Sweet Springs scored eight of the first nine times they had their hands on the ball Friday night as they built a commanding lead over St. Paul’s before beating the Saints, 62-40 in an Eight-Man District 2 championship game heard on KMMO-FM.

Blake Schroeder rushed for 299 yards and had five touchdowns on the ground while passing for another 142 yards and throwing for three TDs. He provided 441 of his team’s 506 total yards and helped account for eight of their 10 touchdowns.

The Greyhounds’ other TDs came on runs of two and 17 yards by Kade Hudson.

The Saints mustered 383 yards for the night. Christian Bobzin had four touchdown passes in all, a 19-yarder to Peyton Woods, a 47-yard toss to Kaden Gallup and TD passes of 44 and 60 yards to Jayden Maggert. Those were two of Maggert’s four trips to the end zone Friday as he also had scoring runs of 29 and 41 yards.

Sweet Springs never trailed as they broke a 6-6 tie with back to back touchdowns midway through the first half, taking an 18-6 lead. On top, 24-18 late in the second period, the Greyhounds scored on their last possession of the first half and their first three drives of the final half, widening the margin to 50-18 with 10 minutes left. St. Paul’s did trim the deficit to 56-40 with two minutes to go before the winners iced things with one final score at the end.

After starting the season 4-4, Sweet Springs has won four straight and is riding the momentum throughout the playoffs. Sweet Springs Coach Jeff Holtzman says his team’s senior leadership helped turn the team around.

After having defeated Sweet Springs 50-28 back in September, the Saints ended the year with a record of 9-3. St. Paul Head Coach CJ Gifford says the season was a memorable one for his team.

Sweet Springs was finally successful on their fifth trip in five years to a district title game. It is the Greyhounds’ first district crown in 22 seasons as they now improve to 8-4. Sweet Springs will host St Joseph Le Blond next weekend in an eight-man, semifinal-round skirmish.