Mt. Zion can't get past DePaul Prep in state title game

Brayden Trimble’s storied Braves career game to an end with a 40-6 loss to DePaul Prep at Hancock Stadium on Friday in the Class 4A state title game. The Braves defense got some stops but their offense couldn’t get rolling. DePaul converted a 4th-and-10 to get into the red zone and then a third down before Nick Martinez got a rushing score near the goal line to open the scoring with 1:42 left in the first.

A three-and-out meant a Mount Zion punt, and after Trimble rolled out to avoid his punt getting blocked before he faced with more defenders and hit a punt a couple of yards on fourth down. A few plays later JuJu Rodriquez scampered into the end zone for a 29-yard score to put DePaul up 13-0 at the end of the first. Keller Stocks threw a pick on the next possession and Martinez added a five-yard touchdown to his tally on the night and put the Rams up 20-0 early in the second quarter.



That ended up being the score at the break before defenses battled through the third quarter before Martinez scored his third touchdown for the Rams to push the lead to 27-0 with 6:29 left in the third. After another stop, DePaul extended its lead with Central Michigan commit Braden Peevy taking a screen pass 40 yards to paydirt to put the Rams up 33-0 with 1:16 left in the third. Nicholas Hathcoat added a 34-yard rushing score to put DePaul up 40 early in the fourth before a running clock took it to victory.

Trimble got Mount Zion on the board with a jump ball touchdown catch over two defenders with 4:50 left. Trimble finished his career with 40 total yards after he carried the Braves to the title game with an impressive postseason. Kaden Becker rushed for 78 yards.

Mount Zion loses its star in Trimble along with linebackers Johnny and Joey Jordan but returns JC Anderson, Stocks and Harvey along with some key linemen. That returning talent will help the Braves try and make another run next season. In the third game for local teams against private schools, Central Illinois teams were outscored by a combined 136-12 in three losses that included programs that had won state titles in higher classes.

Montini won a Class 6A title in 2015 and was runner-up in 5A before it was moved down to 3A before last season, or a DePaul program that has a current enrollment of 1,347 students is nearly double the 763 of Mount Zion’s. A steep growth in enrollment in recent years wasn’t calculated into the recent classifications before the 2023 season that set DePaul as a 4A school..