Taylor's fumble return sparks Rosewood

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on October 25, 2014 11:14 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

Rosewood coach Robert Britt never even saw the play happen.

Britt was huddled around four of his offensive lineman showing them how to handle the Spring Creek defensive blitzing scheme that had given them so much trouble to that point.

Then the Eagles' fans started screaming and cheering.

Suddenly, Britt was nowhere to be found.

"I look up and see big 'ole 72 running down the sideline towards the end zone so I run down there trying to catch up to it," Britt said.

Rosewood's Kaleb Taylor had just ripped the ball from Lewis Sampson and Tre Hammonds on a botched exchange and took it 65 yards to the 1-yard-line. Mike Woodard punched in the tie-breaking touchdown on the next play and Rosewood -- from there -- cruised to a 35-7 win over Carolina 1-A Conference opponent Spring Creek on a chilly Friday night.

"I never did finish talking to them," Britt recalls of his offensive linemen.

But he didn't have to.

The Eagles' offensive line opened the holes that led to Woodard rumbling for 215 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries.

However, for the second time in three weeks, Rosewood looked like it might beat itself. The Eagles committed 12 penalties for 110 yards, and had five fumbles.

Pair that with a good scheme drawn up by Spring Creek coaches that gave the Eagles fits and an upset seemed possible.

"We did some things to scheme for these guys and we played hard," Spring Creek coach Aaron Sanders said. "But it just came down to one or two big plays that they were able to make."

No play was bigger than Taylor's strip and run on a 3rd-and-10 for the Gators.

"I thought they were going to pass, but then I saw it was a draw play and the ball was just left out there so I took it and ran," Taylor said. "I thought I might score but I looked behind me and was like 'aww man he's too close, no way I'm going to score.'"

Had the quarterback-running back exchange gone smoother, there was room to run on the draw play.

Spring Creek moved the ball well in the first half, attacking the strength of Rosewood's defense -- the line. There was no secret scheme to it or any misdirection, though. Sanders' strategy was to just try and get more Gators to the area they wanted to attack than the Eagles would have trying to make the play.

Gary Williams ran 20 times for 101 yards, including runs of 33, 14 and seven yards on the Gators' lone scoring drive. But after that drive, Rosewood didn't allow a single Gators rushing attempt to gain more than five yards.

It was a physical game that saw the teams combine for 18 penalties for 175 yards, including a fair share of late-hit personal fouls. Both teams managed to get out of the game relatively healthy, but Spring Creek will have to bounce right back next week to play Carolina 1-A leader James Kenan.

Rosewood heads into a bye week before its regular-season finale at Princeton on Nov. 7.

"It feels like (the bye week) has taken forever to get here," Britt said. "But we'll rest up get healthy and try to correct some things we need to correct."