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LANETT — The Springwood Wildcats fell to 0-6 on the season with a 43-0 home loss to Lee-Scott on Thursday.

Springwood has only five seniors this year and has struggled mightily against teams with more veteran players and more depth.

Thursday’s game against the Warriors was more of the same. After receiving the opening kickoff, the Wildcats dug themselves into a hole they couldn’t get out of until the game was hopelessly out of reach.

They put the ball in play at their 20 following the kickoff, lost yardage on back-to-back bad snaps and wound up punting on fourth and 19 from the 11.

Lee-Scott ran their first play from scrimmage from the Springwood 30 and scored on a running play off the right side of the line. Luckily for the Wildcats, the play was negated by a holding call. Lee-Scott scored a few plays later anyway and made it 7-0 with a successful PAT. With 10:19 left in the opening period, the Wildcats were down by one score.

On Springwood’s next possession, a pass from Cooper Champion to Jonathan Johnson with a roughing-the -passer call added on moved the ball past the 40.

But just when it looked like Springwood might be getting something going, a batted pass on the next play was intercepted by Lee-Scott and returned to the Springwood 33.

It took LSA three running plays to score from there. With 8:12 left in the opening period, Springwood was down 14-0.

Springwood started on the 20, couldn’t advance it and punted on fourth and ten. The Warriors put the ball in play on their 44 and scored in two plays to make the score 21-0 with 6:27 to go in the first period.

It went from bad to worse on the next possession. Springwood got the ball on the 20 but was penalized for a false start, making it first and 15 on the 15. Anticipating a pass, Lee-Scott came with a full blitz on the next play. Champion, who had been running for his life on most passing plays, got sacked in the end zone for a safety on the play, making it 23-0 with 5:57 left in the quarter. 

The Warriors returned the free kick deep in Springwood territory. This time they would try their passing game for the first time. It took LSA two plays to score on an eight-yard pass. That made it 30-0 with 4:27 left in the period.

Despite a disappointing season thus far, Springwood fans are still behind their team. A good-sized crowd was in the stands to watch a high school football game on the first cool night of the season.

With the crowd urging them on with “Here we go, Springwood, here we go!” the Wildcats moved the ball from their 20 to near midfield before a sack forced a punt.

With good field position once again, Lee-Scott drove it steadily down the field. They scored another touchdown on the first play of the second quarter to make the score 37-0.

It had been pretty ugly up to that point, but it could have been a whole lot worse. The Warriors did put one more score on the board to make it 43-0. One of Springwood’s highlights of the game was having a goal line stand in the second quarter to hold Lee-Scott out of the end zone.

Springwood will have a much-needed open date next Friday and then will face a gauntlet of at Cornerstone, at Edgewood, Macon-East at home and Lakeside on the road the next four Fridays to close out the year.