Goldsmith out for TCA's semifinal

If Trinity Christian Academy’s football team wins its Class 2A semifinal game tonight against Trezevant, it will do so without Andrew Goldsmith.

The player who’s been the Lions’ starting quarterback since Sept. 18 suffered what was thought at the time to be a minor knee injury last week at McKenzie.

Goldsmith finished the game but wasn’t as involved in the ground game after that as he helped lead the Lions to a victory over the Rebels.

It turns out the injury is worse than originally thought.

“He had an MRI done on Tuesday, and it was found he’d strained his PCL pretty badly,” said TCA head coach Blake Butler. “The good news for him is that it is a strain, and there weren’t any signs of any tearing.

“So he should be OK with a few weeks of rest and rehabilitation.”

Goldsmith is the team’s leader in rushing with 3,139 yards and 33 touchdowns on 287 carries. He’s the leading passer with 792 yards and 13 touchdowns while completing 51 of 89 passes with an interception. He’s the team’s leading tackler with 77 solo tackles and 43 assists with 12 for loss and a sack. He’s second on the list in defensive takeaways with three interceptions, three fumbles caused and two fumbles recovered.

Butler said if TCA were to beat Trezevant tonight that it’s highly unlikely he’d play next Saturday in the state championship.

“It’s a pretty severe strain, so I doubt it,” Butler said. “But right now our focus is on winning this week before we even start thinking about next week.”

The Lions lost the first four games of the season then moved Goldsmith to quarterback. TCA has gone 8-1 with Goldsmith at quarterback with the one loss being the first game at McKenzie when he came out early in the second quarter with what was feared at the time as a torn ACL.

Butler said he’s not worried about history going into this game.

“When you’ve played 13 games in the previous 14 weeks, no team still playing is going to be healthy,” Butler said. “Would we like to play with Andrew out there? Of course because he’s put in a lot of time and energy into this program for the past four seasons, and we hate to think this is how it ends for him.

“But as far as the game goes, we’ll go and try to win one more game and see what we can do against a good team from Trezevant.”

Brandon Shields, 425-9751