By Jim Mashek – Sporting Times
South Warren’s defensive line was the difference.
The Spartans kept Bowling Green High School’s running game in check. Purples quarterback Conner Cooper seldom had time to throw. Even when the BGHS offense found a spark, the South Warren front seven could answer.
South Warren 10, Bowling Green 7.
The Spartans traveled to El Donaldson Stadium on Friday night intent on taking the fight to their crosstown rival, and Bowling Green didn’t get in the end zone until the game’s final minute. South Warren handled the onside kick attempt to finish off the Purples.
South Warren improved to 3-0 on the season while winning its opener in Region 1, District 2 play. The Purples (2-1, 0-1) swept South Warren in two games last season, so this was a special victory for the Spartans.
“That was the thing last year, they were really the tougher team,” South Warren coach Brandon Smith said. “That was something we really preached in practice this week. Mental toughness. You could tell it was going to be a low scoring game pretty quickly.”
And that’s where the Spartans’ defensive line comes in.
Seniors Julian Boley, Dakota Lambrianou and Nathan Neal, along with juniors David Hudson and Jake Jackson, were dominant at the point of attack. The Spartans controlled the line of scrimmage, on both sides of the ball, for most of the game.
“At halftime, Coach Smith told us we had to do a better job with our reads,” Boley said. “After we scored, you could feel it on our sideline. Once we got a lead, things started to click.”
South Warren had a chance to score in the first quarter, after a Hudson fumble recovery deep in BGHS territory, the Spartans’ Eldar Dervisevic pushed a 37-yard field-goal try wide right. Dervisevic would get another chance after the Spartans covered 93 yards in 20 plays for the game’s first points in the second half.
This time, the Spartans placekicker was true from 22 yards out, putting South Warren in front 3-0 with 10:38 left in the game. Junior quarterback Caden Veltkamp relied on Kobe Martin and his running game for most of the drive, but Veltkamp found Avrin Bell on a hitch pattern for a critical 10-yard gain to put the Spartans at the BGHS 7-yard line.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a 20-play drive ever before at South Warren,” Smith said with a smile.
The Spartans took control on their next possession.
Veltkamp took South Warren 62 yards in just seven plays for the game’s first touchdown.
Bell’s 30-yard reception on Veltkamp’s simple swing pass to the right side got the Spartans on the edge of the red zone. Then Luke Burton punched out a first down on a fourth-and-1 play from the BGHS 22-yard line, breaking several tackles on the 11-yard run.
Two plays later, Veltkamp rolled to his left, tucked the ball away and scored on a 5-yard touchdown run with 5:52 left. Dervisevic added the PAT and the Purples trailed 10-0.
“He’s a winner,” Brandon Smith said of Veltkamp.
Conner Cooper and the Purples scrambled their way downfield in the game’s final few minutes, with BGHS receiver Will Vale coming through with a 36-yard reception to jump start the drive.
BGHS running back Javeius Bunton scored on a 3-yard run with 19.6 seconds showing on the clock, and the Spartans came up with the onside kick attempt to put the issue to rest.
“It took us a while, but we were able to finish off a couple drives,” Veltkamp said. “We took back the city, which is what we wanted all along.”
Julian Boley said the Spartans found a sense of urgency when they needed it most.
“When we followed our reads,” Boley said, “and did what we were supposed to do … we pretty much dominated. Yeah, it was fun.”
South Warren has an open date next Friday before playing host to Greenwood on October 16. The Purples, meanwhile, will be back at El Donaldson Stadium to face McCracken County on Friday night.
