By Rick Kozlowski, for Lootpress
SPRING MILLS — Second-seeded Spring Mills chose a cold and rainy Friday night in the first round of the Class AAAA playoffs to experiment.
The Cardinals took a step back in time in unveiling a new wrinkle in their high-powered offense that produced eight touchdowns in a 56-0 victory over Hedgesville.
Spring Mills brought out what some would call the “T.”
No, not the Model-T.
Three running backs lined up next to each other behind the quarterback under center is what it looked like.
Others might call it the “veer,” an offense that helped Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett win the Heisman Trophy during his senior season at Pitt.
Mostly, the brief appearance of the offensive set gives opponents one more item to study and allowed Spring Mills to allow more players a chance to carry the ball.
“We have a lot of running backs,” Spring Mills coach Marcus Law said. “We wanted to give them the opportunity.”
The Cardinals scored seven touchdowns on the ground against the Eagles, two each by Blake Sanders and Kam Taylor.
“Most of the season, the passing game’s been the big cheese,” Law said. “Today, it was the running backs.”
Spring MIlls’ first touchdown, though, came via the aerial game as quarterback Max Anderson hooked up with Keyon Mills in the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown pass on the Cardinals’ opening possession.
Twenty-nine second later, Spring Mills was back in the end zone after recovering a skidding kickoff to help set up Blake Sanders’ 12-yard touchdown run.
“We knew we were going to take off, and our plan was we were going to run the ball because it was raining.
“We got everybody in and they had their chance; everybody had touchdowns.”
The Cardinals ended the first quarter with a 21-0 lead after Anderson broke off a 61-yard scoring run after he failed to hand the ball to Sanders and it turned into a broken play.
Sanders dashed 21 yards for a touchdown five minutes until halftime, and Taylor pushed in for a pair of 1-yard TDs in a span of seven plays as Spring Mills had its second back-to-back possession after covering a kickoff.
The Cardinals led 42-0 at halftime on their way to their ninth shutout in their 10-1 season.
It took some work to keep the Eagles from scoring, though.
Hedgesville took possession at the Spring Mills’ 23-yard line after a series of mishaps by the Cardinals.
Hedgesville went backwards, however. The Eagles lost 16 yards on four plays, and then Anderson ran for his TD on the next play.
Spring Mills held Hedgesville to minus-26 rushing yards in the first half and negative-52 yards all told. Hedgesville finished with 12 yards of total offense.
“Defensively,” Sanders said, “we take it that nobody is going to score on us. For us, it’s personality. We love being there.
“They’re a running team, and we stopped the run.”
Third-team quarterback Keelan Curry added a 12-yard touchdown run and Devin King a 42-yard rushing score in the second half for the Cardinals.
Spring Mills finished with 272 rushing yards.
The Eagles lost their final nine games of the season after opening with a pair of victories.
Spring Mills will host Morgantown next week after the Mohigans won 35-10 over Woodrow Wilson.
“To beat a team like Morgantown, we’re going to have to run the football,” Law said.
Be it from the spread, the I, the T or even the veer.
