Mack’s runs, reception lead Red Springs past Fairmont for 1st win

FAIRMONT — It’s not often Jakelsin Mack lines up out wide for Red Springs, varying from his usual spot in the backfield as the Red Devils’ feature back.

When he did Friday, instead of a run between the tackles, it was time for a run down the sideline. When Chase Boone threw the ball his direction, it tipped off the hands of a Fairmont defensive back allowing Mack to turn back and catch the ball with his right hand, with nothing but the end zone in front of him.

The 33-yard touchdown reception — Mack’s fourth catch and first receiving touchdown this season — gave the Red Devils a two-score lead over the Golden Tornadoes just after halftime, helping Red Springs to a 33-20 victory, its first win of the season.

“I went to receiver, and in my head, I really never drop passes, so I’m thinking ‘maybe this is just going to fall into my hands,’” Mack said. “It didn’t; it hit the corner, but it fell right into my hands like I thought it would. It’s literally like, I’m not meant to drop passes, it’s always going to happen.”

The touchdown came on the fifth play from scrimmage of the third quarter. When Alex Rueda kicked the extra point, the Red Devils’ lead was 20-6 at the 8:42 mark of the period.

“Honestly, he’s one of our best receivers — he’s just a good running back (so he mostly plays there),” Red Springs coach Tim Ray said. “He’s got huge hands, knows our routes, so we have that option always. The biggest thing was, we just saw something right there, so we tried to take advantage of it on that play.”

Red Springs (1-5, 1-0 Southeastern Athletic Conference) ended a six-game losing streak that included its first five games of the 2024 season, doing so in its conference opener.

“We got the first one, but we’re still looking, 1-0 in conference, we’ve got to keep pushing forward,” Ray said. “I don’t think anybody’s really satisfied with just winning, because we all saw some things where we could’ve been a little bit sharper in some areas. I think the biggest thing is we’re going to come out Monday, keep working, trying to clean things up, and keep getting better at what we do.”

Fairmont (0-6, 0-1 Southeastern) has lost seven straight games and 13 of its last 14.

“We competed. It’s still been the same thing that’s beat us all year, just being undisciplined,” Fairmont coach Jeremy Carthen said. “Not undisciplined as far as behavior — that too, we got some flags that put them in better positions — but just being undisciplined on the assignments and alignments of football, just the basic things. Football is simple and we kind of make it hard for ourselves.”

The Golden Tornadoes were penalized 11 times for 96 yards; Red Springs had nine penalties totaling 90 yards.

Mack rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries in addition to his highlight play at receiver.

Boone threw for 130 yards, completing seven of his 15 passes, overcoming two early interceptions and a third in the second half.

“This game I came out really flat; I wasn’t focused, I was in my head,” Boone said. “But once I started to pick off the defense and read the defense more, it just started opening up, so I started throwing the passing game to see what was going on.”

“We picked him off a couple of times, but he still stayed consistent; he was very resilient and kept coming back,” Carthen said. “He’s a great kid, resilient, and just kept chipping at the old block.”

T.J. Ellerbe caught three passes for 37 yards for Red Springs while also rushing for a touchdown.

Most of Fairmont’s yards came through the air, with Jamarion Brown completing 11 of his 22 pass attempts for 138 yards. Jamir Jones caught five passes for 38 yards and two touchdowns on the night he was named Fairmont’s homecoming king.

Fairmont matched a season high scoring output with 20 points, and scored three offensive touchdowns in a game for the first time.

“We’ve got some guys that are trying to step up,” Carthen said. “We’ve got a sophomore and a freshman quarterback, and they’re taking turns at licking their wounds, but they’re both growing in the right direction, and it makes it better for the team, but it’s kind of hard for the seniors.”

Red Springs’ opening drive ended in an interception for the Tornadoes’ Jones, though Ellerbe picked off Fairmont two plays later to return the favor. Mack ran in a 2-yard touchdown five plays later for a 6-0 Red Devils lead with 5:00 left in the opening quarter. The extra-point try was blocked.

Fairmont answered with a 65-yard touchdown pass from Brown to Trandone Campbell, tying the score at 6-6 with 4:01 on the clock; the conversion attempt was unsuccessful.

“We had to come out — we all started a little bit flat; this wasn’t really our best game, but it wasn’t really our worst game,” Boone said. “We could’ve came out a little bit better, scored a little bit more, but we just did what we had to do.”

Red Springs’ next two drives ended in a missed punt and an interception, but after a short Fairmont punt gave the Red Devils good field position, Ellerbe scored on a 16-yard run and the extra-point kick made it a 13-6 game with 1:58 left in the half; that remained the score at the break.

After Mack’s touchdown reception extended the lead to 20-6, Fairmont scored on its next drive with an 8-yard pass from Josh Townsend to Jones. The conversion try fell incomplete, but the Golden Tornadoes closed the gap to 20-12 with 4:43 in the third.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Mack scored on a 13-yard run; Red Springs went for two unsuccessfully, but led 26-12.

“We finally did half of what we’re supposed to (in the second half),” Mack said. “The second quarter, we’ve still got more to work on. We could’ve blown them out, we could’ve did way more offensively, and defensively we could’ve done 1000% more. We’re going to get better though, you’re going to see a different team next week, for sure, completely.”

Fairmont drove to the Red Devils’ 28-yard line before a turnover on downs, and on the ensuing drive the Red Devils faced third-and-19 at their own 46-yard line when Boone connected with Jordan Norton for a 54-yard touchdown. The PAT gave Red Springs a 33-12 lead with 3:56 to go.

“Offensively, we just tried to stay within our system. Once we got some other guys in there, got some plays, see what other things look like — Jordan Norton scored his first touchdown tonight, great kid, great ball. We’re just trying to see what our full team looks like, so that’s one of the biggest things we’ve got to see and really keep pushing forward is getting our depth and everybody together as a whole.”

A Brown-to-Jones 4-yard touchdown catch for Fairmont with 32 seconds to go, followed by a Brown conversion run, cut the final margin down to 13.

Red Springs will look to build off its first win as the Red Devils host St. Pauls next week.

“I think we’ve seen some good things,” Ray said. “I think we’ve put some things out there tonight that teams haven’t really seen from us, so it’s going to add another element. I think we did some things a little differently, offensively and defensively; some guys played in some different positions than they usually have. So I think it’s going to be good for us overall moving forward, because any tape that they’ve got, we definitely added a new layer to that tonight with our system.”

Fairmont hosts Midway on Friday.