The Springfield High Senators seemed to be battling two opponents Friday night: Sacred Heart-Griffin, and themselves.
The Springfield High Senators seemed to be battling two opponents Friday night: Sacred Heart-Griffin, and themselves.
In a showdown for the Central State Eight Conference’s West Division title at Ken Leonard Field, Springfield High succumbed to wounds that were largely self-inflicted in a 56-33 loss to the Cyclones.
Blocked punts, blocked extra points, bad snaps, penalties at bad times, failed two-point conversions — not to mention a whole lot of fine play by SHG quarterback Cam Brinkman — all added up to a big missed opportunity for the visiting Senators in suffering their first CS8 West division loss of the season.
The Cyclones (6-1, 5-0 CS8) thus are the division champs, entering another showdown with a rival on Friday at undefeated Chatham Glenwood. For the Senators (5-2, 4-1), it was a disheartening way to lose.
“We just didn’t execute. Too many blocked punts, and even I had one,” otherwise valiant Springfield High quarterback Brody Scheffler said.
Indeed, Scheffler tried to punt after his team lined up in a normal offensive formation on fourth down, in a 35-27 game in the fourth quarter. Scheffler’s kick hit one of his own linemen, however, and was recovered by SHG at the Senators’ 28-yard line.
“I’d never punted before,” Scheffler said. “I guess it showed.”
A few plays later, Brinkman ran it in from 10 yards to give the Cyclones a 42-27 lead with 8:26 left. Scheffler connected on an 11-yard touchdown pass to his freshman brother, Jacob, but junior Bryce Bryant was stopped on a two-point conversion run, and it was still a two-possession game at 42-33.
On the next series, after a timeout, Brinkman threw a gorgeous 50-yard touchdown pass to senior Drew Ward to make it 49-33, and that was that.
“It wasn’t as clean as I would have liked, but special teams were the difference and, from a field-possession point, I thought they were fantastic,” SHG coach John Allison said. “We also had a couple big stops in the second half. And Cam, boy he’s a competitor. You want the ball in his hands when it matters.”
Arguably, the turning-point play of the game was a blocked punt by SHG’s Jovonis Lunford in the final minute of the first half, which was then grabbed out of the air by teammate Demetrius Roberson and returned 11 yards for a touchdown that turned a 21-13 game into a 28-13 game. Springfield High tried to pass its way into a tie game in that final minute, but all that did was stop the clock on missed attempts and force the punt with time running out in the half.
The Senators lost their long snapper on the first offensive play of the game to injury, which obviously hurt coach Jon Hebb’s team.
“That’s on me for not having our backup snapper better prepared,” Hebb said.
About the decision to pass in the final minute of the half instead of playing it safe and been down only eight at the half and the ball to start, Hebb said, “It’s always six, one half-dozen in the other. You can’t live in hindsight. But we’ve got confidence in our offense. And that’s why we chose to try and do something with that amount of time on the clock, because we feel like we have the ability to do so.”
When Roberson grabbed the ball out of the air and knew he’d hit paydirt on the return, he immediately thought of his mother, Margaret.
“My mother is a touchdown to me,” said Roberson, who also recovered a pooch kickoff at the Senators’ 35 to start the second half, which eventually led to a 3-yard scoring run by Mikey Groesch and a 35-13 lead.
Roberson suffered a dislocated shoulder on the kickoff recovery, but had it popped back into place and played on. He was in some pain after the game, but said he’d be OK for the undefeated Glenwood Titans Friday night. He knows his team will need to be better than it was Friday to come out with a win.
“We have so many things we need to work on, but we’re going to battle through it,” said Roberson, who also blocked an extra-point attempt by the Senators in the first half that kept SHG up 14-13. “This is just a stepping stone for us. We’ve got a lot of good players.”
Adrian Dater is a freelance writer for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached through the sports department at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Washington Street showdown goes SHG's way against Springfield High
Category: General Sports
