“I feel like we could have played a whole lot better,” said Wildcats senior Royce Rogers, who was crowned homecoming king at halftime. “We should have let up a whole lot less yards. I don’t feel like we played as good as we should have defensively.”
Springfield senior running back Deontre Long rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns as the Wildcats beat Beavercreek 31-0 in a Greater Western Ohio Conference game on Friday night at Wildcat Stadium.
Wildcats junior CJ Wallace went 12-for-15 for 116 yards, tossing TD passes to senior Sherrod Lay, Jr. and junior Braylon Keyes as Springfield won its fifth straight game, improving to 5-3 and 5-0 in the GWOC. The Wildcats also clinched a playoff berth in Division I, Region 2, according to unofficial rankings posted by JoeEitel.com.
Their performance, however, wasn’t what the coaching staff was looking for, said Wildcats coach Maurice Douglass.
“We’re thankful for the win, but we’re not happy with the performance that we had in the first half or the whole game to be honest,” Douglass said. “I’m not a fan (of homecoming). You got to have homecoming, but I’m not a fan. It’s the worst day because everybody is distracted. They’re so focused on the wrong thing that you forget about the game, the thing that people are really here for. I’m so glad it’s over, but glad to be 5-0 (in the GWOC).”
Springfield scored on its opening possession on a 20-yard pass from Wallace to Lay to give the Wildcats an early 7-0 lead. They would increase the lead to 14-0 on a 6-yard TD run by Long with about a minute remaining in the first quarter.
The Wildcats wouldn’t score again until 21 seconds remaining in the first half when Wallace hit Keyes on an 8-yard TD pass to make it 21-0. Springfield’s Dave Mitchell recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, giving his team the ball deep in Beavers territory. With 10 seconds remaining, Long scored on a 12-yard run to increase their lead to 28-0 at the half.
Beavercreek drove the ball to Springfield’s 12-yard line to open the second half, taking more than nine minutes off the clock. The Beavers drive stalled on fourth down when senior Jack Minnick’s pass was intercepted by senior Charles Cunningham.
Springfield senior kicker Natalie Erdman kicked a 24-yard field goal 39 seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 31-0 and trigger the running clock.
Rogers led the team with 10 tackles, a sack and 3.5 tackles for loss. But the standard is the standard, he said.
“That’s how it’s always been ever since my freshman year,” Rogers said. “It could seem like, probably to all the fans, we played super good. But we know out here we missed assignments, a lot of missing assignments.”
The Wildcats hold a one-game lead over Wayne (5-3, 4-1) in the GWOC with two games to play. Springfield travels to Fairmont (3-5, 3-2) next week with a chance to earn a share of the GWOC title. The Firebirds fell to Springboro 16-12 on Friday night at CareFlight Field.
“We have to play a whole lot better in order for us to beat Fairmont next week,” Rogers said. “We’re looking for a great week of practice this week, preparing for that.”
Beavers junior Kelvin Keyes rushed for 47 yards as Beavercreek fell to 3-5 and 2-3 in the GWOC.
After a 3-2 start, the Beavers have dropped three straight games.
“We are working through our foundational things, trying to continue to be a good football team,” said Beavers coach Trace Smitherman. “We are a good football team. We’re in the juggernaut part of our schedule, so things are hard. You get to go to - surprise - Springfield right as they are trying to get things rolling. We are a young team to a certain extent. We’re learning, you just don’t want to learn lessons in this capacity.”
Last week, the Beavers fell to Springboro 13-6, a program that’s beaten them in 12 straight games.
“We’re fighting our butts off right now coming off of a tough loss and the reward is Springfield,” Smitherman said. “It’s just tough. We’re trying to get our mindsets right and do things the right way.”
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