In its first playoff game as a member of Class 5A, South Warren found itself in a strategic battle early against visiting Graves County on Friday night.

The Spartans (9-2) took a 12-point lead into halftime before eventually pulling away from Graves County (6-5) in the second half for a 38-12 win to advance to the second round of the KHSAA playoffs.

South Warren quarterback Gavin Spurrier helped guide the Spartans through a back-and-forth battle in the first half. A dominant second half helped Spurrier secure his first postseason victory at South Warren behind 114 passing yards on 11 of 16 passing and a touchdown.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Spurrier said. “The past two high schools I’ve been at, we weren’t fortunate enough to win a playoff game. So the November football and win or go home feeling is just an amazing feeling.”

The game began in an all-but-normal fashion with Graves County failing to fall on its onside kick, giving South Warren a starting position at the Eagles’ 43-yard line. Spurrier handed off to senior running back Christian Winn five times on an opening drive that ended in a 26-yard field goal from Alex Cohron.

On the Graves County opening drive, quarterback Ryan Mathis overthrew a receiver downfield and the ball landed directly into the lap of South Warren’s Greg Byrd, who put the Spartans back into Graves County territory.

On the first play from scrimmage, Spurrier tossed a lateral pass to wide receiver Cameron Harrison, who bombed it 43 yards to junior wideout Clayton Bush for a touchdown.

“We’ve had it in for a couple weeks and we were really just trying to find the right time for the team and we thought it would be a good fit,” South Warren coach Brandon Smith said. “Obviously it was, he could’ve thrown it to either one (of the wide receiver options). They executed it well.”

Mathis and company responded, as the Eagles pieced together a long drive to the South Warren 1 where running back Cody Goatley scooted across the goal line on fourth-and-goal. A two-point conversion try was unsuccessful.

South Warren answered with a four-minute drive that concluded with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Spurrier to Cody Eblen.

One drive after a Tryce Cofer interception of Mathis set up a 1-yard rushing score from Winn, Graves County was lined up to punt when punter Trevor Grant dropped back to pass and found Carson Elliott at the first-down marker before Elliott broke a tackle and raced 47 yards to the end zone. After another failed 2-point conversion, the scoreboard read 24-12 in favor of South Warren going into halftime.

Winn opened up the scoring in the third quarter with a 49-yard burst to the end zone, a play that switched the momentum permanently in the Spartans’ favor.

Winn added another touchdown in the third quarter on a 1-yard rush, putting the Spartans up 38-12. The senior running back finished with 186 yards on 18 carries with three touchdowns.

“I can’t believe what he does,” Spurrier said of Winn. “I’m gonna miss him a lot next year. Even when I came in the spring and they told me a 5-foot-6, 180 (pound) running back was our starter, I was kind of like, ‘What? Isn’t this supposed to be one of the best teams?’ And he’s totally put me in shock. He runs over guys, he runs through guys, he hits the holes and he does everything right as a running back.”

Besides the second-half shutout in scoring, Graves County couldn’t get a bounce to go its way. After Cohron recovered his own onside kick in the first half, Jackson grabbed a jump ball on a squib kick that followed Winn’s third touchdown, allowing the Spartans to dispose of even more clock.

“In the second half we came out and I thought we did a great job,” Smith said. “I haven’t really seen that out of this team yet and we just went after it and moved the line of scrimmage both offensively and defensively.”

South Warren will play Christian County in Hopkinsville next week in the second round of the KHSAA playoffs.

South Warren 10 14 14 0 – 38

Graves County 0 12 0 0 – 12

First quarter

SW – Cohron 26 field goal, 8:24

SW – Bush 43 catch from Cameron Harrison (Cohron kick), 5:02

Second quarter

GC – Goatley 2 run (2-point conversion failed), 11:57

SW – Eblen 11 catch from Spurrier (Cohron kick), 7:45

SW – Winn 1 run (Cohron kick), 1:40

GC – Carson Elliott 47 catch from Grant on fake punt (2-point conversion failed), 0:58.

Third quarter

SW – Winn 49 run (Cohron kick), 9:57

SW – Winn 1 run (Cohron kick), 0:18.