The Springfield football team easily put forth their best effort of the season on offense in their final nonconference game against the Clay Eagles, sporting their first lead of the season at halftime, but ultimately could not keep the visitors off the scoreboard en route to a 50-37 defeat.
While the assertion may seem a bit outlandish, the offense had chances to turn the tide despite all the Eagle touchdowns, including one very pivotal play midway through the fourth quarter.
Despite struggling all night to slow Clay sophomore quarterback Mason Heintschel, the Blue Devils had mounted the makings of an unlikely fourth quarter comeback. They entered the final stanza trailing 36-24 and with possession in the shadow of their own end zone having not scored in the third quarter.
Senior tailback Taylen Miller quickly put both narratives to bed, exploding down the right side of the field on the first play of the fourth quarter for an 89-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 3630.
Miller again went to work on the next Blue Devils possession, scoring on a 32-yard halfback draw, bounced left to again stay within striking distance at 42-37 just inside the eight-minute mark.
Following that score, the Blue Devil defense got a crucial stop near midfield, taking over at their own 22. Sensing the moment, Head Coach Jerry Bell called on his horse one more time, and Miller obliged to the tune of a 78-yard touchdown scamper down the home sideline that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
That, however, was called back on a holding by the receiver on the near side of the field, right where Miller was able to spring free. The Blue Devil drive stalled out a few minutes later, and Clay scored on the very next play for a decisive 50-37 lead with three minutes to play.
The penalty was essentially a 15-point swing in favor of the Eagles.
“It was huge,” said Bell. “The game’s about momentum. Huge, huge call that guy made. [Our coaches] watched the replay of it, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Displeased as he was with the outcome of the contest, Bell had nothing but praise for his senior tailback and his 17-carry, 206yard output on the ground and three catches for 58 yards. In total, Miller tallied four total touchdowns on the evening while showing an impressive blend of speed, power and balance all night.
“He stepped up, and he played the way that I know that he can play,” the coach said. “He showed us that grit that he has and that’s what we were looking for in the first two games. He came out determined.”
Bell also saw real growth from junior quarterback Will Scott who turned in his best game in tossing three touchdown passes.
“I thought the first half [Scott] played really, really well,” he said. “I thought in the second half he started pressing a little bit, not sitting in the pocket as long as he should have. We’ve got to continue working on that with him.”
Aside from a few costly turnovers and penalties, the offense performed like one of the best in the area, something they were renowned for only a handful or so years ago.
“It’s been there,” Bell said. “As this offense continues to evolve, you have to hit the seams and we’ve been over running the seams the first two games. We even did that early on in this game. We were missing the seams that were there in the first quarter. So, we kept adjusting and getting our backs and getting our guys to get that vision because they want to bounce too much.
“That’s what happened with [senior halfback] KaRon [Logan] late in the game when he took a fiveyard loss. The hole’s inside and he wants to bounce it. So, we’re going to continue working on that.”
The defense continues to be a work in progress, however, and without a doubt was the principal reason in the Blue Devils defeat. It didn’t help that they were facing a very talented signal caller either.
Coming into the evening, the Eagles had been rotating between Heintschel and junior Jackson Schultz. When the latter failed to lead any promising drives in the first half, they stuck with Heintschel and he picked apart the Springfield pass defense.
“I thought he played really well,” said Bell. “There was a mismatch for us that kind of got exposed and they took really good advantage of that. We had an outside linebacker on a speedy receiver and you’re not going to win that.”
Good as Heintschel was throwing the ball, the big holes that opened up again and again were more frustrating for Bell. Clay had eight runs covering 10 or more yards, two of which found paydirt.
“We’ve just got to read our keys,” he said. “We’re a gap defense and if you’re off one gap or you take on the wrong half of the man, you’re going to create the seam and that’s where we got creased a couple of times. This last touchdown that kind of put the nail in the coffin on us was exactly that. We overran and left the gap wide open.”
Painful as the outcome was, the Blue Devils did show that they can be a competitive team when their Northern Lakes League slate gets underway at undefeated Southview. They may have to simply outscore teams while the defense finds consistency, but if their week three performance was an indicator, they are very capable of that if they can eliminate some of those penalties and turnovers.
“These guys have got to continue to believe,” said Bell. “They’re getting better and better each week but they’ve got to learn to be consistent. That was our problem during practice this week. We showed these signs of being really, really good. And then at the tail end of each team session, we just faltered and we don’t finish it.
“That’s exactly what you saw here in the second half. We didn’t finish some of these drives that we could have finished.”
The Blue Devils are on the road this evening, traveling to Sylvania Southview to take on the Cougars in their Northern Lakes League opener. Game time is 7 p.m.
