Prep football notebook

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 11, 2010 1:47 PM

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Helmet cradled under his right arm, Daivon Harris stood at attention in the end zone during the national anthem.

Harris' eyes focused on the gentleman bearing the American flag -- his father, Master Sergeant Darryl Harris. A 23-year veteran in the United States Air Force, Harris started his career overseas at Bentwaters (England) Air Base and Ramstein (Germany) Air Base. He was deployed to Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

MSgt Harris is presently stationed at Seymour Johnson AFB and gets to see all of Daivon's football games.

Daivon played much lately due to a knee injury, but he certainly looked in top form against Princeton on Friday evening. The running back rambled for 84 yards and a touchdown on 21 totes in the Gators' 39-14 victory in "The Swamp."

"I believe he was inspired because he finally got a chance to get back onto the field," said Spring Creek coach Aaron Sanders. "He has a lot of heart, runs the ball hard and we've seen glimpses of it, but he hasn't really been able to put that complete game together yet.

"We're looking forward to him staying healthy."

Gators' offense, part II

Spring Creek's offensive line controlled the trenches, which allowed Daivon Harris and senior quarterback Ricky Brayboy to effectively run the option offense.

Tackles Chris Nichols and Will Bland, guards Carson Gramley and James Lancaster, center Matt Ponce and tight end Will Janning consistently sustained blocks throughout the Carolina 1-A Conference affair.

The Gators converted four of six possessions in the red zone, and out-gained the Dawgs 343-180 in total offense.

"I've got some seniors and other guys in this program who have worked hard," said Sanders. "Along the way, people doubt them; they doubt us (as coaches), but they don't doubt themselves. They played tonight.

"We executed ... did some good things. We have some things to fix, but our kids came out and played."

SC football history

Spring Creek owns a 7-3 advantage in the all-time series with Princeton.

Sanders is 1-2 lifetime against the Dawgs, while his predecessor, Roy Whitfield, logged six victories in seven tries.

The victory snapped a 10-game skid that started the following week after the Gators upended Dixon during Homecoming 2009.

"The kids never lost faith, they came out and played," said Sanders. "There's a lot of teams who have gone through what we are going through, and they've lost some faith along the way. Our kids didn't, they played.

"I've got some kids on the team I can count on giving me their best effort every night."

Princeton suffered its fifth straight defeat after a season-opening win over North Moore.

"We've got to work on the mental part of us right now," said Dawgs head coach Russell Williamson. "We're a young group, still, and we have to figure out what's going on between our ears. We can be a good football team eventually, but we've got to believe we can."