Gators claim first season-opening victory since 2002

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 30, 2014 11:44 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

SEVEN SPRINGS -- Two season-opening wins -- one as a player and one as a head coach.

It's a distinguished accomplishment that Aaron Sanders achieved during Spring Creek's 19-0 triumph over Lejeune at "The Swamp" on Friday evening.

The Gators claimed just their second season-opening win in the program's 14-year history, and also their first shutout in 134 outings since a 47-0 whitewashing of Mattamuskeet in 2002.

"That's a good monkey to have off your back," said Sanders, who was a senior on the 2002 team. "I didn't talk about it ... something you don't ever want to bring up. I don't even know if our kids realized it before the game."

Spring Creek ended the frustrating drought in opportunistic fashion. The defense coerced the winless Devilpups into five turnovers and the offense cashed in two touchdowns -- one in each half.

Center-quarterback exchanges, fumbles and backs not executing the misdirection plays haunted Lejeune all night. The Gators held the Devilpups (0-2 overall) to a single third-down conversion on nine attempts, and limited the visitors to minus-6 yards of total offense in the second half until their final possession.

Lejeune finished with 79 yards of total offense and suffered their first defeat against the Gators in four meetings. Spring Creek's defense had seven stops behind the line of scrimmage and recorded two sacks.

"They really like to run to the outside and they like those little leads on the inside, we just had to step up and stop them," said SC freshman linebacker Nick Strickland, who logged 10 tackles.

"We played as a team, we gang-tackled ... three men in on every tackle. We played good."

Xavier Aycock's fumble recovery set up the Gators' first score -- a 10-yard scamper by Jessie Casper.

Just seconds into the second quarter, senior quarterback Logan Miller hooked up with Strickland for a 74-yard touchdown pass. The Gators carried a 13-0 lead into halftime.

"The play before, we saw that the safety was cheating over and the corner had to switch sides," Miller said. "Coach told me the seam was going to be open, I saw it and I threw it."

The teams combined for five third-quarter turnovers, none more pivotal than a pick six by Spring Creek's Jordan Hicks. The senior linebacker stepped in front of Douglas Myers' pass, grabbed the ball at his knees and split two defenders as he raced untouched into the end zone.

The Gators led 19-0.

"We had been practicing that if the running back flares out a little bit, it's going to be a screen pass," Hicks said. "I knew it was coming. It was a reaction (thing)."