BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – South Warren hung tight with one of the best teams Tennessee has to offer, then shot itself in the foot to lose its first game of 2017.

Special teams lapses and a fourth-quarter fumble allowed Ravenwood to pull away with a 31-17 win over South Warren in front of a packed Homecoming crowd Friday night just south of Nashville.

The Spartans (7-1) scored 17 unanswered points to take a brief third-quarter lead before Ravenwood (6-2) answered with the last three scores.

South Warren is on a bye next week before playing at Bowling Green on Oct. 20.

“I still think we’re a really good team,” Spartans running back Christian Winn said. “We’ve just got to capitalize and perform when we need to, to the best of our abilities. We played a good team. This was probably one of the best teams on our schedule. We’ve just got to come back and get prepared for Bowling Green in two weeks.”

Ravenwood is two years removed from a state championship in Class 6A, the highest classification in Tennessee. Spartans coach Brandon Smith said leading up to the out-of-state matchup that there would be no question where his team stood eight weeks into the season.

The most glaring struggle for the Spartans was two blocked punts in the first half and another one botched from Kanyon Sanders that went just six yards in the fourth quarter.

The botched punt and a Clayton Bush fumble each led to two fourth-quarter touchdowns that put the game away not long after South Warren had tied it.

“It was a tough environment and we had some adversity,” Smith said. “We found some things out about our team that we didn’t know this year. … We’re not good enough to make mistakes and shoot ourselves in the foot. We’re not talented enough to do those things. We’ve got to execute for four full quarters and in all three phases. We’re not going to get by by flipping on a switch on Friday night and do it. We’ve got to practice better and execute better.”

A bright spot offensively was a big night from senior receiver Marcus Elmore, who had six receptions for 114 yards in the first half. Coming into Friday, Elmore had seven grabs for 128 yards through seven games.

Junior quarterback Gavin Spurrier led the offense with 18-of-30 passing for 224 yards.

Facing a 10-0 deficit in the second quarter, Spurrier and Elmore sparked a drive with four connections for 68 yards that ultimately led to Cody Eblen’s 2-yard touchdown run with 4:09 left in the first half.

South Warren moved the ball down the field again before halftime with Elmore hauling in a 34-yard reception to put the ball at the Ravenwood 3.

Eblen failed to reach the end zone on three straight runs as time expired and the Spartans trailed 10-7 at halftime.

Winn powered the offense to start the second half with a drive that reached inside the red zone thanks to a pair of Raptors penalties that moved the ball 40 yards.

South Warren couldn’t get closer than the 7-yard line and settled for an Alex Cohron 24-yard field goal to tie the game.

“We came out and had a lot of times where we could have capitalized on possessions when we were close to the goal line,” Winn said. “We’ve just got to get down to the red zone and we’ve got to convert those red zone points. That’s what we didn’t do tonight.”

Winn ran in the go-ahead score from 3 yards out to push South Warren ahead 17-10 with 50 seconds left in the third.

But Ravenwood tied it back up on the first play of the ensuing drive on Jordan Smith’s 69-yard touchdown run right up the gut.

Bush’s fumble early in the fourth set up Nick Stallcup’s quarterback sneak into the end zone on fourth down, then Andrew Mason scored on the next drive on an 18-yard run to put Ravenwood up by two touchdowns with 5:22 remaining.

“I think we really kind of killed ourselves with execution,” Smith said. “Special teams was borderline awful the whole night. When you play a good team and your offense and defense is battling back and forth and one team has good special teams and the other doesn’t, it shows up.

“They’re a great football team and there’s no denying that, but I thought we shot ourselves in the foot several times.”

Ravenwood 3 7 7 14 – 31

South Warren 0 7 10 0 – 17

First quarter

RW – Sam French 25 field goal, 6:33

Second quarter

RW – Parker Nash 38 pass from Brian Garcia (French kick), 7:07

SW – Eblen 2 run (Alex Cohron kick), 4:09

Third quarter

SW – Cohron 24 kick, 7:44

SW – Winn 3 run (Cohron kick), 0:50

RW – Smith 69 run (French kick), 0:24

Fourth quarter

RW – Stallcup 2 run (French kick), 7:50

RW – Mason 18 run (French kick), 5:22{&end}