Spartans Let Chances Slip Through Their Hands, Fall to Oak Hill

OAK HILL- The Greenbrier East Spartans were just two yards away from tying the 6 ^th ranked team in Class AAA in the waning moments of the game, but the Oak Hill Red Devils defense stood tall and forced an incomplete pass on fourth down and that was all. She. Wrote.

Oak Hill grabbed two first downs on the last drive to run out the clock and defeated the Spartans 21-14 in a hard-fought, entertaining football game on Friday night, October 11 at John P. Duda Stadium.

East (2-4) had multiple chances to score and possibly win the game, but were stopped on two goal line stands and fumbled deep in Oak Hill territory as well.

They also fumbled on the first play of the game when Brady May had it knocked loose, and James Green recovered for Oak Hill.

Then, the Red Devils wasted no time in capitalizing as they finished off a 4-play, 32-yard drive, –all runs form JD Mauritz—and he scored on a 10-yard run to give Oak Hill a 7-0 lead with just two-and-a-half minutes gone in the opening quarter. However, Mauritz was injured on the play and never returned to the game.

After both teams exchanged a couple turnover on downs, the Red Devils struck gold again on the ground when their quarterback, Devin Richardson, broke loose for a 43-yard touchdown run and the Red Devils took what seemed like a commanding 14-0 lead with 4:02 left in the first.

Each team exchanged a couple more turnovers, including the first goal line stand of the night for the Oak Hill defense when they kept Brody Hamric just short of the pylons after he dove to the front corner of the end zone but landed at the half-yard line.

But two possessions later, the Spartans got a spark when Hamric found Nate Suttle for a 55-yard score. Suttle caught the ball, hit the circle on his personal Xbox controller and made a terrific spin move, then won the race to pay dirt and trimmed the Red Devils advantage to just 14-7.

That score stayed the same at halftime.

Oak Hill (5-1) was the first team to score in the third when sophomore Carson Treadway took a handoff and scooted 44 yards down the field for a touchdown. That made the score 21-7, Red Devils.

But much credit to the Spartans who never quit fighting. Just when it looked like they were to be counted out, they came right back swinging for more punches.

On the second play of the following series, Suttle caught a 15-yard pass. Three plays later, Jy Green caught an 8-yarder that gave the Spartans a critical first down on a fourth-and-7 play. Following two good, hard runs from May, he broke free for a 21-yard score to pull East with seven points at 21-14.

Fast forward to the final minutes of the fourth quarter when Hamric connected with Kaden Stone—who was terrific all night in all phases of the game—for a 48-yard pass to the 11-yard line of the Red Devils. Two good May runs had the Spartans set up third-and-goal from the 1-yard line with two chances to pick it up and they could not get past the Red Devil defense and turned the ball over on downs.

Richardson would then pick up the second first down on the ensuing drive and sealed the Oak Hill victory, preventing the Spartans from picking up what could have been a huge win for their program.

Greenbrier East gained 326 yards of total offense, and the Red Devils picked up 356.

Hamric was 11-for-21 for 201 yards and a TD. Suttle had 88 yards receiving and a score. May gained 121 yards on 30 carries with a touchdown, Stone had one catch for 48 yards, and Grant Burdette had 45 yards through the air.

For Oak Hill, Green had 112 yards on 16 rushes. Richardson had 79 and a score on eight attempts, and they ran for 317 yards in the game.

The Spartans will finally return home next week and face Nicholas County. It will be the first time Greenbrier East has played at Spartan Stadium since all the way back on September 6.

Stats courtesy of 103.1, WRON.

Scoring Plays:

First Quarter:

OH- 9:46: Mauritz 10-yd run (XP good)

OH- 4:02: Richardson 14-yd run (XP good)

Second Quarter:

GE- 2:16: Suttle 55-yd pass from Hamric (XP good)

Third Quarter:

OH- 8:42: Treadway 44-yd run (XP good)

GE- 4:45: May 21-yd run (XP good)

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