Cheers and hollers rang out in the locker room following Triton football’s season-opening 49-17 victory over Willow Spring, perhaps as loud and energetic as it has been in quite some time.
No man was happier and more pumped-up than head coach Ben Penny, now in his 13th season at the helm of the program, who fired up his team and led chants once he stepped in the room.
“Driving here this morning, I thought I was going to be so emotional with this win,” Penny said. “Getting in there with those guys, and seeing the old players that came back that were part of a different story last year, seeing how happy they were for this team. I can’t really process it right now, but it’s good stuff.”
Triton has been through the mud, so to speak, the last two seasons, with a combined 5-16 record and lost each of its previous two season-openers by a combined score of 87-6. That includes last season’s opening 45-6 loss at Willow Spring.
But if this performance was any indication, this year is going to be different for the Hawks.
“We’ve had some goals coming into the season to overcome some fear, and I think we did that tonight,” Penny said. “We lined up against a team that are social media warriors, who really gave it to us last year and tried not to let us forget that. We didn’t back down and showed up for our home crowd.”
From the start, Triton was visibly a different team than from the past two seasons, drawing first blood early. On the opening drive of the game, junior quarterback Carson Strickland connected with junior receiver Evan Galicia for a 38-yard touchdown, putting the Hawks on top 7-0.
While it was Triton’s aerial attack that struck first, the story of the game was the stellar Triton ground game, particularly senior running back Jamarcus Shaw, who ran for a ridiculous 227 yards and four touchdowns.
Shaw’s first score came from one yard out on the Hawks’ second drive of the game, putting Triton up 14-0. Following an interception – their second of the game – on the next Willow Spring possession, the Hawks’ next drive was long and methodical, culminating in a one-yard rushing score by senior back O’Brian Ward, his first of two in the game.
Shaw scored again from a few yards out just before halftime, putting Triton up 28-3 at the break, and he would go on to score two long touchdowns in the second half from 30-plus yards out. It was a dominant all-around rushing performance by the Hawks, who ran for 374 yards.
“I knew from the get-go, once we started executing like we did on offense that we were gonna win this football game,” Penny said. “First game, you’re always nervous about how you’re gonna show up in the first real live-action of the season. We saw that we were gonna be okay and that our nerves wouldn’t get the best of us.”
While the Triton rushing attack was the story of the game, it was not to be outdone by the Triton defense, which kept the Storm’s offense in check for most of the night. Senior defensive back Landon Pope intercepted a pass on Triton’s first defensive play from scrimmage, and on the ensuing drive, junior Zaylon Burnett got a pick of his own on a long ball by the Storm quarterback.
“Defense stepped up early, making huge plays, and that allowed us to do what we were doing,” Penny said. “They gave us the momentum, and in high school football, momentum is so huge.”
The win marks Triton’s first season-opening victory since 2023, and the 32-point margin of victory is Triton’s largest since defeating Western Harnett 48-12 in the same season.
Triton’s next game will be Friday, Aug. 28 at Hobbton in Sampson County.
THS Hawkeye 