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BY TAFT COGHILL JR.

As Caroline first-year football coach Ben Boyd prepared to give his team a post-game speech, two Cavaliers showered the players with a Gatorade bath.

The talk was interrupted and the Cavaliers carried their celebration into the locker room following a 26-13 Battlefield District road win over Spotsylvania.

It was the first win of a difficult season for Boyd and the Cavaliers (1-8, 1-5 Battlefield). Spotsylvania (0-9, 0-6) remained winless.

"I'm not going to lie to you. It felt pretty good to that off our backs right there," Boyd said. "Really we've played better every week. We've just played some tough teams and we could not get a play here or there when we needed it. Tonight we got one when we needed it."

That's an understatement.

The Cavaliers had scored just 20 points all season entering last night's contest and they hadn't managed an offensive touchdown in district play.

That all changed in the first two quarters when Caroline jumped out to a 20-0 lead.

Senior defensive back Quinton Broaddus scooped up a Spotsylvania fumble and raced 51 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 advantage.

Sophomore running back Duane Fields (20 rushes, 100 yards and a touchdown) added a 1-yard scoring run and Broaddus hauled in an 8-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Zack Crabtree to put the Cavaliers in the driver's seat.

"It's been hard. It was really, really frustrating," Broaddus said of Caroline's down season. "I would come to the games and nothing would happen for me. I was really getting down on myself, but I never quit. I'm not a quitter."

The Knights aren't quitters either.

That's why they rallied to cut their deficit to 20-13 after two big passes from junior quarterback Cody Jenkins to senior wide receiver Kyle Schubert.

The first was a 27-yard play that set up Jenkins' 2-yard touchdown run. On the second big pass, Schubert outfought double-coverage and pulled down a 43-yard touchdown catch with 4:15 left in the second quarter.

"I told [my players] to hold their heads high," Spotsylvania first-year head coach Ben Lawrynas said. "They've got respect and they haven't quit yet this year. Everything that's been thrown at them, they haven't stopped. They've played football wire-to-wire every week. I can't ask for much more than that."