HOPKINSVILLE – Coach Brandon Smith said South Warren’s first game in the playoffs was its most complete overall performance of the season.

The Spartans had shown inconsistencies all season. Friday against undefeated Christian County, South Warren showed it might have something special brewing.

Greg Byrd intercepted Colonels quarterback Kolbe Langhi three times and the Spartans dominated the second half in a 24-6 win to hand Christian County (11-1) its first loss Friday night at Stadium of Champions in the second round of the Class 5A playoffs.

Junior quarterback Gavin Spurrier had two short touchdown runs in the fourth quarter on top of completing 15 of 24 pass attempts for 271 yards.

South Warren (10-2) finally got the turnover monkey off its back against a quality opponent, this time being the beneficiary of four takeaways.

“I think the mentality and attitude has really come a long way the last two games,” Smith said. “It’s been different and it’s been kind of what we’ve been used to with that passion and desire from these guys to make plays in these situations. That’s what they’ve done. They’ve made plays when they need to make plays.”

South Warren started slow with three trips in the red zone in the first half, but only had a field goal to show for it and a 3-0 lead at halftime. Once Christian County responded with a touchdown drive to open the second half, the Spartans turned up the intensity and never looked back.

An 89-yard bomb from Spurrier to Cody Eblen pushed South Warren in front for good in the third quarter before the defense picked apart Langhi.

“We knew that if we came out fired up and hit them in the mouth, that would be our biggest advantage,” said Byrd, who now has nine interceptions this season. “We knew they were a momentum team, and in order to beat teams down like that, that’s what we had to do. … Just all around, they’re amazing athletes and really talented. In order to do that, we had to use really good technique.”

South Warren’s defense had five sacks on Langhi to go with the four turnovers. Going into Friday, Jadonavin McNeal had really come on strong for the Colonels with 452 rushing yards and five touchdowns in the last three games. As good as the three-year starting quarterback has been, Christian County lived by the run averaging 144 yards per game.

South Warren stuffed the Colonels to 37 yards on the ground.

“You didn’t see it much tonight, but they’re really a running team,” Smith said. “They’re a run-first team and they’ve thrown the ball really well, but our goal was to take that away and get them in passing situations and play ball from there. We were able to do that and our guys made plays on third and long.”

South Warren finally got on the board in the last moments of the first half on Alex Cohron’s 23-yard field goal. It was the Spartans’ third trip inside the 10-yard line, but they came up empty on the first two trips with a Christian Winn fumble and a turnover on downs.

Christian County responded with a score on the opening drive of the third quarter. Langhi opened up the offense with four designed runs to give the Colonels their best drive of the night ending in a 15-yard touchdown pass to DeQuon Long.

Three plays into South Warren’s ensuing drive, Spurrier hit Eblen down the middle for an 89-yard touchdown pass to put the Spartans in front 10-6 with 6:41 left in the third quarter.

Byrd picked off Langhi in the end zone on the next drive. South Warren put together a 16-play, 80-yard drive that chewed nine minutes off the clock in the third and fourth quarter. Spurrier scored on a 1-yard keeper, then Eblen’s interception return to the 4-yard line on Christian County’s next play set up Spurrier’s last touchdown run.

“It felt good,” Eblen said. “It was a great team win, but that’s not the goal, the goal is next week to come out and play as hard as we can.”

Clayton Bush led five Spartans receivers with eight receptions for 104 yards. South Warren’s offense outgained Christian County 320-224.

South Warren moves on to the regional final for a rematch against Bowling Green. In the first meeting between the two schools Oct. 20, the Spartans committed five turnovers in a 43-7 loss.

“That’s just something we’ve been looking forward to,” Eblen said. “We’re a different team than when we played them the first time.”

SWHS 0 3 7 14 – 24

CCHS 0 0 6 0 – 6

Second quarter

SW – Cohron 23 kick, 0:11

Third quarter

CC – Long 15 pass from Langhi (kick failed), 7:50

SW – Eblen 89 pass from Spurrier (Cohron kick), 6:41

Fourth quarter

SW – Spurrier 1 run (Cohron kick), 7:49

SW – Spurrier 4 run (Cohron kick), 6:45{&end}