Bradenton Christian football falls short in slugfest against Deltona Trinity Christian

Bradenton Christian is still in search of its first win of the season after dropping a 57-35 shootout to visiting Trinity Christian Academy on Deltona on Friday night at Dan van der Kooy Field.

Eagles senior quarterback Amorie Archibald, who has received college basketball scholarship offers from programs such as Stetson, Georgia Southern, Louisiana Tech and Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, accounted for 552 yards of total offense and six touchdowns. Archibald threw for 338 yards and three scores on 18 of 34 passing, and he ran for 214 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries.

“Trust and being decisive, those are two things that I personally worked on this week,” Archibald said. “I think I did great job.”

Bradenton Christian (0-4) drew first blood as it took advantage of a short field following a 23-yard Trinity Christian punt. The Panthers drove 45 yards on seven plays, with Kevin Etiene’s 11-yard touchdown reception from Dominick Otteni capping the drive and Brett Gerber’s two-point run making it 8-0 with 7:50 left in the first quarter.

Trinity Christian (3-1) scored 20 unanswered points to build a 20-7 advantage early in the second quarter. After getting his team on the scoreboard with a 15-yard run, Archibald threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Edel Morales and ran for a 33-yard touchdown.

Otteni, who played a role in four of the Panthers’ five touchdowns and collected 326 yards of offense, pulled his team within six, 20-14, with a 19-yard touchdown run with 3:34 left before halftime. However, Trinity Christian scored on the final play of the quarter when Nick Myers booted a 30-yard field goal.

Trinity Christian scored on each of its first three possessions of the second half. Archibald scored on a 73-yard run, Morales had a 54-yard scoring reception from Archibald, and Collin Curtis took Archibald’s shuffle pass 16 yards to the end zone with 4:29 left in the third quarter.

The only score that Bradenton Christian managed in the third quarter was a 59-yard touchdown run by Otteni, who threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Bathie Thiam with 9:54 left in the contest. A 9-yard touchdown run by Trinity Christian’s Deionta Payne and a 45-yard shuffle pass for a touchdown from Jordan Jackson to Morales sandwiched Bradenton Christian’s final touchdown, a 1-yard run by freshman Jordan Miller with 1:51 left.

Bradenton Christian will play host to one of its rivals, Out-of-Door Academy, in a Sunshine State Athletic Conference Coral Bay Conference game next Friday, while Trinity Christian will go to Melbourne to face Holy Trinity Episcopal.

“(Bradenton Christian is) a really good team and they’re really fundamentally sound, but I think we just outworked them,” said Archibald.

This story was originally published September 24, 2016 at 12:02 AM with the headline "Bradenton Christian football falls short in slugfest against Deltona Trinity Christian."