FOOTBALL: Lakewood's defense stifles Spring Creek

By Ben Coley
Published in Sports on September 24, 2016 11:31 PM

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SEVEN SPRINGS -- This season, Spring Creek has identified itself as a pass-first, run-later offense.

The Gators committed to the run against Lakewood.

One week ago, they did the same against Southside.

The switch did little to improve SC's chances. The offense struggled and committed costly turnovers during a 29-0 loss in the Carolina 1-A Conference opener for both teams Friday evening.

Spring Creek had 129 yards rushing on 29 carries as a team. Four different players had at least two carries. Jessie Casper led the Gators with 58 yards on 18 attempts.

Against Southside, the Gators ran the ball 26 times for 149 yards. In their first four games of the season, they've averaged just 7.5 carries per game.

"We're trying to get a little more balanced offensively," SC head coach Aaron Sanders said. "We have a couple of receivers down. We felt like we were getting some things from defenses that if we could create some balance, we could get them to give us some looks that we wanted."

The Lakewood defense did give Spring Creek opportunities with the run game. Already down 15-0, the Gators ended the first quarter with three consecutive runs of 27, 10 and 17 yards.

But just a few players later, Najee Young fumbled on Lakewood's 31-yard line which stunted the momentum.

Lakewood's head coach James Lewis said he was surprised by the Gators' commitment to the running game.

"We didn't spend as much time on their ground attack as we did their air attack," Lewis said. "But they did good job of game planning and scheming us. They got us out of position a few times, but the defense bends, but don't break."

SC turned the ball over four times -- three fumbles by Gator running backs.

On the third play from scrimmage in the second half, Casper fumbled. Lakewood's Luke Brewer scooped it up and jogged 30 yards to the end zone to give the visitors a 22-0 advantage.

"(We) had a really difficult time sustaining anything," Sanders said. "I think we shot ourselves in the foot a lot. It felt like we had some really big penalties that stalled some drives. We put the ball on the ground a couple times and we struggled to throw the ball. We have some work to do offensively."

Sanders told his team in the postgame huddle that he believes Lakewood will win the conference this year. The order of the rest of the teams, however, isn't quite as clear.

"I feel like there's a lot of balance in the conference this year," Sanders said. "I think every night in the conference is going to be a dogfight. You're going to come in and it's going to be one of those things where the team that makes the fewest mistakes is going to win at the end of the night."

The Gators (1-5 overall, 0-1 CC) celebrate Homecoming next week against Hobbton, which is also 1-5.

NO AIR-RAIDS

* Gators' quarterback Landon Smothers was averaging 175.4 passing yards per game before Friday night's loss to Lakewood. Against the Leopards, the sophomore completed eight passes for just 33 yards.

SHUTOUT LOSS

* This was the third time in the past two seasons that Spring Creek has been shutout. Last season, the Gators lost 23-0 to Wake Christian Academy and 56-0 to eventual state champion Wallace Rose-Hill in the first round of the playoffs.

VARIETY ATTACK

* Although two of its three offensive TDs came through the air, the Leopards also relied heavily on the running game. Seven different Lakewood had at least one carry in the game and they combined for 156 yards rushing.