Spring Creek drops East Central opener to Midway

By Joey Pitchford
Published in Sports on September 23, 2017 9:23 PM

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SEVEN SPRINGS --Three or four missed plays is all it takes to lose a game of football.

That was the message from the coaches at Spring Creek High School Friday night, after the Gators lost a hard-fought game to the Midway Raiders, 24-14.

The game got off to a solid start for Spring Creek. After some time in the first quarter spent with both teams jockeying for position, an arcing pass from Gators quarterback Collion Kittrell found wide receiver Jamerion Dawson through two defenders, leading to a 76-yard play which put Spring Creek in the end zone early.

The Gators succeeded on a two-point conversion, bringing the score to 8-0.

From there, a lack of discipline began to slowly eat away at the team. A missed catch here, a few yards unnecessarily ceded there, and by the end of the second quarter Midway had scored twice, leaving the score at 14-8 in favor of the Raiders.

Things appeared to go from bad to worse in the 4th quarter, when Kittrell went down under a pile of Raider defenders. He lay on the ground for a tense period, clearly in pain, before being escorted off the field.

With the Gators down on the scoreboard, J Spencer Jameson stepped in for Kittrell. The switch turned out to be a good one, as Jameson immediately hit a pass to Javon Newsome which put Spring Creek back in the end zone. A failed two-point conversion left the score at 14-14 with around half the quarter remaining.

Spring Creek could not form a late-game rally, however.

Midway fought back with renewed vigor, marching down the field and punching in a quick touchdown to bring the score to 21-14, where it would stay until the end of the game.

Spring Creek head coach Daniel Robinson said that the loss came down to "poor execution down the stretch," including a few crucial turnovers while in striking range of the end zone.

"We lost this game in three, maybe four plays," he said. "Turnovers, a few missed assignments, things like that."

Robinson said that the team will need to learn some lessons from the defeat. Despite losing, he was proud of how hard the Gators played, and felt they came away with the right attitude.

"It's always good as a coach to see your team take a loss hard," he said. "That means they really care about this."