Spruce Creek wakes up, handles Matanzas

PALM COAST — Spruce Creek toyed with host Matanzas during the first half Friday night, then asserted its dominance in the second on its way to a 34-3 victory Friday night.

The Hawks improved to 2-1, while the Pirates fell to 0-2.

“I’m glad we got the win,” said Spruce Creek head coach Andy Price, whose team led 7-3 at halftime. “We didn’t play great in the first half. The defense played well enough but we had a punt mistake that put them in field-goal range.

"I feel like overall the defense and the offense played well enough. We got a pick 6 there, a defensive turnover. We didn’t do some of the things we did last week with the turnovers on offense.”

Creek ended Matanzas' first three drives with sacks. Meanwhile, they just kept handing the ball off to Terrance McMillon, who accounted for 51 of the Hawks’ 75 yards in their opening drive that culminated with a 4-yard run by McMillon for a 7-0 lead.

Matanzas scored in the second quarter on a 42-yard Julian Delcastilo field goal and almost doubled its point total on the last play of the half when Delcastilo’s 47-yard attempt just missed.

Creek came out in the second half and maintained its statistical dominance but started putting points on the scoreboard (even without a functioning scoreboard). Travon Killins took the opening kickoff 48 yards to set the Hawks up for another opening drive touchdown. This time, Nick Cristiano ran it in from 1 yard out for a 14-3 lead.

Matanzas had turned the keys of its offense to freshman quarterback Kalum Grant, but it still went three-and-out to set up another Hawks' score. A 28-yard pass from Andrew Acebal to Hayden Flood set up a 2-yard plunge by Justin Chiffon and it was 21-3.

Another three-and-out set the Hawks up once again, as the Hawks drove 43 yards on five plays, the last of which was a 3-yard Logan Todd run to make it 28-3.

That’s when the defense got in on the fun. Grant missed a wide receiver slanting inward and the ball sailed right into the hands of Deeshari Keith, who ran 45 yards untouched for the final score of the game.

Creek has opened the season with three straight games on the road. Now it plays three at home, but that doesn’t mean anything will be easier.

“We’ve gotten better since the beginning of the season, but the level of play goes up a lot,” said Price. “We have Sandalwood, Lake Wales, DeLand, Flagler. It’s a grind. Mandarin as well. All those teams are really good. It’s a five-week stretch that’s a tough one. We just have to get better and get healthy.”

Creek hosts Sandalwood next Friday while Matanzas will play at Seabreeze.