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Oh, What A Night!

TAMPA TRIBUNE Photo by FRED BELLET

Springstead sophomore running back Devean Huff (25) is stopped in his tracks Friday night at “The Swamp.”

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By EDDIE DANIELS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 27, 2008

LAND O’ LAKES - It's been a long time since Springstead has stood across the field from Land O' Lakes and been on the winning side.
In fact, it's been since 1996.
Friday night, the Eagles went back to those days with a 21-17 victory Friday night at "The Swamp".
It's the first time in Bill Vonada's 11 seasons he's been on the winning side of the matchup and as quickly as that point was raised, he shot it down.
"It's my first victory in the series, but it's not my victory," he said. "It's our team's victory. It's not me. I'm just the guy who gets to wear the headphones."
The victory, both squad's Class 4A, District 8 opener, gave Springstead (3-1, 1-0 Class 4A-District 8) a leg up on the Gators (2-2, 0-1 4A-8) in the district standings.
"It's a great feeling to start off with a win against last year's district champs," linebacker Nate Schafer said. "They're top of the class almost every single year, so it's great to get a win against them."
Schafer collected a key interception in the third quarter, quelling a Land O' Lakes drive that at one point penetrated the Eagles 10-yardline.

Rolling the dice

Springstead used two fourth-down conversions to get on the board Friday. The first conversion came on the Eagles' second possession. Facing a fourth-and-2 at the Land O' Lakes 11, Mike Greco took the handoff to the left for the score and the 7-3 advantage.
After Land O' Lakes running back Ben Hipps scored the first of his two touchdowns, giving the Gators a 10-7 lead, the Eagles struck back.
This time, Springstead sent its punt team on the field with quarterback James Mahla as the punter, Land O' Lakes immediately called a timeout, prompting Vonada to send his offense back on the field.
On that fourth-and-3 play from the Gators' 41, Mahla hit Ben Noury on a 41-yard play action pass over the middle for the touchdown.
"When we take the punt team off the field and then you put [the offense] back out there, absolutely [that's a big play]," Vonada said.
With 7:32, Land O' Lakes got its final points on a fourth-and-goal, 4-yard run from Hipps, but Springstead's defense held the Gators out of the end zone on its next possession and ran out the clock, sealing the victory.

Springstead 21, Land O'Lakes 17
Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
Springstead 0 14 7 0 -- 21
Land O' Lakes 3 7 0 7 -- 17

Individual Scoring:
LOL — Spock 34 FG
SPG — Greco 11 run (Schafer kick)
LOL — Hipps 3 run (Spock kick)
SPG — Noury 41 pass from Mahla (Schafer kick)
SPG — Greco 37 pass from Mahla (Schafer kick)
LOL — Hipps 4 run (Spock kick)

Team Statistics SPG LOL
First downs 12 16
Rushing Atts./Yards 31-143 13-154
Passing Comp/Atts./Int 15-22-1 12-21-0
Passing Yards 209 138
Total Offense 53-352 34-292
Fumbles/Lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties/Yards 7-75 2-20

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