MARTINSBURG, W.Va – Spring Mills had no interest in leaving even an iota of doubt in its Class AAAA semifinal matchup with Hurricane on Saturday afternoon.
The Cardinals forced a pair of first quarter fumbles and scored 14 points in a span of 13 seconds to set the tone in what became a dominant 49-7 victory to punch its ticket to the state championship game next Saturday.
Spring Mills is headed to Charleston!
The Cardinals dominated from start to finish against Hurricane on the way to a 49-7 win.
Check the highlights below! #wvprepfb @MetroNewsPrep @Max_Anderson24 @Xavier16wv pic.twitter.com/rWb2tp12eX
— Panhandle Sports Live! – Panhandle News Network (@EPSportsNetwork) December 7, 2024
It’s all the culmination of a process put into place by second-year head coach Marcus Law.
“After the way last year ended for us, that really hung with me. I thought we were at a point last year, we obviously took stuff in the right direction with our program but just the way it ended was something I didn’t want to taste again,” Law said, “We pushed these guys all offseason through the summer, the conditioning, the extra workouts and stuff we did and they bought in.”
Junior Xavier Anderson recovered a fumbled snap on Hurricane’s opening drive and the Cardinal offense marched down the field to take a 7-0 lead on his brother Max’s touchdown run.
On the ensuing kickoff, Hurricane’s Sean Legros fumbled the football which was recovered by Dominique Walls for Spring Mills to set the Cardinals up inside the Redskin 30.
The elder Anderson needed just one play to find the end zone again, delivering a 29-yard touchdown strike to Tyree Ramey to take a two-score lead.
Later in the half with the Cardinal offense facing a long third down inside its own half of the field, the Andersons connected through the air with Xavier catching a pass ten yards behind the line to gain, breaking a pair of tackles and sprinting 79 yards to pay dirt.
His emergence into a threat in both sides of the ball proved crucial after he struggled with drops in the Cardinals’ quarterfinal win over Morgantown.
“He took it personal last week, not performing the way he wanted to, and for him to come out and get that one. He runs all the way down off of a broken play there, it’s huge for him and confidence for our guys in general,” Law said.
Spring Mills followed a Hurricane punt with a Blake Sanders rushing score before Xavier Anderson came up with a strip sack of Hurricane’s Noah Vellaithambi which set up a short drive capped by Kam Taylor crossing the goal line on the ground.
The Cardinal defense held Vellaithambi, who entered Saturday within striking distance of 3000 passing yards and 1000 rushing yards for the season, to 10/30 passing for 177 yards and 11 rushing yards on 17 carries.
The Redskins put their only points of the game on board when Kylan Grace took a Vellaithambi screen pass 75 yards for a touchdown but were unable to add more after Spring Mills came up with a goal line stand to close the first half.
The Cardinals were able to put the running clock rule in effect early in the third quarter after Max Anderson and Sanders each delivered their second rushing touchdowns of the game.
Anderson finished the day completing three of five passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns while adding 73 yards and two scores on 11 carries.
Sanders toted the ball 16 times for 99 yards and two touchdowns and was aided by Taylor who tallied 67 yards and a score on 14 touches.
The victory for Spring Mills sets up a rematch with Martinsburg which handed the Cardinals a 17-12 loss during the regular season.