“I saw him, and I was like, ‘I’m there. I gotta get that,’” Strobel said. “And I got it. That was the game.”
Butler (1-2), which had only 113 yards of offense, cut Troy’s lead to 14-7 on Kaiden Bates’ 11-yard touchdown run with 2:51 left. The big play on the drive was a jump ball catch by Braylen Crump for 42 yards to the Troy 32 on fourth-and-15.
After Troy (3-0) recovered the onside kick, Butler used its three timeouts and forced a three-and-out. But the Aviators were backed up to their 5-yard line after Troy punted. On third-and-10, Strobel got the safety.
“We’ve got a lot of seniors, we’ve got a lot of experience and we’re playing lights out,” said Strobel, who helps lead a unit that has allowed 13 points in three games. “We’re hungry.”
Troy’s offense bounced back from a rough first half with two touchdown drives. Dakota Manson caught a 23-yard pass on the first scoring drive and scored on a 2-yard run for a 7-0 lead with 5:46 left in the third quarter.
Quarterback Aiden Kirkpatrick, who was 6 of 7 for 137 yards, found Aidan Gorman wide open in the right flat for a 44-yard touchdown pass. Gorman was wide open and only needed a single block downfield from Johnathan Dilbone to score for a 14-0 lead with 6:43 left. The play was designed to be a pass to the left side.
“I looked left and the end is coming,” Kirkpatrick said. “So I turned back to the other side. He’s just there wide open. So I gave it to him and let him make a play.”
Troy’s string of first-half bad luck began with a holding penalty to call back Aiden Kirkpatrick’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Dakota Manson. That drive ended Butler’s Sam Mitchell intercepted Kirkpatrick.
On Troy’s next possession, receiver Carson Brown sprinted 80 yards to the end zone on a jet sweep only to be called back by another holding penalty. In the second quarter, Strobel gained 24 yards on a fake punt. But Troy’s drive stalled, and Cameron Stoltz’s 29-yard field goal missed by the narrowest of margins to the right.
Troy finished with 253 total yards. Jahari Ward rushed for 75 of the Trojans’ 116 on the ground. Trojans coach Troy Everhart was unhappy with the offense’s first-half performance.
“We didn’t block,” Everhart said of the first half that was defined by holding penalties and some tackles for loss by Butler that stopped drives. “I give their coach all the credit in the world. They did a great job. We didn’t perform the way we needed to up front if we’re going to be the team we think we can be.”
Butler lost a tough opener to Northmont and bounced back to beat Piqua last week. This wasn’t the complete game first-year coach Zach Gueth wanted from his team.
“We kept fighting and fighting, but we did some things to put us in some bad spots,” he said. “Defense played their minds out and bailed us out a few times offensively. My message to the team was, in all facets we have to raise the standard. We can’t have just one of the three units playing at a high level.”
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