For the fourth time, St. Xavier and Trinity meet today for a football state championship at 7 p.m. in the Class 6A finale of the KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

Trinity is 3-1 all time against its archrival, having most recently broken St. Xavier’s hearts in the 2007 title game with a 34-28 overtime win.

But today Trinity enters as a slight underdog, with a 10-4 mark and a 32-7 regular-season loss to the Tigers (14-1) already on the record. But the Shamrocks will be trying to do something they’ve done in two straight seasons: falling to St. X in the regular season only to eliminate the Tigers in the state playoffs.

“People talk about that all the time, but the bottom line is Knute Rockne speeches and all of that revenge and all that stuff goes out the window as soon as the first play happens,” THS coach Bob Beatty said. “Then you’re in a big dog fight. We know what kind of contest it’s gonna be – it’s gonna be a tough one for 48 minutes and it could go more than that.”

Trinity – which boasts 19 state titles overall – is chasing its eighth state title this decade, having been crowned champs in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. But many thought this might not be the Rocks’ year after a 2-5 start.

“Playing Elder and Cincinnati St. X back-to-back (was tough), and we were pretty beat up at that time. We were pretty beat up and still trying to find ourselves,” Beatty said. “Going undefeated in district was big because we had to play Ballard (away) and the conditions weren’t real good, but we persevered. We didn’t have the lead at halftime, so it felt good coming back from that.”

The Rocks have relied heavily on the arm of Brad Kragthorpe, the son of former Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe. The junior has thrown for 2,029 yards and 15 scores this season.

Running back Derek Bishop has 1,503 yards rushing with 17 TDs on the ground and three different THS receivers have racked up at least 400 yards.

“They have a philosophy,” Beatty said. “They have a coaching staff that’s been intact for years – I think that says something about the school. They have the discipline that takes them a long ways, they’re well-coached and that’s all part of the equation to being a good football team.”

St. Xavier’s lone loss came against the Cincinnati school of the same name way back on Sept. 11. The Tigers haven’t lost since and have held opponents to 13 points a game this season.

Beating Trinity in a title game, however, is something they haven’t done since 1997.

St. Xavier coach Mike Glaser could not be reached by the Daily News.

“It’s a huge event, and quite honestly everyone here expected them to be there, and rightly so,” Beatty said of the rivalry. “I’m not sure many people expected us to be there having lost four games. But I felt like our kids could come back and take district and then from there on we knew our playoff games would be at Trinity and I felt like we’ve gotten better.”

A win for the Shamrocks would be their 20th in school history – a state record.

“We just have to play every play – we have to worry about that moment, and that moment is when we kick that thing off at seven o’clock,” Beatty added. “We have to go back and reflect on a season. Have we been ahead in games, have we been behind in games? Then take those reflections and hope we’ve learned from them.

“We have to play every moment as if it’s the last one because it is. That’s something that people don’t understand. I don’t look at this game as pressure because there’s no tomorrow. You can play it all out, and if our kids will play a full 48 and have to be helped off the field, then I can lay my head down at night and that’s what we strive for.”