Starting in place of the injured Zae Fuller, Spalding High freshman quarterback Casey Moody threw touchdown passes of 20-yards to Willie Hamm and Rodney Gilbert as the Jaguars topped Morrow 14-2 Friday night in a preseason scrimmage at Memorial Stadium.

“You have to give him some credit,” first-year SHS head coach Clint Ashmore said of the 14-year-old who is penciled in as the team’s backup behind Fuller who started the second half of last season but suffered a concussion in practice two weeks ago. “Zae was dinged up a little bit and we were going to hold him out tonight.”

Another key starter, senior tight end Najee Leftwich, also sat out with a concussion suffered in preseason practice.

None of it seemed to slow the Jags, which return seven starters (including Fuller and Leftwich) on offense from a team that went  5-5 last season, down much against a team that finished 1-9 last season and has its third head coach the past three seasons in Larry Mortonson.

Spalding drove into position for a 36-yard  field goal attempt — which it missed  — on its first possession and scored on its second possession when Moody found a streaking Hamm, the Griffin Daily News 2007 Best All-Around recipient, behind the defense in the right back corner of the end zone.

It looked like the Jags scored on their next possession when Hamm returned a punt 50 yards for a touchdown, but the play was called back on a penalty. Spalding’s fourth drive stalled, but the Jags found the end zone again when the team’s fifth drive ended with Moody hitting Gilbert on the left side of the end zone prior to the half.

When the dust cleared, Moody was 8-of-11 passing for 84 yards and a pair of touchdowns without an interception.

“I’m really pleased with what he did for a 14-year-old kid to go in there and face a group like that,” Ashmore said of Moody, who kept the team’s first scoring drive alive by completing a clutch third-and-6 pass.

The first touchdown-producing drive started with a 17-yard bruising, tackle-breaking run by senior fullback Cortez Puckett, who started last season for the Jags and made honorable mention All-Area. In another drive, Puckett added a similar run for 15 yards on a night where he ended with a team-high 38 yards on six carries.

Ashmore, who brought the spread offense with him from Jackson, was pleased with the way his offensive unit worked.

“We didn’t have a lot of penalties and the ones we did have are all kind of the ones you’d expect this time of year,” he said. “We had the hold, but when you’re a throwing football team you’re going to have a few holds — that’s the nature of the beast. Overall, though, there were not a lot of mental errors.”

Defensively, Spalding’s starting unit blanked the Mustangs in the first half. In a game that was delayed by 30 minutes by lightning at halftime, Spalding worked its backups in during most of the second half. The Mustangs didn’t reach the scoreboard until a safety in the early minutes of the fourth quarter. Minutes later — with both teams on the field playing — the power to the stadium and surrounding area went out, leaving the field and stadium in darkness. About ten minutes later the crowd was dispersed and teams sent home.