By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SPRING GARDEN – Spring Garden senior tight end John Welsh admitted it took the Panthers a little while to shake off the rust in Thursday night’s season-opening football game against Sand Rock. After all, they haven’t played in a real football atmosphere since last November.
“Everybody’s screaming. You smell the steak sandwiches. You haven’t done it for a year, so yeah, it was a little bit of jitters,” he said.
Those jitters led to a lack of execution and penalties in the first half, but once the Panthers regrouped at halftime, they looked like their old dominating selves.
After trailing 7-6 at the end of the first quarter, Spring Garden scored 35 unanswered points to take a 41-7 victory.
“We didn’t control the line of scrimmage very good in the first half,” Spring Garden coach Barrett Ragsdale said. “We had some penalties mixed in with poor execution and we just couldn’t get anything going. We go in at halftime and talk. We’ve got a veteran team. We come out and executed and controlled the line of scrimmage. That allowed us to open up our playbook a little bit.”
Welsh did a little bit of everything for the Panthers (1-0). He caught three passes for 80 yards and two touchdowns. On defense, he made five tackles and returned an interception 68 yards for Spring Garden’s final score with 10:38 remaining in the game.
Welsh also had a 65-yard punt return for a touchdown, but it was called back on a Panther penalty.
Not a bad way to start the 2024 high school football season.
“In the first and second quarter we started out slow, but then we got in our rhythm,” Welsh said. “We just knew we had to step up and overcome the things we were doing wrong and have the will to execute. We did that in the second half.”
“John stepped up and made plays when we needed him, offense and defense,” Ragsdale said. “He was coming hard off the edge on defense and was bringing the effort on offense too. He had a big game. I was proud of him and his effort.”
Senior quarterback Noah Barber and senior running back Connor Bates were also difference makers for the Panthers. Barber connected on 6 of his 12 pass attempts for 165 yards and three touchdowns. Bates finished with 84 yards on nine carries. He also caught a pair of passes for 73 yards and a touchdown.
“You can’t always stay in jumbo and unbalanced. You’ve got to be able to spread it out sometimes,” Barber said. “That opens up the run too. It’s great having athletes to get the ball to.”
Barber helped give Spring Garden an early 6-0 lead on a 72-yard touchdown toss to Bates just 1:17 into the game.
But the Wildcats (0-1) responded later in the quarter with a 9-play, 56-yard drive which resulted in Kane Robison’s 5-yard touchdown run. Morgan Tucker’s extra point provided Sand Rock a 7-6 lead with 5:18 remaining in the first quarter.
The Panthers regained the lead on Barber’s first touchdown connection with Welsh with 9:26 remaining in the first half. This one went for 24 yards. Bates’ rush for the 2-point conversion fell short, keeping the score at 12-7.
Sand Rock threatened to take the lead with a drive inside the Panther 5-yard line with just over four minutes to go in the first half, but on a fourth-and-goal, Bates knocked down an Alec Ashley pass near the end zone to turn the ball over on downs.
Following a Sand Rock punt to open the third quarter, Bates scored on a 10-yard run. Barber ran in for the 2-point conversion to give Spring Garden a 20-7 advantage.
Welsh ran in for a 16-yard score at the end of the third quarter for a 27-7 lead. The Wildcats gave the Panthers the ball back by fumbling the ensuing kickoff which led to Barber’s 21-yard touchdown throw to Welsh eight seconds into the fourth.
Welsh put the exclamation point on the game with his interception return for a score for the final.
Ashley completed 7 of his 16 pass attempts for 95 yards to lead the Wildcats.
Spring Garden travels to Pleasant Valley on Friday. Sand Rock hosts West End of Walnut Grove.
