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One Hurdle Cleared, Another Left

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

Springstead quarterback James Mahla breaks the plain of the goalline for an Eagle touchdown versus Ridgewood Friday night at Spring Hill’s Booster Stadium. The Eagles kept their 4A-8 title dreams alive via a 28-14 Homecoming Game win over Ridgewood.

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By MARTY MILLER

Hernando Today correspondent

Published: November 1, 2008

SPRING HILL - For Springstead football Head Coach Bill Vonada, the game his Eagles played Halloween night against Ridgewood was probably the most important tilt all season.
With a three-way tie between the Eagles, Land O'Lakes and Tarpon Springs for the lead in the Class 4A-8 district race, Springstead had to have a win Friday to maintain any hopes for a possible district title next week in Pinellas County.
And thanks to a touchdown pass and two scoring runs from Eagle senior quarterback James Mahla, Springstead easily defeated the Rams 28-14 and kept atop of the 4A-8 standings with a 3-1 record at Booster Stadium.

Mahla rules

Mahla scored on runs of five and one yards and connected with senior wide receiver Ben Noury with a 64-yard screen pass late in the second quarter as the Eagles improved to 6-2 on the year. The touchdown pass was his county-best 10th of the season.
Besides Mahla, fullback Mike Greco, who rushed for 89 yards in 21 carriers, scored on a 29-yard run in the first quarter.
Ridgewood countered with a 2-yard touchdown run from Sterling Ross and a 9-yard TD pass from Scott Kujack to Kyle Flynn.
The win sets up an important district showdown next week against Tarpon Springs.
The Spongers clubbed Central Friday 44-7 as Tarpon Springs quarterback Danny Reyes completed 23-0f-30 passes for 322 yards and five touchdowns while adding another TD run.
"Its one week and that decides if we're in the playoffs or not," said Eagle coach Vonada after his team's win over Ridgewood. Springstead did not dominate the Rams offensively, as they gained 296 yards in total offense compared to 270 for Ridgewood.
But the Eagles got important plays when they needed them. With Ross averaging 192 yards on the ground per game this year, he was limited to 124 yards in the game, but had to carry the ball 30 times to do it.
Springstead opened the scoring after recovering a Ridgewood fumble on their own 44. Three plays later, Greco went behind left guard for a 29-yard touchdown run. D.J. Neuner kicked the point-after to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead with 9:09 left in the opening quarter.
But Ridgewood came back to tie the game seven minutes later.
The Rams drove 85 yards in 14 plays with Ross going the last two yards for the score.
Then midway through the second quarter, Mahla capped a 12-play, 56-yard drive with a 5-yard run. Nate Schafer followed with the first of three successful PATs, 14-7 Eagles.
Then in the final minute of the first half, Mahla clicked with Noury, 21-7.
"I've got to give credit to assistant coach (Mark) Lee for that one. He saw that up in the press box and called it," said Vonada. "We've been able to come up with that one big play when we needed. And that screen play right before the half was obviously a big momentum builder."
In the first half, the Eagles dominated play mostly due to the inside running of fullbacks Greco and Devean Huff.
Greco had 74 yards in 12 carriers in the first half while Huff added 44 of on six attempts.
"Our offensive line really set that up," said Vonada. "We ran two different fullbacks at them and Greco and Huff did a great job."
Springstead added another score at the start of the third period as Mahla capped a 7-play, 65-yard drive with a 5-yard scoring run.
Late in the fourth quarter, Ridgewood added another score to close the winning margin on a TD pass from Kujack to Flynn.
Though Springstead and Tarpon Springs won, Land O'Lakes also kept pace behind a 31-14 win over River Ridge.
All three teams enter the final weekend of district play knotted at 3-1 with Springstead traveling to Tarpon Springs in a contest that will decide what the Eagles will do after the regular season.
"I know it's not the playoffs next week, but the reality is that the playoffs start for us next week," said the 11th-year skipper Vonada.

Springstead 28, Ridgewood 14

Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
Ridgewood 7 0 0 7 – 14
Springstead 7 14 7 0 – 28

Individual Scoring:
SPG - Greco 29 run (Neuner kick)
RW - Ross 2 run (Gray kick)
SPG - Mahla 5 run (Schafer kick)
SPG - Noury 64 pass from Mahla (Schafer kick)
SPG - Mahla 1 run (Schafer kick)
RW - Flynn 9 pass from Kujack (Gray kick)

RW SPG
First downs 17 16
Rushing Yards 37-137 36-182
Passing yards 133 114
Total offense 270 296
Passing 10-18-0 6-13-0
Punts 3-32.0 4-26.7
Fumbles/lost 2-1 0-0
Return yards 47 36
Penalties 3-20 5-50

Individual statistics
RUSHING (Attempts, Yards, Long gain)
RID: Defreese 1-3, 3; Balk 1- (-1), -1; Dawkins 2-9, 8; Kujack 1-3, 3; Jackson 2- (-1), 0; Ross 30-124, 19.
SPG: Greco 21-89, 29; Noury 3-16, 11; Huff 7-45, 10; Mahla 5-32, 13.
Passing (Completions, Attempts, Interceptions, Yards, Long gain)
RID: Kujack 10-18-0, 133, 28. SPG: Mahla 6-13-0, 114, 64.
RECEIVING (Catches, Yards, Long gain)
RID: Flynn 2-23, 14; Graham 3-28, 14; Balk 2-41, 28; Dawkins 1-3, 3; Reardon 1-5, 5; Mattos 1-33, 33.
SPG: Greco 1-(-2), -2; Wozniak 1-31, 31; Roberson 1-15, 15; Noury 2-70, 64.

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