SPRING MILLS — Coming off a bye week, Spring Mills’ energy was high going into Friday night’s contest against University, eyeing to stay undefeated and atop the Class AAAA rankings. And, though the Cardinals left the night with a 34-6 win, it wouldn’t be without a heavy dose of adversity.
“Coming off a bye week, this is exactly what we needed,” Spring Mills coach Marcus Law said. “We told the guys that people are going to score. You can’t go on forever and not give up a single point, but it’s how you respond to that. And we were in our feelings.
“We came in at half, regrouped and went back out.”
The Cardinals (7-0) started hot as senior quarterback Max Anderson bullied his way into the end zone for two quick touchdowns, taking a solid 14-0 lead before the first buzzer sounded.
But that’s when the slow creep of adversity began, as punter Jimmy Gregg showcased his skills, hanging the ball in the air for what seemed like an unnatural amount of time and, in doing so, creating a turnover for the Cardinals. With the ball back and crucial penalties called against the Cardinals, the Hawks (3-4) found themselves in field goal range. The visitors would seize upon that, collecting the first points of the season against Spring Mills with a clean kick.
The Cardinals would find another score on a quick goal line dash by Blake Sanders, but the Hawks would pick up another three points off a kick, as the teams entered the half at 21-3.
Coming out of the break, University stopped the Cardinals’ first drive and looked as if they’d capitalize on another field goal, but that attempt would sail to the right, handing the ball back to the Cards. The third quarter would go scoreless for both, but Spring Mills opened the final frame with a quick touchdown off a screen to Keyon Mills, fighting with a defender into the end zone.
Soon after, Chayse Shipley grabbed an interception over the middle and gave Spring Mills excellent footing to get Sanders back into the end zone for the team’s final touchdown of the night.
When asked after the game what one of the main factors was that threw his team off, Law quickly gave a shoutout to Gregg and linebacker Brock Kehler.
“It was (Gregg). He was the difference maker,” Law said. “You’ve got to think, we get them stopped at their 30-yard line and this kid is able to flip it to the opposite 30 and, with the hang time, it caused problems. When you’ve got something with that, you can always be in the game.
“We talked about what they were going to bring defensively, and Brock is a problem the way he knifes the ball. I didn’t expect him to be on the interior, so with that speed inside it caused problems. … Credit to Stone (Wolfley), man. He made me do some things that I haven’t had to do all year.”
On the opposite side of the field, first-year head coach Eric Snyder was happy with how his team performed, despite the loss. To him, being the first team to score on the Cardinals combined with how his defense handled themselves were good signs.
“Our special teams was doing well all night,” Snyder said. “Obviously upset about not (scoring), if you’re down there you need to punch it in, so we need to work on that on what we’re supposed to be doing as an offense.
“They usually have teams buried by halftime, so for us to extend it to a fourth-quarter game we can put a feather in our cap for that. We worked on some things this week that we thought could give them some problems, but when you do new things during the week they’re going to mess up some and when it worked, it worked well. We just have to adjust and go into the next week with a game plan to attack our next team.”
Up next, Spring Mills faces No. 2 Martinsburg at home in what will pan out to be, likely, the most important game for both programs in this regular season. For the Hawks, they’ll look to snap back against Preston (2-5) at home before taking on a gauntlet in the final two weeks of the season.
— Story by Andrew Spellman
