On the opening drive, Spring Hill’s offense looked very much alive, starting at its own 29 yard-line and, in four plays capped off with a 25-yard quarterback keeper touchdown by Jaxon Smith, put six points on the board not even two minutes into the first quarter. The conversion attempt run was no good. But the start lifted Bears’ fans hopes that the team had shrugged off its offensive doldrums from its home loss against Foreman last week.
But with a heavy dose of its patented hard-running attack, with runners like Uriah Gatlin, Eric Hughes and occasionally sophomore quarterback Jacob Jester, the Go-devils would embark on a campaign of time-of-possession domination, piling up yards, running down clock and punishing Spring Hill’s defense, which never did give up, but often found itself facing third-and-shorts that Gurdon punched through with demoralizing long runs.
In fact, it was on a third and one play from the Spring Hill 25 that Gatlin would get loose for a run to the eight, setting Gurdon up to score on its second drive. The scoring drive took the first-quarter clock down to 4:48 left and tacked on a point-after for Gurdon to take the lead it would not relinquish, 7-6.
Two turnovers on downs in the first half, and giving up another touchdown, this one a rare pass that Go-devil receiver Andres Camarillo, uncovered, caught in the end zone, with a tacked on PAT made the score 14-6.
A Gurdon fumble at the Spring Hill 39 with almost two minutes left raised Bear morale. If they could march down the field, score and convert, they could go into halftime tied. But a succession of run attempts landed the Bears at fourth and five on their own 44. A penalty during the punt attempt put them five yards further back. Receiving the punt at their own 41, then passing twice for incompletions, the Go-devils opted to run out the clock on the half, going in with the 14-6 lead.
Receiving the kickoff to open the third quarter, Gurdon’s drive got one first down but stalled at the 47 of Spring Hill. The punt was long and a block-in-the-back penalty obliged the Bears to start at their own 24. Only able to move to the 29, the Bears punted on fourth-down, giving the Go-devils good field position at their own 42.
Gurdon’s second drive of the half drained the clock from 6:51 left in the quarter to :58, by which time the team’s short-burst running offense had gotten to the Spring Hill seven on a fourth down play. The successful field goal made it 17-6.
Spring Hill would keep up a strategy of running up the middle, putting together a nice drive of its own with good runs from Levi Askew, but three passing attempts from the 16 of Gurdon fell incomplete. A Go-devil appeared to interfere with Karson Hamilton’s attempt at a catch in the endzone’s back right corner, but it was a decisive non-call that would end Spring Hill’s drive and turn the ball back over to Gurdon, who would score six plays later with a 46-yard Eric Hughes gallop to make it 24-6 with the point after.
The Gurdon kickoff hit a Spring Hill player and while a Go-devil did reach for the ball, Spring Hill appeared to have recovered it. When the bodies arose from the pile, the referees ruled it a turnover and a Gurdon possession. By now there was 4:58 left and the Go-devils’ offense got the first downs they needed to run out the clock.
After the game Spring Hill Coach Greg Smith said of Bears fans, “they need to be proud.” He continued, “Our fans need to be proud of how hard these guys are playing really right there late in the game.” He referred to two instances during the game in which a non-call of pass interference (blocking Karson Hamilton's route) and then what looked like erroneous call on a fumble stopped Spring Hill’s chances of mounting a comeback. “It’s heartbreaking to see that for my guys that have played their tails off, and everybody in the stadium knew what happened and what I'm talking about.”
As for things to build on from the Gurdon loss, Smith said, “We moved the ball up and down the field, and had a lot of success tonight individually, so we're going to keep moving. We got our mind on Murfreesboro next.”
Spring Hill will host starting at 7:00 p.m. on Halloween night a Murfreesboro team that took a 59-6 drubbing in Junction City Friday night but has a 5-3 record overall and 3-2 record in the 2A Region 3 Conference after winning the conference title last season.
Above photo: A Gurdon player appears to block Spring Hill receiver Karson Hamilton's route as he heads for the end zone in Friday night's game, an act prohibited under National Federation of State High School Association's rules.
