By EMILY R. WEST
Spring Hill High School’s win over Summit Friday night came down to the last three seconds.
Spartans quarterback Michael Zakrzewski threw a pass into the end zone, and it tumbled to the ground as the final horn of the game sounded, signaling the Raiders’ 25-20 win. It was the third Spring Hill win in a row in the cross-town rivalry.
“I am not sure I could have gone through more ins and outs and ups and downs than in this game,” first-year Spring Hill head coach Jay Emmons said. “You can probably tell by the way I am speaking right now – I am a little hoarse.
“They have been getting adjustments from the sideline, but the kids fought. They didn’t get down, even when we had fourth-and-30 and ran an option play. And we got lucky on a penalty. They battled. They are fighters.”
A mix of penalties and a called-back touchdown were only a snapshot of the mess both teams found themselves in during the fourth quarter. Both teams combined to get called for 17 penalties.
The game also came down to missed opportunities on both sides of the ball, particularly in special teams with the failure to hit PATs or two-point conversions.
“There were just so many missed plays and missed opportunities,” Summit head coach Brian Coleman said. “I mean, I think in the end, there were so many ways for us to win. There were just so many opportunities.”
Both teams fought it out on the soggy grass, staying tied up on the scoreboard for the majority of the game. Starting out, Spring Hill punched the scorecard first, but Summit came immediately back, running the same play twice with Tai Carter, as he scored a 50-yard touchdown on the Spartans’ second play from scrimmage.
Summit went into the locker room at halftime up by one point. Both teams started out the second half sluggish, but the Spartans put the first points of the half on the board.
Spring Hill came back out to tie it up with 10 seconds left in the third quarter.
Running became the key to get to the end zone with both Summit’s Tai Carter and Spring Hill’s Dontae Smith controlling the tempo of the game. Smith rushed for 134 yards on 21 carries, while Carter posted similar results with 13 carries for 139 yards.
Looking into next week, both teams will have to come down from emotional highs. Coleman said he didn’t want it to tarnish his team’s season as it builds in its fifth year as a program.
“One game doesn’t make a season,” he said. “It was a non-region game. But it was a rival, and it was an important game, but one game doesn’t make a season. If this snowballs into the next game, and snowballs into two games, then we are getting in trouble. It’s going to hurt, and it needs to hurt. But we need to have a short memory when we get to Monday and go back to work.”
Summit travels to Clarksville next week, while Spring Hill will host McGavock in its home opener.
Emily West covers Franklin and Williamson County government and schools for Home Page Media Group. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter via @emwest22.
