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The two-headed green monster of Kentucky high school football has been vanquished by Male.

Ellis Cain rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns, Davis Mattingly threw two TD passes and the Bulldogs’ defense dominated in a 31-7 victory over visiting Trinity on Friday in the Class 6-A, Region Three final.

Male’s victory came a week after a 23-21 win over St. Xavier. Trinity (10) and St. X (two) had won the past 12 big-class state titles in Kentucky, but the Bulldogs eliminated both from the playoffs after also beating both during the regular season.

“Some people say you’re beating your head against the wall: ‘You’re never going to beat them. You’re never going to do this. You’re never going to do that,’” Bulldogs coach Chris Wolfe said. “The credit goes to the kids. The kids worked as hard as anybody in the state, I feel like, and they’re getting the rewards.”

Male (12-1) – No. 5 in the state in The Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings – will host No. 2 Scott County (13-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a 6-A state semifinal. The winner will advance to the state final Dec. 6 in Bowling Green.

Male is the last public school to win the big-class state title in Kentucky, beating Trinity 34-14 in the 2000 4-A championship game. Bob Beatty had led Trinity to 10 state titles in the 12 years since then.

“I haven’t been in this situation very often in 14 years, but I can tell you this: We’ll go back to work and we’ll go back to work hard,” Beatty said. “I’m not sure we ever put back-to-back good games together all year long. I don’t know whether that’s a sign of youth. It’s my job to figure out why.”

No. 4 Trinity (6-6) never could get its offense going Friday, finishing with just 189 total yards. The Shamrocks posted minus-27 rushing yards on 25 attempts, and quarterback Reggie Bonnafon was tackled for losses 10 times.

Several times Shamrocks players slipped in the mud, but Beatty said the field conditions were not a factor.

“It had to do with up front,” he said. “They handled us, and we didn’t handle them. It was pretty simple. They held up in protection, and we didn’t. They didn’t drop many balls, and we did.”

After a scoreless first quarter, Male took control in the second. Ellis Cain’s 15-yard touchdown run made it 7-0 at the 11:46 mark, and Jonah White nailed a 27-yard field goal for a 10-0 edge at the 8:56 mark.

Bonnafon’s 1-yard touchdown run made it 10-7 with 5:07 left, but Male needed just five plays to answer. Davis Mattingly had a 41-yard completion to Ethan Britt to start the drive, and Cain capped it with an 18-yard touchdown run for a 17-7 edge with 3:22 left.

Both of Cain’s touchdown runs came on runs up the middle.

“The line opened up a big hole, and (Trinity) bit on the screen,” Cain said. “It’s a zone read by Davis, and it’s up to him whether we hand the ball off or throw it. He’s making great reads.”

Mattingly had TD passes of 3 yards to Marque Northington and 14 yards to Keion Wakefield in the second half to put the game away. Mattingly finished 34 of 48 for 283 yards, and Northington had 17 catches for 88 yards.

Bonnafon, who has committed to the University of Louisville, completed 17 of 37 passes for 216 yards but had minus-65 yards rushing on 17 attempts.

“He’s a great quarterback … but we knew if we could get pressure on him we could get him rattled,” Male linebacker Malik Malone said. “We knew we could make plays in the backfield.”

Now it’s on to the state semifinals, where all four participants will be public schools. Butler will travel to Meade County in next week’s other 6-A semifinal.

Cain said his team believed it would reach this point all along.

“First of all, we were sick of hearing about Trinity,” he said. “We felt we have a lot of talent and leadership and could really do it. Now we have two more games to get that state championship.”

Trinity 0 7 0 0 - 7
Male 0 17 7 7 - 31

M – Ellis Cain 15 run (Jonah White kick); M – White 27 FG; T – Reggie Bonnafon 1 run (Andrew Deye kick); M – Cain 18 run (White kick); M – Marque Northington 3 pass from Davis Mattingly (White kick); M – Keion Wakefield 14 pass from Mattingly (White kick).

Trinity Male
Total yards 189 408
First downs 15 23
Rushes-yds. 25-(-27) 125
Comp-Att-Int 216 283
Passing yards 17-37-0 34-48-0
Fumbles-lost 4-34.2 3-33.7
Penalties-yds. 4-2 1-1
Punts-avg. 4-40 4-40

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2...inity-31-7