OAKWOOD — There was plenty to like for both the Gainesville and West Hall football teams Friday night in their season opener in the Orenstein Classic.
There were also plenty of things that had head coaches Bruce Miller and Tony Lotti scratching their heads after the Red Elephants held off the Spartans, 20-10, in front of a jam-packed Spartan Field.
The good: both defenses produced turnovers and key stops, including Gainesville forcing a missed West Hall field goal early in the fourth quarter after the Spartans had first-and-10 at the Gainesville 12. West Hall sacked Gainesville quarterback DJ Irons five times, three by senior George Lira, and got a fumble recovery for a touchdown from Patrick Hudson. Tyree Robinson had a fumble recovery and an interception for the Red Elephants.
“I thought both defenses played very well,” Gainesville’s Miller said. “It was a struggle all night for both sides.”
“I can’t say enough about how our guys fought the whole game. That was a very good defense we played against,” West Hall’s Lotti said. “We scheduled them to test us. They did.”
Gainesville got a huge game from senior wide receiver Martavius Davis, who had four catches for 160 yards and one touchdown and set up another after a 69-yard catch and run to the West Hall 1. Irons finished 17-for-28 for 298 yards passing and one touchdown for the Red Elephants.
“I thought DJ managed the game well,” Miller said. “We made some mistakes as a team but hopefully we’ll learn from this game and get better.”
West Hall senior running back Tyrese Osborne finished with 112 yards rushing on 12 carries.
The bad: West Hall’s passing game struggled as Jacob Satterfield was held to 9-of-20 for just 58 yards and Hudson was picked off on a halfback pass. A bigger Gainesville offensive line had trouble with the smaller, quicker Spartans and Irons was under pressure most of the night and finished with minus-25 yards rushing mainly on the five sacks.
The ugly: penalties, penalties, and more penalties. Gainesville was whistled for 11 for 110 yards while the Spartans were flagged for 9 for 61 yards. They combined for six personal fouls. With just 1:20 left in the first half, three Gainesville penalties for 35 yards allowed the Spartans to kick a field goal at the end of the half.
Late in the game three more Gainesville penalties for 40 yards allowed the Spartans to get inside the Red Elephants 20 with 55 seconds left.
"We have to be smarter on penalties," Miller said. "You want to be aggressive but you also have to know when to stop. We'll have to clean that up before next week."
Lotti said despite the “disappointing loss” he felt his squad proved something.
“We were supposed to be big underdogs. Hopefully after this game, even though it was a loss, maybe people will look at our team a little different,” he said.
The two defenses took a bend-but-don’t-break approach in a scoreless opening quarter.
The Spartans held Gainesville to a quick three-and-out to open the game while the West Hall offense used a big run from Ashun Favorite and a 15-yard pass from Satterfield to Justin Hearn to move to the Red Elephants 34. But the Gainesville defense stiffened and a pass from Satterfield to Cameron Shirley at the Gainesville 20 fell incomplete as the Spartans were forced to punt.
Gainesville answered driving to the West Hall 30 after a 15-yard run from Kadarius Smith and a pair of nifty passes from Irons to Andy Hayes and Davis. But Irons was sacked for a 13-yard loss on third-and-3 forcing a second Gainesville punt.
West Hall then sandwiched a pair of three-and-outs around a Red Elephants three-and-out and Gainesville started its fifth drive from its own 41. Facing a third-and-4 from the Spartans 40, Irons connected with Davis on a quick slant and Davis raced the final 33 yards behind the Spartans defense for the first score to give the Red Elephants a 7-0 lead after a Brandon Reyna extra point with 6:37 left in the half.
Disaster then struck for the Spartans when TK Hendrix fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Gainesville’s Robinson recovered at the West Hall 36. Gainesville moved to the Spartans 8 but Irons was sacked again and an incomplete pass set up a 34-yard field goal from Reyna for a 10-0 lead with 3:35 left in the half.
The Red Elephants defense then got its second turnover of the game when Robinson picked off a halfback pass from Hudson and returned it to the West Hall 42. But the Gainesville drive stalled at the Spartans 24 and Reyna booted his second field goal from 41-yards out to push the lead to 13-0 with 1:20 left.
The Spartans finally got something going in the final moments of the half. Satterfield connected with Shirley for 11 yards to the 50 and a Gainesville personal foul moved it to the Red Elephants 35 with 23 seconds left. Satterfield found Tommy Oliver down the left sideline to the Gainesville 28 to set up a potential 45-yard field goal from Israel Lopez.
But Gainesville jumped the snap for a 5-yard penalty and Lopez snuck a 40-yard attempt just over the crossbar as time expired to cut the lead to 13-3 at halftime.
After the two teams traded punts to open the third quarter, the Spartans’ Hudson scooped up a fumble from Gainesville’s Smith and rambled 34 yards for a touchdown to pull West Hall within 13-10 with 6:58 left in the quarter.
"Our guys never gave up and kept battling," Lotti said. "That was a nice play by the entire defense."
The teams traded punts again and then the Red Elephants finally got the quick strike when Irons connected with Davis on a slant behind the defense and he raced 69-yards to the West Hall 1. Smith finished the 2-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown dive on the next play to push the lead back to 20-10 with 2:03 left in the third quarter.
"DJ made some good decisions and that was a big play for us to get the momentum back," Miller said.
The Spartans tried to answer right back late in the third quarter getting a 61-yard run from Osborne to the Gainesville 12. But the drive stalled after two plays for negative yardage and Lopez’s 29-yard field attempt was no good.
"That was a great stand by our defense to hold them to no points there," Miller said. "A big key to the win for us."
Gainesville will play host to Alpharetta next Friday while West Hall travels to rival Johnson in the Battle of Oakwood next week.
SCORING SUMMARY
Gainesville....0....13....7...0 -- 20
West Hall.......0.....3....7....0 -- 10
Second Quarter
GHS -- M. Davis 40 pass from Irons (Reyna kick) 7-0, 6:37
GHS -- Reyna 34 FG 10-0, 3:35
GHS -- Reyna 41 FG 13-0, 1:20
WH -- Lopez 40 FG 13-3, 0:00
Third Quarter
WH -- Hudson 34 fumble return (Israel kick) 13-10, 6:58
WH -- Statham 11 run (Hodgson kick) 35-0, 0:51
GHS -- K. Smith 1 run (Reyna kick) 20-10, 2:03
