High school football fans across Ohio know “The Field” well. The Wildcats have won five straight regional championships and have finished the season as Division I state runner-up three seasons in a row. A new sign on the fence on the home side of the stadium at Springfield High School pays tribute to the feat of making it to the final game in Canton in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
That recent history didn’t help Springfield in the 2024 opener, however. The Wildcats suffered their first-season opening loss in nine years, falling 16-6 to Winton Woods in Week 1.
Two mistakes by the punt team in the first quarter put Springfield in a 9-0 hole. Special teams was the focus of coach Maurice Douglass’ message to his team after the game.
“Take care of your special teams,” he said. “Don’t take that part off. You can’t play defense or offense if you don’t play any special teams. I think they finally realized after we got two (punts) blocked the importance of special teams.”
Springfield’s first drive ended with a punt that Winton Woods blocked in the end zone. The ball bounced out of the back of the end zone for a safety.
Winton Woods blocked a punt on Springfield’s second drive, too, and this time it picked up the ball and returned it for a touchdown.
Springfield’s starting quarterback Brent Upshaw left the game with an injury after the third drive. He didn’t return to the game. Junior Sherrod Lay Jr. took over the quarterback spot and provided a spark on Springfield’s fourth drive, but momentum stalled in the red zone.
Winton Woods took a 16-0 lead into halftime after a short touchdown run by quarterback Bryshawn Brown with 15 seconds left in the first half.
Neither team scored in the second half until Springfield’s Deontre Long found the end zone on a short touchdown run with 3 minutes, 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats avoided their first shutout loss in nine years. They haven’t been shut out since on Oct. 2, 2015, when they lost 35-0 to Wayne.
This was the first of a two-game series between Springfield and Winton Woods. The Wildcats will play at Winton Woods next season.
Springfield lost to a program that won a Division II state title in 2021 and has won 33 games over the past three seasons. Winton Woods moved to Division I this year because of the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s competitive balance system.
Springfield had won eight straight season openers. This was its first loss in Week 1 since a 41-7 defeat at Dublin Coffman in 2015.
“Obviously, all the respect in the world for coach Douglass and Springfield,” said fourth-year Winton Woods coach Chad Murphy, a Franklin High School graduate. “We scheduled this game before we knew we were bumping up to D-I, but with nine conference games we wanted Week 1 to be a really big game for us to see where we were. To come up here against a three-time state runner-up, that meant a lot. Our kids were just battling. It was like a playoff atmosphere in Week 1. We came out of here healthy. I just couldn’t be more excited for our program.”
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