It was just about impossible to miss Dalton Wilson Friday night as the young fullback led St. Pius with 94 yards and a touchdown on just five carries, but the freshman wasn’t the only young Golden Lion who got a chance to make an impression in a 60-0 win. Head coach Paul Standard said, “every player who dressed out played in the game, and you don’t see that very often.”
Friday’s game was every bit as lopsided as the final score as SPX (4-0) won its first region game of the season. The Golden Lions looked worthy of their No. 3 state ranking among Class AAA schools as they did not allow a single first down in the game and out-gained North Springs 426 yards to 16.
Most SPX starters were on the sideline for good by early in the second quarter.
Wilson, the only freshman moved up full-time to the JV/varsity squad before the season began, played a little bit at linebacker in the third quarter, but it was his work at fullback that stood out. The 5-foot-10, 215-pound youngster broke multiple tackles, and ran away from nearly every defender on a 60-yard run in the fourth quarter. “I think he’s going to be a special player,” Standard said. “He’s got good speed for a fullback-linebacker. I think he can be an important player for us pretty soon.”
Senior quarterback Trey White, coming off back-to-back spectacular games running the ball, carried just one time for 21 yards Friday. He also completed 4 of 5 passes for 54 yards and a 17-yard touchdown pass to senior Geno Smith.
Fullback Logan Rosborough added two touchdowns and 54 rushing yards, and Jake DeLany added 86 yards and two scoring runs.
Nick Ruffin and Branden Mitchell added rushing touchdowns, and junior defensive lineman Grayson Klingler returned an interception for a score.
The schedule will get tougher from here on out, although the Golden Lions will be heavily favored in their next two games, at home Friday against North Atlanta and then against Riverwood, before the meat of the region schedule comes late in the regular season with games against Grady and Washington.
Winning blowout games like the last one against a rebuilding North Springs squad is fun to a certain degree, and a contest like that is good for development of young players, but that may be the last one the Golden Lions have like that for the rest of this season.
“In some ways having one of those games is not bad,” Standard said. “You don’t want four or five during the season. The biggest thing is . . . if we have a good week of practice, which we did. It allowed us to get some kids who don’t get to play a lot on the field. That’s good for team morale because those guys work hard. We even got a snap for our two freshmen quarterbacks, Joey Connor and Matt Nall.”
Even better than being able to run inexperienced players on the field was the way they played. There was no really notable drop-off when the younger Lions took over.
Standard cited Mitchell not only for his running ability, but for his blocking. Also, “I thought [sophomore] Tommy Parks played center and did a good job for us. Defensively, we had some good linemen. In our secondary, juniors Ryan Foster and Harris Woodward did a good job.
“We told [young players], ‘When you all get in the game, it’s not mop-up duty; you’re out there to improve.’ Some years in the past it would look like a Chinese fire drill out there . . . and we’d lose a shutout. We kept the shutout intact.”
