The Trojans eventually got their smash-mouth running game in gear with Conrad accounting for four touchdowns, dominated on defense throughout and scored two touchdowns on special teams as Troy ran over Whitney 56-6 on Friday night at Trojan Field.
When asked whether he could have wished for a better start to the season, Troy coach Grady Rowe responded: “No, not really. I don’t think you can. I’m just proud of our kids. They executed really well I thought.”
Troy’s defense set the tone early.
It stopped the Wildcats twice before Trey Collier recovered a fumble at the Whitney 18-yard line late in the first quarter to set Troy up in excellent field position.
After senior running back Conrad was stopped for a 2-yard loss, he executed a halfback pass by connecting with Chris Chandler, who made an outstanding 20-yard catch in the back of the end zone for a 7-0 lead.
“It’s just a trick play,” said Conrad, who rushed for 96 yards on eight carries. “We’ve had it for a while. We ran it since eighth grade. It’s just a play-around play. Our receiver Chris Chandler made a good catch.”
On Troy’s next possession, sophomore Cyrus McKenzie ran up the middle for 63 yards before being tackled at the 8, setting the Trojans up for another score. Two plays later, Collier ran in from the 3 for a 14-0 advantage.
Midway through the second, Collier blocked a Whitney punt and Derrick Vasta recovered in the end zone to give the Trojans a 21-0 lead despite the the fact that they had only 99 total yards in the first half.
At halftime, Collier already had rushed for a touchdown, recovered a fumble and blocked a punt.
“I think the defense stepped it up a little and it took the offense a little to catch the pace,” Conrad said. “Then we got it and it evened it all out.”
If the first half belonged to Collier, the second was all Conrad.
He scored on Troy’s third play from scrimmage on a 46-yard counter for a 28-0 lead. Later, he raced 24 yards on an identical counter play for a 35-0 lead. Conrad had just three carries in the second half, but they went for 46, 24 and 23 yards and two touchdowns.
“That’s what we expect from him,” Rowe said. “We expect him to carry us, get on his back and ride him some. He did a good job of it tonight.
“Our front did a good job tonight. The defense they run is bring ’em every down, so we made some adjustments and our line did a good job of making those adjustments.”
While the offense hit its stride in the second half, the defense continued to be suffocating the entire game.
The Trojans allowed one first down and 43 yards in the first half. The line of Jerek Foster, Ethan Randolph, Juan Leyva and Andrew Taylor was constantly in the backfield putting pressure on quarterback Dillon Hightower.
Whitney got on the scoreboard with 4 minutes remaining in the fourth, thanks in part to a Troy turnover deep in its territory. The Wildcats’ joy was short-lived, though, as Conrad took the ensuing kickoff and returned it 78 yards to cap his night.
“It was pretty much too easy,” Conrad said of the kick return. “Our wall set it up and it was good.”
Although Conrad had a big night, McKenzie led the Trojans with 110 rushing yards on five carries and Vasta added 52 on eight carries. Troy passed three times all night.
After such a sterling start to the season, Rowe was pleased with the outcome, but he knows it’s just one win of hopefully more to come.
“There’s plenty to work on,” he said. “We have a tough one coming up next week with a good Grandview team. We know it’s going to be tough but we’re going to enjoy this one tonight.
“I thought we relaxed a bit defensively late in the game and had a couple of mental mistakes offensively. We ended up giving them a touchdown, so we have plenty of things to correct.”
The Trojans will play at Grandview next Friday.
cmeister@temple-telegram
