LANETT — The Wildcats of the Springwood School football team were in high spirits near the end of Monday afternoon’s practice.

It was the team’s first practice since earning a 24-7 victory in Montgomery over Success Unlimited last Friday night.

“We played better in the game than we did last year [against Success Unlimited],” Springwood head football coach John Gartman said. “We’re more comfortable with what we’re doing. We still made some mistakes, but obviously, a year of continuity has helped out with that. I felt we played then we did this time last year.”

Wildcats sophomore led the attack on the ground rushing for 172 yards in the effort. Tolbert also added six tackles on the defensive side of the ball. 

“I hope that the energy that we had, the focus and determination that we had in the first game carries over throughout the week and later on throughout the season.”

Senior Chalyb Lenker led the team with 10 tackles defensively, while junior Trevo Williams and senior Coleman Hull each finished with 7 tackles. Hull was also three-for-three on PATs as the team’s kicker on the night. Senior quarterback Jordan Plank was the team’s second-leading rusher in the victory.

“Having an entire year with Coach Gartman has helped us,” Plank said. “We’re very disciplined and we’re coached well in our new offense. We’re all very comfortable in it.

“I honestly think that our energy is what’s going to carry us [this season]. We have a lot of guys on the team who are leading by example. Even if we feel a little scared or intimidated, we’re not out there showing it. We’re out there hyped up, and we’re out there hyping the rest of our guys up. Especially, the younger guys. When they see our seniors and juniors hyped up, ready to play and excited to go out there and hit somebody bigger than them, they’re ready to go because they see those older guys out there. They feel like they’re not scared, and they’re ready to go play.”

Tolbert said that one thing that the team could improve on from Week One was the number of false start calls that they had, but he said that the majority of those penalties were a result of first-game jitters. 

Gartman said that while he’ll probably never be completely satisfied with his team’s performance, the Wildcats have come a long way from where they were as a 1-0 team a year ago.

Springwood remains on the road this week to face Cornerstone Christian in Columbiana. 

The Wildcats defeated the Chargers 42-10 at home in week two last season.