STORY: Gators' defense collars Devilpups

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 29, 2016 1:49 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

SEVEN SPRINGS -- To say Spring Creek's defense feasted on an anemic Lejeune offense would be an understatement.

The Gators certainly walked away with full bellies Friday evening.

SC converted three turnovers into 19 points and made 22 stops at or behind the line of scrimmage during a 58-0, non-conference thrashing of the Devilpups at "The Swamp."

Lejeune mustered just 2 yards of total offense.

"It's just one of those games where defensively everything seemed to click," Gators head coach Aaron Sanders said. "We haven't played bad defensively this year and tonight wasn't any different. We don't have any size, but we've got a little bit of quickness off the ball and try to use that as an advantage."

Dominique Morse's first-quarter pick led to a 50-yard touchdown strike from Landon Smothers to Najee Young as time expired.

The Devilpups (0-2 overall) fumbled the second-half kickoff. Austin Reynolds recovered the ball, which set up Smothers' 15-yard TD pass to Collion Kittrell.

Senior lineman Michael O'Hara pounced on a fourth-quarter fumble that Isahah Gray turned into a 28-yard TD scamper with 6 minutes left in regulation.

"Tonight, as a team, our goal was to come out and put together a complete-game effort, stay consistent on both sides of the ball and clean up some little things that we did that cost us the game Monday night (against South Lenoir).

"Monday night had left a bitter taste in our mouth as a staff and the kids' mouth as well."

This non-conference affair, the sixth meeting in the series, undoubtedly turned out to be more satisfying that a ham sandwich.

Smothers directed six scoring drives -- including two that started at Lejeune's 30-yard line. The sophomore signal caller finished an efficient 8 of 13 for 157 yards and completed a career-high four TD passes to three different receivers -- two to Najee Young and one each to Kittrell and Jamerion Dawson.

Backup quarterback Jenson Barwick marched SC to back-to-back offensive scores to cap the Gators' third consecutive win over the Devilpups.

The Gators compiled 334 yards of total offense. Eight of nine possessions resulted in touchdowns. Newsome paced the ground game with 77 yards and a fourth-quarter TD.

"That's a good (offensive) night," said Sanders, whose team snapped a 10-game skid that started after last season's win over Lejeune.

"Our last two touchdowns were scored by a freshman and a sophomore. You love to see that, too."

Spring Creek (1-1) continues a stretch of six home games in a seven-week period against East Carteret on Friday.

Kickoff is 7 p.m.

SCHOOL RECORD

* The Gators' 58-point outburst broke the single-game mark set in 2005 when they hung 54 points on Dixon.

KEY ADDITION

* North Lenoir transfer Brandon Wood-Potter, a two-way starter, swarmed all over the field Friday evening. His seal block helped set up Smothers' final scoring pass to Kittrell in the third quarter.

Wood-Potter registered more than 10 tackles and sacked the Devilpups' quarterback on three occasions.

"Really excited to have him here," Sanders said. "We've been working with him three days into the football season. He loves the game and is willing to do what he needs to do to help this football team out."

SC vs. Coastal Plains

* The Gators have played a Coastal Plain Conference team at least once every season since 2004 when they lost to North Brunswick.

SC is 7-17 all-time against the 1-A league and has prevailed in three of the last five meetings -- all against Lejeune.

NEXT

* East Carteret comes calling next Friday.

The Mariners won last year's meeting on the Crystal Coast and are 7-0 all-time against the Gators.

"We've got to get healthy and be ready to roll for next Friday against East Carteret because they're going to be a tough opponent," Sanders said.