Troy football takes down Sam Houston in season opener
Troy football started the season off strong with a home win against Sam Houston Saturday night, 24-21, at the Veterans Memorial Stadium.
The Trojans dominated the run game, rushing for 177 yards while only allowing 38 from the Bearkats. Troy's rushing yards were the best since it ran for 217 against South Alabama last season. Despite the improvement on the ground, head coach Gerad Parker believes the Trojans can continue to grow in their rushing attack.
“Clearly the rushing yards improved, and I was glad to see we had some success,” Parker said. “It was not easy because they're pretty good, but we could be better.”
With Sam Houston out gaining Troy in the air, the Trojans would have a plethora of new faces lead the team in receiving. Fifth year tight end Fabian Rogosch was a new playmaker who scored the first touchdown for Troy and later caught a game-clinching pass.
“It’s been a lot of work that went into that,” Rogosch said about his performance. “I’m super grateful that I'm now in a position where I’m trusted enough to make these plays, go out there and close out the game.”
After the two teams traded punts to start the game, Sam Houston found the endzone when quarterback Landyn Locke connected with Grady O’Neill. However, Troy would answer back with its own passing touchdown when Goose Crowder found Rogosch to tie the game.
Crowder would get another touchdown through the air in the second quarter when TK Keyes would catch a 28-yard pass. The Bearkats would tie the game back up when Locke threw a touchdown to Darrick Bledsoe III.
After five straight drives of punts from both teams, Sam Houston would make a costly mistake when Locke threw an interception to Troy’s TJ Thompson, Thompson’s second in his career. The turnover would set up a Troy field goal.
The Trojans would start the fourth quarter scoring with Crowder's third touchdown of the game, this time to TJ Lott. With just 1:03 left to go, Sam Houston would be close to score after Locke found Chris Reed for a 31-yard touchdown, the longest by either team.
The Bearkats would attempt to keep the ball with an onside kick, but Troy would recover. After Sam Houston spent two timeouts attempting to get the ball back, Crowder and Rogosch would connect to get a first down and ice the game.
All three of Troy’s touchdowns would be from players earning their first touchdowns as Trojans, with six Trojans receiving their first catches in the Wiregrass. One of those would be Crowder himself, who caught his own pass after it was deflected by a defender.
“That’s never happened, not even in practice,” Crowder said. “We’re usually taught to bat it down because you really don’t want to lose yards in the backfield, but it kind of just fell in my lap, so I really didn’t have a choice.”
The Trojans move to 1-0 in the season for the second year in a row and improve to 3-2 versus Group of 6 non-conference opponents under Coach Parker. Troy stays at home this week, as Alabama State heads down Highway 231 to face the Trojans Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.
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