Springbrook football comes unstuck in muck

But with three second-half touchdowns against the Panthers, they showed the fighting spirit that has lingered in two straight victories. First, they staved off a dangerous Blake team 22-7, and last Friday night, the Blue Devils put forth their best effort of the season — a 12-6 overtime victory at Northwest to bring their record to an even 4-4 heading into Whitman (4-4) this week.

‘‘We started playing good football in the second half of the Paint Branch game — that’s kind of when we woke up as a team,” said Springbrook head coach Rob Wendel. ‘‘Northwest is a very, very good football team and I’m not sure if the results are exactly the same if it’s not a monsoon out there. But we managed to move the ball pretty well, and our defense played outstanding.”

Many of the county’s scheduled games for Friday were canceled due to the inclement weather, but the Blue Devils and Jaguars slugged it out in what essentially became a game of mud wrestling. Neither team threw the ball much at all, and in fact, Springbrook quarterback Phoenix Butler-Poole only tallied one pass attempt after entering the week as one of the county’s leading passers.

But like it had done in victories over Magruder and Richard Montgomery, Springbrook showed the ability to come from behind. After Northwest running back Chase Williams’ touchdown put the Jags up 6-0 — the ensuing two-point conversion was stopped — the Blue Devils trailed at halftime. But a collaborative blocked punt (Wendel said that about five or six guys converged to knock it backwards), halfback⁄linebacker Carlo Galeano scored on a 4-yard run to tie the score.

But kicker Jose Chavez, who kicked perfectly the week prior against Blake, missed the point-after try, and the game slogged along into overtime. Northwest got the ball first, and on the first play, Blue Devils lineman Josh Yoda fell on a mishandled quarterback exchange. Amazingly, in a game with such atrocious field conditions, it was the only turnover of the night. Three plays later, Galeano busted in from two yards out to give Springbrook the win.

Ironically, in a complete team effort, Wendel had praise for a relatively obscure presence in the game.

‘‘I thought Phoenix played one of his best games, even though it may not have reflected in the stats,” Wendel said. ‘‘Just to have no fumbles, no problems with hand-offs or snaps. It was something — we were running new balls in every play, but they were still like rocks.”