CENTERVIEW, Mo. -- On a chilling evening of football Friday night at Crest Ridge, coach Chris Cavanah and his team had a long game as the Sweet Spring Greyhounds took the roar out of the Cougars early and held on to a 41-7 win.

“We were playing a lot better team this week,” Cavanah said. ”Sweet Springs is a good team. Everybody in the conference is competing for that second best team in the conference because of Orrick. But, Sweet Springs is right up there.”

The Greyhounds struck early after picking up a fumble from inside Crest Ridge’s 40-yard line and ran the ball back for a touchdown. They would then complete a two-point conversion to get an early 8-0 lead.

Crest Ridge got the ball to Sweet Spring’s 33-yard line after a series of runs by quarterback Chad Siegfried. Siegfried ended the game with a total of 86 yards rushing for the game, including a 23-yard run in the third quarter.

“Chad Siegfried is the best quarterback in the conference,” Cavanah said. “I hope he can make first-string All Conference. He’s a good kid, great athlete, and a good competitor. We’ve got to get guys to step up to go along with him.

“Chad is our main guy. Defenses are going to be geared up to stop him. I think a team can bottle him up a little bit, but I don’t think anybody can really shut him down. He’s too good of an athlete for that.”

The drive, however, would end in disaster on a third-and-three with an interception by the Greyhounds, who made the pick inside their own 20-yard line. However, the Cougars got the ball back on a turnover on downs inside their own 20-yard line.

Crest Ridge’s senior offensive and defensive linemen Tucker Wagner got injured from what Cavanah called a “stinger.” He was later driven away by ambulance. There is no word yet on his condition.

More bad news followed for the Cougars when the Greyhounds scored off of a 25-yard run after a penalty. They tried for another two-point conversion but were unsuccessful, making the score 14-0.

After a three-and-out, Crest Ridge punted to Sweet Springs, who returned the ball 40 yards to the Crest Ridge 20-yard line. Sweet Springs got into the end zone once again on third down from a quarterback sneak, making the score 21-0.

They would score one more time 34 seconds before the half from another quarterback sneak and the game seemed to belong to the Greyhounds with a 28-0 lead.

Siegfried tried to help the cause getting 23 yards off a run to put his team to the opponents’ 20-yard line, but the ball was turned over on downs.

It wouldn’t be until later in the half that the Cougars would finally get on the board, after the defense got a fumble recovery inside the opponent’s 15-yard line. Senior running back Garrett Whited ran the ball into the end zone and the extra point after was good. Whited would have a total of 46 yards rushing on five carries. But, it was a little too late with the game approaching the end and the score 35-7.

“Garrett is the next best athlete on the team, outside of Chad,” Cavanah said. “We’ve got to find ways to get him the ball more.”

The Greyhounds would score one more touchdown with 51 seconds left to put the game away at 41-7 after missing the extra point.

“We were able to move the ball but we could not get in the end zone when it really mattered to finish off drives," Cavanah said. "We had nice drives, but we just couldn’t get in the end zone to get it done.

“Defensively, guys got to tackle. We had too many missed tackles. We had guys wrapped up in the backfield and he would carry us for six or seven yards, or we would just miss a guy in the backfield and he would go down the sideline for 40 yards. That’s things that a good football team doesn’t do. They don’t miss tackles. We haven’t reached that point yet where we are sound tacklers. But we’re going to get there.”

For the Cougars, it was a frustrating loss, but now they will try to put their focus on next Friday, when they go to Alma to take on the Santa Fe Chiefs, who also haven’t done well this season. The game will kick off at 7 p.m.

“Going into this game, they have won one, just like we have,” Cavanah said. “It should be close. We face a good team. There is a lot of tradition up there. So, we got to go up there, strap it on and get ready to play from opening kick-off until the final buzzard.”