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“Running the ball 48 minutes we knew that they would probably break,” Springfield coach Maurice Douglass said. “That big back is a big back.”
Smoot’s best run accounted for the final points when he was stopped in the backfield, reversed field and outran the Lebanon defense for a 9-yard touchdown. Smoot finished with 141 yards on 26 carries to help lead Springfield to a 33-14 victory.
“Other than the fumble he’s a war daddy,” Douglass said. “He’s like Jerome Bettis when he was brand new. He’s a big back who doesn’t give you a lot of areas to target. He wears on you.”
The Wildcats (4-1) rushed for 307 yards, but they had balance, too. Quarterback Leonard Taylor completed 13 of 18 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for two scores and chased around Lebanon quarterback Kyle Short from his defensive line position.
The first half, however, represented the slow starts that have been a part of the Wildcats’ season. Lebanon led 7-0 and 14-7 because of two big pass plays by Short. First, he connected with Alex Koch on a 46-yarder that set up a three-yard score by Tryler Inloes. Then on the first play after a short punt he hit the wide-open Derrick Allen from 28 yards out.
The Warriors (2-3) then recovered an onside kick but did not score. Late in the half Adam Creech recovered Smoot’s fumble at the Springfield 11. But Moses Douglass intercepted Short on third down.
“We came in with the approach that we had nothing to lose,” Lebanon coach Shawn Lamb said. “I told them as they walked off the field if they gave everything they had then they did what they needed to do.”
Springfield rebounded from a 14-7 deficit with a 99-yard drive that ended with Taylor’s 20-yard strike to Michael Brown-Stephens, who was back in the lineup after suffering a dislocated shoulder in the opener. Then after the Douglass interception, they went 93 yards in the final 1:43. Taylor finished the drive again with a 23-yard strike to William Finch.
“We’ve got to get on top of teams and I think we’d be a lot better finishing and blowing teams out by more than we just did,” Taylor said.
Douglass said the team needs to improve its focus in the early stages of games.
“Sometimes we’re so hyped up and into the game that we’re not able to focus the way we need to focus,” he said. “I’ll put that on myself.”
Short was good at eluding the pass rush and threw for 190 yards, completing 14 of 32 with two interceptions. Koch caught four passes for 86 yards.
“We knew coming in that they were probably a little more athletic than us and we would have to do a lot of things well,” Lamb said. “Unfortunately we didn’t create the breaks that we needed to win.”
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