Published: September 26, 2007 09:10 am      

Springtown remains winless with loss

SPRINGTOWN — Despite their best efforts, the Springtown Porcupines remain winless on the 2007 season after a 43-36 homecoming loss to the McKinney Boyd Broncos in Springtown Friday night.

“It’s just so hard because you keep saying, ‘Hang in there. Hang in there,’ and it’s not coming,” Springtown head coach Brad Turner said of his team’s loss. “It’s hard for them to keep believing and I think, because of the seniors we have, I think they will.

“It doesn’t get any easier next week. We’ve got to go to Fossil Ridge to start district play and all we’ve got to do is keep plugging and try to play better for longer periods of time.

“We’re so close,” Turner said. “One of our team goals is to score on our first drive and we hadn’t done that [until Friday]. We had two third down conversions and a fourth down conversion on that drive and we turned right around and went down and scored again and I’m thinking, ‘All right, they decided to turn it up.’ Then, we have three three-and-outs in a row.

“It’s just one of those deals. We’ll keep at it and try again next week and hopefully, it will be better.”

The Broncos rode the momentum from their win a week ago — the first in school history — into their meeting with the Porcupines and added a second win to their record thanks to a strong performance from sophomore quarterback Daryn Alves.

Alves was the weapon of choice for McKinney, picking up 211 yards on 27 carries and scoring four touchdowns, while completing 10-of-16 pass attempts for 175 yards and a touchdown with one interception.

Alves completed five of his passes to wide receiver Jeff Fuller. The 6-5, 210-pound Oklahoma commit, gained 99 yards and scored a touchdown, which was his biggest output of the season.

“A lot of [their success] had to do with ... [Fuller] hadn’t caught three balls all year, I don’t know how many he had tonight, but they were all big,” Turner said. “That little sophomore quarterback is a stud.

“We didn’t give up, we just missed too many tackles. If you look back at first contact, we have a lot more stops. A lot of that has to do with, like I said, their talent.

“We gave up third-and-extra long, I know of three times, third-and-15, third-and-20,” Turner said. “You can’t do that.”

Springtown also employed a balanced ground and air attack with running back Raphael Kubrak and quarterback Kyle Wilson.

Kubrak ran hard throughout the game, using his speed to run around or away from defenders and often finished his runs delivering punishing hits en route to 165 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries.

“He’s a good back and our offensive line played better,” Turner said. “We gave up a sack there at the end, but Raphael is a good back. I’ve said that all along.

“He had some really good runs and he protects really well. I don’t know what he ended up with, but he’s good for us. His leadership has improved and he’s just stepped it up and become a good back for us.”

Wilson added 41 yards and a touchdown on the ground. He also completed 20-of-36 pass attempts for 153 yards and two touchdowns with three interceptions.

After a back-and-forth game left the teams tied 36-36 with 4:28 to play in the fourth quarter, Alves drove the Broncos 67 yards on seven plays and capped the drive with a 27-yard run that put McKinney Boyd ahead by a touchdown with 1:12 to play in the game.

The Porcupines took possession at the Springtown 32-yard line and quickly found themselves facing fourth-and-12 after an 8-yard sack, a 6-yard completion and an incomplete pass.

Springtown converted the fourth down play with an 18-yard completion from Wilson to Kubrak. The Porcupines followed that gain with an 11-yard reception by Andrew Haddock and an 11-yard reception by Rhett Ballard.

With six seconds remaining in the game, the Porcupines had one final shot at the end zone from the Broncos’ 30-yard line. Wilson took the snap from under center and nearly lost the ball attempting his drop and was forced to heave the ball down the field off his back foot.

McKinney’s Phillip Sears stepped in front of two Springtown receivers and jumped to intercept the ball, bringing the game to an end.

“We had already said we were going for two if we scored, we weren’t going to overtime,” Turner said. “We didn’t feel like that was good, so if we scored, we had a two-point play ready.

“I was proud of them. They could have layed down and let it run away and they chose to fight.

“The thing that’s disappointing is we’ll just play in spurts,” Turner said. “We’ll play good, drive, drive, play good. Then, we’ll turn around and play two bad ones. You just can’t do that and hope to be successful.

“I’m proud of how they fought and played back, but disappointed because we didn’t sustain. We could have won that game.”

Springtown plays at Keller Fossil Ridge to open District 6-4A play at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

McKinney Boyd 43, Springtown 36

McKinney Boyd 0 21 15 7 — 43

Springtown 15 7 0 14 — 36



Scoring

First Quarter

SPRINGTOWN — Raphael Kubrak 4 pass from Kyle Wilson (Wilson run), 7:04

SPRINGTOWN — Kubrak 27 run (Montana Marsh kick), 5:48

Second Quarter

McKINNEY BOYD — Montarius Pittman 2 run (Travis Yarbrough kick), 7:40

McKINNEY BOYD — Jeff Fuller 12 pass from Daryn Alves (pass failed), 4:14

McKINNEY BOYD — Alves 13 run (pass good), 3:13

SPRINGTOWN — Kubrak 13 run (Marsh kick), :32

Third Quarter

McKINNEY BOYD — Alves 4 run (pass good) 9:23

McKINNEY BOYD — Alves 11 run (Yarbrough kick), 7:29

Fourth Quarter

SPRINGTOWN — Andrew Haddock 6 pass from Wilson (Marsh kick), 8:19

SPRINGTOWN — Wilson 3 run (pass good), 4:28

McKINNEY BOYD — Alves 27 run (Yarbrough kick), 1:12



MBHS SHS

First Downs 24 19

Rush-Yards 52-300 33-206

Pass-Yards 175 153

Att.-Comp.-Int. 10-16-1 20-36-3

Fum-Lost 3-2 3-2

Pen-Yards 12-82 5-55



Individual

RUSHING — McKinney Boyd: Daryn Alves 27-211, Joseph Robinson 7-26, Nate Hill 6-50, AJ Jones 5-6, Zach Jones 4-13, Montarius Pittman 2-(-2); Springtown: Raphael Kubrak 18-165, Kyle Wilson 15-41.

PASSING — McKinney Boyd: Alves 10-16-1, 175; Springtown: Wilson 20-36-3, 153.

RECEIVING — McKinney Boyd: Jeff Fuller 5-99, Cameron Maser 3-25, AJ Jones 1-31, Robinson 1-10, Zach Jones 1-5; Springtown: Rhett Ballard 7-71, Andrew Haddock 7-41, Kubrak 4-24, Clayton Cooper 2-17.

INTERCEPTIONS — McKinney Boyd: Jacob Sigler 1-3, Lamar Peeples 1-0, Phillip Sears 1-0; Springtown: Brian Bolling 1-8.