Spring Garden, AL – With Welsh leading the way, Spring Garden surges for 35 unanswered points en route to 41-7 victory over Sand Rock.
By Shannon Fagan
WEIS Sports Director
John Welsh admitted it took Spring Garden a little while to shake off the rust in Thursday night’s season-opening football game against Sand Rock. After all, the Panthers haven’t played in a real football atmosphere since last November.
“Everybody’s screaming,” the senior tight end said. “You smell the steak sandwiches. You haven’t done it for a year, so yeah, it was a little bit of jitters.”
Jitters, a lack of execution and penalties in the first half became a dominant second half, and Spring Garden scored 35 unanswered points en route to 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.”
Said Ragsdale, “John stepped up and made plays when we needed him, offense and defense. 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 six of his 12 passes for 165 yards and three touchdowns. Bates finished with 84 yards on nine carries and also caught a pair of passes for 73 yards and a touchdown.
“You can’t always stay in jumbo and unbalanced,” Barber said. “You’ve got to be able to spread it out sometimes. That opens up the run, too. It’s great having athletes to get the ball to.”
Barber helped give Spring Garden a 6-0 lead on a 72-yard touchdown toss to Bates just 1:17 into the game.
But the Wildcats (0-1) responded with a nine-play, 56-yard drive resulting 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 more than 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.
Ashley completed seven of 16 passes for 95 yards to lead the Wildcats.
Spring Garden travels to Pleasant Valley on Friday. Sand Rock plays host to West End of Walnut Grove.
