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Spring Mills Explodes In Second Half To Take Down Patriots

By NICK HENTHORN 5 min read

WHEELING -- Though Wheeling Park's home opener Friday against Spring Mills didn't contain the same outcome as the Patriots' week one victory over Parkersburg South, Park head coach Chris Daugherty saw a through-line between the Patriots' performances.

"Last week we had good moments and bad moments and we pulled a win out," Daughtery said. "This week, we had good moments and bad moments, and [Spring Mills] was good enough to make us pay for those bad moments."

Spring Mills piled on late Friday to turn Wheeling Park away in a 46-28 road victory for the Cardinals inside Wheeling Island Stadium. The loss dropped the Patriots to 1-1 on the season, while Spring Mills moved to 2-0.

Wheeling Park trailed 14-8 after the first half in an up-and-down stretch of play where the Patriots lost a fumble and fell victim to a 100-yard pick six.

"We can’t turn the ball over like that and win a football game," Chris Daugherty said. "Do I think they’re much better than us? No, I think we’re pretty close. If you turn the ball over, you’re going to pay the price. And we did, and one of them was a defensive score for them. It’s tough to get back from that. We have to take care of the ball, got to eliminate our mental mistakes."

Spring Mills started the game with a lengthy eight-play drive which ended in a beauty of a pass to the corner of the end zone from QB Chaz Milburn to receiver Douglas Mayer with 8:46 in the first period.

Mayer finished the day with five catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns.

"[Mayer] is a player," Daugherty said. "He made a bunch of plays himself and he did a nice job defensively too. That’s a pretty good football player over there and he was a little bit of a difference maker. He really helps them."

Park drove down the field on their own opening drive, but faced with a fourth-and-two at Spring Mills' 11-yard line, Kheelan Curry picked off a pass in his team's own end zone, racing to the opposite sideline and 100+ yards down the field for a pick six and a quick 14-0 Cardinal lead with 1:50 in the first period.

Park did get on the scoreboard before the end of the first half-- and squeezed every point out of their scoring possession. Hunter Miller ran through multiple tackles around the edge for a 34-yard rushing touchdown at the 7:27 mark of the second quarter, and holder Jonah Hardway rolled out on the ensuing point after, finding Preston Heatherington for a two-point pass at the pylon.

Heatherington led Wheeling Park with seven catches, 125 receiving yards and a touchdown.

Park tied the game midway through the third quarter, Hunter Miller again finding the endzone, this one from a more modest four yards out. Spring Mills blocked the ensuing extra point.

The Cardinals offense was more explosive in the second half. After managing just one explosive play (a run of 10+ yards or a pass of 20+ yards) in the first half, Spring Mills had six in the second half.

"They did a good job coaching," Daugherty said of Spring Mills' staff. "They made some changes and then we had to make some changes; they made adjustments, we made adjustments back and forth. Two good football teams, two good coaching staffs. It was the same way last year and we won at the end. There’s probably going to be a lot of good football games between Spring Mills and Wheeling Park."

Jacob Long had a 39-yard catch-and-run touchdown reception to give Spring Mills a 20-14 lead by the end of the third quarter. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Spring Mills tailback Chris Williams ripped off a 21-yard touchdown rush to put the visitors ahead 27-14.

Wheeling Park did not go down quietly, pulling off an explosive play of their own with 11 minutes to play in the game, Heatherington grabbing a screen pass and setting up a few key blocks before racing 42 yards to the end zone.

Park trailed 27-21, but that would be as close as the Patriots would get Friday.

Mayer came away with the longest (offensive) play of the game on Spring Mills' ensuing drive, a 67-yard touchdown on a bubble screen, freed up by a nasty juke move to the outside.

Williams found the end zone on the ground again for the Cardinals, a 14-yard touchdown dash to extend Spring Mills' lead to 39-21 with 7:36 to play.

Wheeling Park threw their last punch with an eight-yard scoring strike to Liam Wetzel, but Spring Mills got the last laugh after Williams dove into the end zone on a five-yard run with 1:20 left in the game.

Williams finished with 145 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

"We’re a young football team," Daugherty said. "We’re going to get better. We played better today than we played last week. Now, that doesn’t mean you get a W, but we really did play better tonight than we played last Friday. It is what it is, we’re 1-1, and we just have to continue to get a little bit better."

Hunter Miller finished with 84 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns for Park. He also caught three passes for 11 yards. Senior quarterback Jay Bordas completed 22 of 33 passes for 219 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Aside from Heatherington's big day, junior Liam Wetzel (seven catches, 95 yards, one touchdown) also had a healthy day through the air.

Wheeling Park's next outing comes on the road, traveling to face Musselman (0-2) next Friday.

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