SANFORD — A football offense circa-1955 met a football offense more en vogue in the 21st century at Cobb Stadium on Friday night.

For the first half, Sanford’s old-school ground-and-pound attack was dominant, and the Spartans took a 6-0 lead into half against Bonny Eagle in a showdown of the only remaining unbeatens in Western Class A.

In the second half, however, the Bonny Eagle read-option offense spearheaded by quarterback Zach Dubiel seized control, taking advantage of three costly Spartan turnovers down the stretch as the Scots scored 12 fourth-quarter points on the way to a 19-6 victory to move to 3-0.

“You hope your mistakes are just a little smaller than theirs, and tonight they weren’t, and the score reflected that,” Sanford coach Mike Fallon said. “In a 6-6 ballgame, those mistakes are probably going to put a nail in the coffin.”

After controlling most of the opening half and holding the Scot’s high-powered spread attack to just 68 first-half yards, Sanford (2-1) took advantage of the field possession edge they’d held all game when Josh Schroder went over from 1-yard out on fourth-and-goal 28 seconds before the break.

Connor McGehee missed the extra point wide left, but the Spartans took a 6-0 lead into the break.

“I was a little disappointed in the first half in how we carried ourselves,” Bonny Eagle coach Kevin Cooper said. “Sanford’s a good team, they’ve got some good players, so we shouldn’t be upset with being down 6-0.

“We just had to refocus and do the stuff we planned on doing. Once we did that and got our feet under us, we came back and won the game.”

The Scots did just that after half, taking the opening kickoff and driving it 64 yards in seven plays for their first points.

A Dubiel 45-yard rush brought the ball down to the Spartan 10, and four plays later Jon Woods leaped across the goal line on a 1-yard run, with Isaiah Reynolds missing the point-after to keep the game 6-6.

The Scots looked to have another drive going later in the quarter when Matt Smith caught a Dubiel pass for what looked to be a big gainer, but Spartans linebacker Chase Smith-Roberts stripped Smith and recovered the ball at the Sanford 42.

Bonny Eagle got the ball right back two plays later, though, when Sanford’s Eddie Michetti fumbled a handoff, and the Scots took advantage with a 41-yard drive capped off by another Woods 1-yard run to go up 12-6 with 8:25 to play.

“They weren’t hitting home runs, but they were chipping away a little bit more and we weren’t as stout as we had been in the first half” Fallon said. “They made a few more plays than us in the second half.”

After a three-and-out on its ensuing possession, Sanford had one last chance with under five minutes to play when Schroder rushed for 22 yards and then found John Morgan for a 15-yard catch to move the ball to the Scots’ 38.

But two plays later, Schroder found Bonny Eagle linebacker Brandon Johnson with a pass over the middle, and the Scots ran down most of the clock before Dubiel hit Ben Malloy on a 21-yard pass touchdown pass on fourth-and-seven to salt the game away with 56 seconds left.

After racking up 131 yards in the first half, Sanford gained 102 to Bonny Eagle’s 195 in the second, with Schroder (30 carries, 181 yards) accounting for nearly all of the Spartans’ yards after the break.

“You do what you do,” Fallon said. “We tried to play with some pace in the second half, and plays that we normally converted we had a breakdown in blocking scheme that we weren’t able to convert. It forced us into punting situations that I don’t think we thought we were going to be in.”

Gaining just 11 yards on four carries in the first half, Dubiel finished with 115 yards as he carried it 15 times in the second half, mostly on the read-option.

“We wanted to keep it in No. 7’s hands,” Cooper said of Dubiel. “He’s a great runner and we decided to stick with it.”

Bonny Eagle will look to keep its unblemished record in tact next Friday when its hosts 1-2 Scarborough, while Sanford will try to get back into the win column with a tough Saturday trip to 2-1 Thornton Academy.

Despite the loss in one that got away, Fallon said his message to his players postgame was simple:

“It’s week three. Yeah we really wanted to win this football game, it was a big game for us, but there’s five to go. We go back to the drawing board and move on.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323.