For Blue Devils, next play’s the thing

Springbrook edges Magruder in football

Three ‘‘next plays” were especially crucial Thursday. All three came at times when the Blue Devils (1-2 overall, 1-1 in the Montgomery 4A East Division) could have been hanging their heads.

The first came late in the first quarter, with Magruder (1-2, 0-2 4A East) leading, 7-0. At that point, the Springbrook offense had run 10 plays, moved backwards 2 yards and punted twice. After junior quarterback Phoenix Butler-Poole threw his fourth incompletion in as many attempts, the Blue Devils sent out the punt team again.

‘‘I’ve got to give full credit to our special-teams coach,” Wendel said. ‘‘He said it was there if I wanted to do it. I said no at first. And then I said, ‘That’s what we need.’”

What Springbrook needed was a completion from Joey Daniels to Michel Allen on a fake punt. On fourth-down-and-7, Allen lined up on the wing and delayed at the snap. Then he snuck off the line, and Daniels found him for a 28-yard gain and a first down.

Suddenly rejuvenated, the Blue Devils marched the remaining 31 yards to the end zone. Butler-Poole’s first complete pass of the night closed the gap to 7-6.

‘‘That was definitely a spark,” Butler-Poole said. ‘‘It woke us up. We had to get it moving, now or never.”

Springbrook got moving, all right, scoring once more before halftime and again early in the fourth quarter, on touchdown dives by seniors Carlo Galeano and Seymour Mainu. The Colonels meanwhile, were stuck in neutral and in lousy field position: much of the third quarter was played in their red zone.

‘‘The defense has played three games where they’re playing well enough to win,” Magruder coach Doug Miller said. ‘‘I feel bad for them; it’s tough. It’s two games where the offense or special teams has failed to do its job.”

When Springbrook finally punched it in and had to kick off, though, the Colonels responded with a seven play, 55-yard scoring drive and a 2-point conversion just 3:27 later. They quickly forced a punt and drove again, to the 5-yard line with 30 seconds to play.

It was third-and-1, and time for another test of the Blue Devils’ new philosophy.

‘‘Our guys were walking with their heads down at the end of the game, and we had to kind of rally the troops a little bit,” Wendel said.

Senior Eurel Barnard (18 carries for 103 yards and both Colonel touchdowns) tucked it up off left tackle and found Springbrook linebacker Darius Hill waiting for him. The Towson University commit stopped Barnard for no gain.

With the ball on the left hash mark, Miller chose to go for the first down rather than call on place kicker Josh Sullivan to try for the tying field goal.

‘‘I didn’t like the fact that we were going to kick from the hash mark,” Miller said. ‘‘Figured we’d go for it, get the first down, take a shot at the end zone and kick a field goal if we didn’t get in.”

This time, the next play really was the biggest of the night. Hill and a whole swarm of teammates stopped Barnard again on fourth down, a half-yard short.

‘‘I knew they were going to come straight at us,” Hill said. ‘‘I was looking to make a big play. We were all looking to make a big play. ... This is the monkey off our back. We’re just happy to get that first win, and it will be the first of many.”

Wendel may not appreciate talk like that. According to the Blue Devils’ winning philosophy of Thursday night, they shouldn’t be looking any further down the road than a 6:30 p.m. opening kickoff Friday against Richard Montgomery.