After spending most of the 21st century mired in mediocrity, Trinity was about as far removed from the WPIAL playoff picture as any team in Class 4A going into the 2022 season.
Turns out, tough times don’t typically last long when Dan Knause is in charge.
From 2008-22, the Hillers went 15 seasons without winning a playoff game while only qualifying for the postseason five times during that span. Now, after vanquishing back-to-back WPIAL and PIAA champion Belle Vernon (4-4, 3-2) with a 31-21 verdict on Friday night, Trinity (5-5, 4-1) is starting to make playoff football more than just a fleeting feeling around Washington County — in fact, it might just become the new normal.
“We wanted this game to mean everything when the schedule came out,” Knause said after locking up his team’s second consecutive playoff berth. “It’s a blessing to play these types of games in late October and early November. That’s what Hiller football is now.”
Now in his third year at the helm after arriving from Chartiers Valley, Knause has wasted no time engineering a similar rebuild to the one he performed at his alma mater.
In his debut season, Trinity finished 4-6 overall and 2-4 in conference play while narrowly missing out on a playoff berth. Jonah Williamson then took over as the Hillers’ starting quarterback as a sophomore in 2023, and he and Knause have proven to be a match made in heaven.
Trinity finished 7-5 overall and 4-2 in conference play last fall, reaching the WPIAL Class 4A quarterfinals after picking up its first postseason win in 16 years with a 49-0 rout at North Catholic in the first round. Williamson passed for 1,860 yards and rushed for 1,012 while scoring 25 total touchdowns (13 passing, 12 rushing), and the Hillers entered the 2024 season with plenty of promise and ambitious goals, despite the postseason field being reduced from 12 to eight teams in Class 4A.
Early on, it appeared Trinity’s 2023 success might be just a flash in the pan, as the Hillers stumbled to a record of 1-4 in non-conference play. But a brutal schedule with losses against top-notch opponents like Moon, Montour, Peters Township and Bethel Park hardened this group into a battle-tested bunch hungrier than ever for a deep playoff run.
“We knew the whole time that we were a better team than how we were playing,” Williamson said. “We made our mistakes early in the season, we knew how we needed to get better, we got better, and now we’re winning.”
After a 45-0 win against Ringgold to open up conference play, a 27-7 loss at unbeaten Thomas Jefferson dropped Trinity’s record to 2-5. But the Hillers haven’t lost since, rattling off back-to-back blowout wins against Chartiers Valley and Laurel Highlands before Friday’s comeback win against the Leopards on senior night.
Now, Trinity enters the playoffs with a full head of steam and all the makings of a team that could cause some chaos in Class 4A — and potentially even crash the championship party.
“The beauty of it is, we knew these kids were winners when they were 2-5,” Knause said. “The way they acted, they never complained. They just stuck together.”
Williamson got off to a slow start in Friday’s win, fumbling the ball into the end zone while reaching for the goal line on the Hillers’ opening drive, but Chase Kostelnik pounced on the loose ball for a touchdown to give Trinity an early 7-0 lead. Williamson then capped off the Hillers’ next scoring drive with a 1-yard TD plunge, but he tallied just 37 yards passing and 26 yards rushing in the first half.
After falling behind in the third quarter, 21-14, Trinity struck back in a hurry with a game-tying 62-yard TD pass from Williamson to a wide-open Owen Gardner, who leaked out of the backfield and ran uncovered up the seam to haul in the pass before outracing the defense to the end zone. Williamson then found Caden Vogel for a 23-yard TD pass on the following drive, putting the Hillers on top for good before polishing off the win on the ground with help from Gardner and senior running back Nico Mauro.
Williamson finished 4-of-8 passing for 139 yards and two TDs while rushing for 73 yards and a score on 20 carries in the win. He is now up to 947 yards passing and 670 yards rushing with 16 total TDs on the year (five passing, 11 rushing).
“I just trusted the course,” Williamson said. “I trusted my guys up front, I trusted my guys on the outside to make plays, and obviously, we ended up scoring some touchdowns.”
Of course, in order to beat a team like Belle Vernon, you need more than just a standout quarterback — and you’d better be strong up front. That’s when it pays off to a have a line led by seniors Semaj Fuse (6-3, 240) and Jonathan Dube (6-0, 314), who both made their presence felt during a physical back-and-forth battle on Friday.
“We put up a good fight against every team [we’ve played],” Fuse said. “All the games leading up to tonight — we’ve put in so much hard work, and we just dedicate ourselves to making every day count.”
With plenty of beef in the trenches and a talented stable of tailbacks to go with Williamson under center, there’s a lot to like about Trinity’s chances to make some noise in the Class 4A playoff bracket. And maybe, just maybe, with Knause pushing all the right buttons and pulling all the right strings on the sideline, the Hillers could soon be kissing their 76-year championship drought goodbye.
Hey, anything is possible, right?
“I wouldn’t say [it would] shock the world,” Knause said. “We believe we can beat anybody on any night, and we feel like we’re a top-tier [Class] 4A team.”
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
