Tim Jordan knew football and basketball are similar in one respect: turnovers will get you beat.
The long time Savannah High School basketball coach made his debut as the Blue Jackets’ football coach at Garden City Stadium and watched his team commit several costly mistakes against a good Greater Atlantic Christian team and in the long run, the errors proved too much to overcome.
The result was a 41-6 spanking at the hands of the Spartans. It was GAC’s (2-0) second game of the season while the Blue Jackets were playing their opener.
There was nothing wrong with SHS’ effort. The Jackets played hard to the end, but they were simply overmatched. GAC is coming off a 10-4 season that saw it advance to the Class AA semifinals, and the Spartans are looking for more this year.
“You can’t turn the ball over against a good team,” Jordan said. “They’re the No. 3 or 4 team in the state. And, they did what good teams do: They capitalized on our turnovers.
“It was a 0-0 game and we turned it over in the red zone, and they scored,” Jordan said. “Then we turned it over again, and they drove for a touchdown. We gave them three turnovers, and they scored on all of them.”
The Blue Jackets actually got the first break of the game when they forced a Spartan fumble and came up with the ball at the SHS 18 on GAC’s opening drive.
However, after moving the ball out to the 30, Savannah High fumbled, and the Spartans’ Mitchell Milovich fell on the ball. On the next play, Ross Wood swept left end for the first of his two touchdowns.
The Spartans drove 89 yards on their next possession, scoring on a 56-yard pass from quarterback Rafe Chapple to a wide open Darius Slayton on the final play of the first quarter. The horn was sounding as Chapple released the ball.
“We’ll play some good teams this year,” Jordan said. “But I don’t think we’ll play any that execute any better than them.”
Savannah High linebacker Traynearious Dillard, who turned in a yeoman performance playing on both sides of the ball, got the Blue Jackets in position to narrow the gap when he picked off a pass and returned it 15 yards to the Spartan 29.
The Jackets drove to the 8 where on fourth-and-one they fumbled the ball with GAC recovering at the 9. From there the Spartans marched 91 yards, with Wood scoring on a 12-yard run with 1:57 to play in the first half.
The Jackets turned it over on their first play on the ensuing series, and Jaelen Venable scored on a 3-yard run up the middle with 31 seconds on the clock to make it 27-0 at the half.
The Spartans pushed the lead to 41-0 before the Blue Jackets scored on a 5-yard run by Dillard following a 68-yard run by Arkeem Brown, who had 85 yards rushing for SHS.
Dillard added 56 hard-earned yards on 19 carries for the Blue Jackets.
“He’s tough, and he’s on the field for 90 percent of the plays for us,” Jordan said. “He was co-region player of the year last year, and we expect that from him. We’re a young team — we have 15 freshmen and a lot of them play. But we’ll play hard and compete — Savannah High kids do that — and we’ll get better.”
Wood finished with 101 yards for the Spartans and Venable added 92 while Chapple completed 10 of 15 passes for 133 yards.
GAC 14 13 7 7 - 41
Sav. High 0 0 0 6 – 6
GAC—Ross Wood 10 run (Brandon Holzgrefe kick)
GAC—Wood 12 run (pass failed)
GAC—Jaelen Venable 3 run (Holzgrefe kick)
GAC—Jake Rose fumble recovery (Will Kenworthy kick)
GAC—Venable 10 run (Holzgrefe kick)
SHS—Traynearious Dillard 5 run (kick blocked)