal against Colleyville was to eliminate bad football. Just eliminate the things that get you beat. We tried to be penalty-free and mistake-free and 100-percent ball security. If we can do those things, we’re going to be hard to beat.”

“Just the little mistakes, penalties and things like that are getting us,” Maile added. “Our first two games, we turned the ball over. This past week our goal was to come out first drive and score and that’s what we did. I know we haven’t played our best football yet and when we click, I think we’ll be dangerous. This bye week will really help us going into our first district game, being able to get things corrected and help out the guys who are nicked up and things like that.”

Jensen says the bye week offers a good chance to return to the basics. Without an opponent to scheme and game plan for, the staff can focus on some of the little things that sometimes get taken for granted. For his part, Maile would prefer to have a game, but sees the upside of a week off.

“You want to keep playing, but you have to think about what’s best for the team and I think this week, having a bye, is great for us before going into district.”

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Trojans at 3-0 see lots of room to improve."