The watershed

Football team wins first game of 2014 season

A watershed is characterized as a turning point. It is the point at which everything changes. For the football team, last week was a watershed for the better.

Last Friday, the football team took on Fox high school for its first away game of the 2014 campaign.

Fox struck first, with 8 minutes left in the first quarter, scoring a long touchdown with a pass through the air. Soon after lightning struck. Literally. There was a lightning storm right after.

After a long night of waiting, the game was rescheduled for Saturday night, at 7 pm. This gave the football team a chance to regroup, as the game started up again at 7-0 with 8 minutes left in the first quarter. The first quarter ended with the Spartans picking off a pass, and controlling the game.

The football team blocked Fox’s punt and gained possession of the ball. With a short field, junior Jordan Cooper ran the ball in to tie the ballgame at 7-7. This changed the game, and the football team knows it, according to Cooper.

We had all the momentum going into half, no one was quiet and we were all talking about how we could beat Fox” said Cooper.

The momentum was short lived, as Fox drove down the field on the opening drive, scoring a touchdown. However, the momentum was won back almost immediately, as the football team blocked the extra point field goal.

As the third quarter wound on, the football team found itself at a crossroad. It was 4th and 12, and they had a decision to make, to punt or go for the first down. It went for the latter and found themselves on the Fox 8 yard line, 1st and goal.

As the football team pushed forward, Jordan Cooper, crossed the plane of the endzone, or so it seemed. The referees indicated that Cooper was down on the 1 foot line, and the following play would be 4th down, once again, and once again there was a decision to be made. Should they kick the field goal, or go for it? The decision was made, once again, to go for it, on 4th down. Senior quarterback Frank Davis ran in for a score, validating the gutsy play call.

The 4th quarter was characterized by Fox’s attempts to march down the field, and their inability to get going, punting three times in the 4th quarter. Fox, however, seemed to have won the game, scoring a 90 yard touchdown, only to be called back because of a penalty.

Fox took the ball back from the Spartans, and began to march steadily down the field with little over a minute left. With Fox marching, all hope seemed lost, until junior Nathan Lane intercepted a Fox pass.

“It felt awesome. It sealed the win against Fox” said Lane.

As the football team let the clock run out, they brought home their first win of the 2014 season, a turning point, according to senior Corey Mccoy.

“It’s starting to feel like last year. We’re coming together just like last year” said Mccoy.

As the football team takes on Troy Buchanan this Saturday at Troy, it looks to repeat last weeks victory, and taking that momentum into the Homecoming game, just two weeks away.