GREENCASTLE — Big Spring put Greencastle-Antrim back on its heels in the first quarter and had a chance to take the lead late in the fourth quarter Friday night.
But the Blue Devils did enough to stop the Bulldogs on their last threat and held on for a 17-14 season opening football victory at Kaley Field.
Carter Coons
“It was just a good high school football game and Big Spring played their tails off,” G-A coach Devin McCauley said. “Our conditioning and depth might have helped us at the end because there was a lot of cramping going on with the heat.”
The Bulldogs’ Connor Green had a hot hand early, sprinting for a 37-yard touchdowns on his team’s first possession, and adding a 2-yard score later in the first period for a 14-7 lead.
McCauley said, “We stuffed their first play, but (Green) broke a tackle and made a long run and that kind of shocked us. We did come back and score on our first drive, though.”
Logan Shifflett finished off that drive with an inside dive from the 4-yard line.
Greencastle got it back to within 14-10 before halftime when Andrew Bowers booted a 31-yard field goal.
In the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils were finally able to take the lead. The drive culminated on a 13-yard pass from Logan Alvey to Carter Coons to make it 17-14.
McCauley said, “We had nine different guys run the ball and seven different guys caught a pass. We want to spread the ball around. These guys all play defense, too, so we want to keep them fresh. I think it helped us tonight.”
Coons ran for 76 yards and caught two balls for another 22 yards. Alvey was 11-for-19 for 104 yards.
Big Spring was not done, however. After holding G-A on a third-and-4, the Bulldogs broke a long run and drove to the Blue Devil 30. But on fourth-and-7, quarterback Chase Fry was forced to scramble, and he just stopped short of the first down marker with 25 seconds left.
“That was a huge play to end the game,” McCauley said.
Greencastle gave up 239 yards on the ground, but limited Big Spring to just 7 yards via the pass, as Fry was only 2-for-12.
McCauley said, “We had good coverage and a strong pass rush. We made some adjustments that worked out.”
The Blue Devils travel to Berkeley Springs, W.Va. on Friday for a non-league encounter.
Greencastle-Antrim 17, Big Spring 14
Big Spring 14 0 0 0 — 14
Greencastle 7 3 0 7 — 17
First Quarter
BS — Connor Green 39 run (Landen Myers kick)
GA — Logan Shifflett 4 run (Andrew Boers kick)
BS — Green 2 run (Myers kick)
Second Quarter
GA — Bowers 31 field goal
Fourth Quarter
GA — Carter Coons 13 pass from Logan Alvey (Bowers kick)
Team Statistics
BS GA
First downs 13 17
Rushes-yards 34-239 37-181
Passing 2-12-0 11-19-0
Passing yards 7 104
Total offense 246 285
Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0
Punts-average 5-37.8 4-32.5
Penalties-yards 5-30 7-50
Individual Statistics
Rushing — BS, Green 17-140, Grant Hall 10-80, Chase Fry 6-35, Spencer Cachera 1-(-6). GA, Coons 9-76, Garrett Blubaugh 3-34, Surzano Solomon 6-32, Trent Merillat 6-25, Shifflett 6-11, Xzavier Ramsey 2-3, Cody Ferree 1-3, Barry Lane 1-2, Alvey 6-(-5).
Passing — BS, Fry 2-12-0-7. GA, Alvey 11-19-0-104.
Receiving — BS, Ben Fickel 2-7. GA, Carter McCauley 4-42, Coons 2-22, Shifflett 1-18, Blubaugh 2-13, Solomon 1-5, Merillat 1-4.