By Scott Vanscoy (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Seneca Indians used a strong second half effort to put away the Reeds Spring Wolves, 28-16 at the Wolves’ home opener Friday night. The Indians were led by senior Trey Wilson, who ran for two touchdowns and threw for another, all in the second half.
Seven minutes into the first quarter Reeds Spring got on the scoreboard when junior Colton Cramblett rambled nine yards to put the Wolves up 7-0. Seneca had a costly turnover on downs when they didn’t convert on fourth and 2 early in the second quarter. On the first play after the turnover on downs, Cramblett ran 78 yards, putting the Wolves in the red zone. Reeds Spring kicked a field goal, putting them up 10-0. The rest of the second quarter saw Seneca turn it over on downs twice and Reeds Spring fumbling the ball twice. At the half, Reeds Spring led, 10-0.
The third quarter opened with Seneca receiving the kickoff. Reeds Spring forced a fumble, giving them the ball on the 45-yard line. On the next series of plays Reeds Spring senior quarterback Sean Gross scrambled 42 yards, putting the Wolves up 16-0.
Seneca would not quit, despite being down 16-0 with less than half of the game remaining.
“I’m just extremely proud of them, going into half-time down 10-0 and they didn’t quit, they kept fighting,” said Seneca coach Ryan McFarland. “At half I told them to relax. I think sometimes our guys put too much pressure on themselves and if our offensive line’s not rolling through people they get frustrated. Sometimes you just have to grind it out and we did that in the third quarter.”
Seneca used a trick play to get on the board for the first time when halfback Wilson threw a 34-yard halfback option play to senior Preston Armstrong. Armstrong caught the ball on the 5-yard line and fought through tackles to score.
“When I threw a touchdown pass to Preston, I thought it was different, that it was pretty cool, but Preston basically did all the work,” said Wilson. “He’s the one that got in the end zone for us.”
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Seneca’s defense and offensive line took over the rest of the game. The Indians’ defense forced Reeds Spring into three more fumbles, giving their offensive line the chance to wear down the Wolves’ defense. Wilson scored late in the third quarter when he ran the ball in from 14 yards out, tying the score at 16 at the end of the quarter.
The momentum had definitely changed in favor of the Indians and they quickly took advantage of it when Wilson scored his second touchdown from 39 yards out, giving Seneca their first lead of the night, 22-16. Seneca’s defense forced Reeds Spring into punting, giving them the ball on their own 44. Indians sophomore Jaxson Graham slipped through a hole created by his offensive line and ran 56 yards to score. Seneca then led 28-16. Reeds Spring still had a chance to answer with eight minutes to go, but fumbled it away with their fifth fumble of the night.
Graham finished with 10 carries for 140 filling in for an injured Monty Mailes.
“We played hard both halves but the second half we made some mistakes and they were able to capitalize on those,” said Reeds Spring coach Lance Gosch. “I told them that if we continue to play with that type of effort, and we clean up our mistakes, we’re going to be alright. You can’t win many ball games with five turnovers but we’ll get it fixed. They made some adjustments on defense and took away what we got the first half. Again, I thought our kids played really hard and you can’t make those types of mistakes but you can’t fault their effort.”
The leading tackler for Seneca was junior Nick Arrasmith.
“It’s all about doing my job, I’m out here trying to do my job,” said Arrasmith. “Basically, making sure my defensive players are where they are supposed to be. When the time arises I just rise to the occasion and lower the boom. Defensively, first half, we didn’t really show up. The second half we came ready to play; we knew what they were doing. They were definitely tired by the third quarter.”
After the game a jubilant McFarland couldn’t have been more pleased with how his team got their first win of the season.
“I think the first half we just got outplayed up front and we weren’t able to convert some of those fourth downs but the offensive line started playing better,” said McFarland. “That was the key. We struggled in the first half, couldn’t score, couldn’t move the ball a whole lot, but in the second half our offensive line played extremely well. We played a sophomore running back a lot tonight because Monty Mailes, who’s one of our leaders of our team, is injured right now. Jaxson played great, Trey Wilson always plays great. Trey carried us a lot tonight, we needed a lot of tough yards. I feel like our offensive line wore them down and we were able to break some big plays later.”
Seneca 28, Reeds Spring 16
Seneca 0- 0- 16 -12 28
Reeds Spring 7- 3 – 6 – 0 16
First quarter
Reeds Spring—Colton Cramblett, 9-yard TD run (PAT good)
Second quarter
Reeds Spring—Cramblett, 29-yard FG
Third quarter
Reeds Spring—Sean Gross, 42-yard TD run (PAT no good)
Seneca—Preston Armstrong, 24-yard pass from Trey Wilson (2 pt. conv. good)
Seneca—Wilson, 14-yard TD run (2 pt. conv. good)
Fourth quarter
Seneca—Wilson, 39-yard TD run (PAT no good)
Seneca—Jaxson Graham, 56-yard TD run (2 pt. conv. no good)
