Trinity beats Heart River 55-6, Odermann earns 50th career win as head coach

Dickinson Trinity football coach John Odermann walked off the field after speaking to his team Thursday night and immediately found his wife holding their 1-week-old daughter.

“I didn’t win my first one until I met my wife and my new baby, Summer Lucille, was here for No. 50,” he said. “So that was pretty special for the Odermann family.”

On a cool, drizzly homecoming evening at the Biesiot Activities Center, the 10th-year head coach’s unbeaten and No. 2-ranked Titans were as slick as the weather conditions as they defeated winless Heart River 55-6 in an 11-man Class B, Region 4 game.

The Titans’ dynamite junior backfield of quarterback Jace Kovash and fullback Ty Dassinger kept the ball moving as they improved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the region.

Dassinger rushed for 102 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries. He added a receiving touchdown on a smooth pitch-and-catch from Kovash in the third quarter.

Kovash was 8 of 11 for 140 yards and 2 touchdown passes while rushing for 71 yards and a touchdown. He hit Luke Shobe for a 53-yard TD pass on Trinity’s first offensive play.

“They’re dialed in,” said Odermann, whose team is averaging 50 points per game. “They’re smart, savvy football players. I can’t say enough about how they’re executing and how willing they are to adjust things on the fly.”

While Heart River’s big defensive front gave the Titans some troubles early, Trinity wore them down with Kovash’s chunk-yardage passing and Dassinger’s punishing runs and blocks.

Dassinger scored on runs of 8 and 7 yards in the second quarter to stretch the lead to 21-0 at halftime.

When Shobe’s 80-yard kick return for a touchdown to open the third quarter was called back on a Trinity penalty, Kovash led a seven-play, 85-yard drive and finished it off with a 34-yard scamper off right tackle to give the Titans a 28-0 advantage.

“They’re pretty good up front,” Kovash said. “We had to wear them down a little bit and just keep going. We eventually broke through.”

After Trinity’s Blake Peters recovered a Cougars fumble on the next possession, Kovash found Dassinger on a 35-yard strike. Dassinger added a 28-yard touchdown run on Trinity’s next possession to widen the lead to 42-0 going into the fourth quarter.

Backup running back Camden Kubas added a 73-yard scoring run late in the fourth quarter.

Gage Glaser added 48 rushing yards for Trinity, which racked up 439 total yards of offense.

“The kids did a good job of executing and executing a game plan,” Odermann said. “… I was really happy with how we were able to move the ball and do some things in the air.”

Heart River got on the scoreboard midway through the fourth quarter when senior running backs Jayson Morel and Austin Buckman led a 54-yard drive of rushing plays capped by a 2-yard Morel touchdown run.

Morel and Buckman were the workhorses for Heart River, which rushed for 137 yards. Cougars freshman quarterback Jordan Jung attempted only two passes – one of which was intercepted and returned 70 yards for a touchdown by Elijah Jilek on the game’s final play.

Trinity now gets set to visit rival Bowman County (3-1) next Friday night. The Bulldogs host Shiloh Christian today in a pivotal Region 4 game.

“We’ve just got to stay focused on Bowman next week,” Dassinger said. “We get 24 hours to focus on this one, be excited and then we go back to work.”

First Quarter

T–Luke Shobe 53 pass from Jace Kovash (Nick Sobolik kick)

Second Quarter

T–Ty Dassinger 8 run (Sobolik kick)

T–Dassinger 7 run (Sobolik kick)

Third Quarter

T–Kovash 34 run (Sobolik kick)

T–Dassinger 35 pass from Kovash (Sobolik kick)

T–Dassinger 28 run (Sobolik kick)

Fourth Quarter