Winter Springs may have come into its game against East River winless in three tries this year, but after the 27-16 road victory on a soggy, sloppy field, the only thing Coach Rodney Brewington cares about is his Bears' 1-0 record in District 7A-4.

Quarterback Steven Frost threw for 159 yards and three touchdowns, and the Bears' defense forced five turnovers as Winter Springs (1-3, 1-0) began the defense of their 7A-4 title from a year ago, when the Bears came from nowhere at the end of the season to snatch the crown from Oak Ridge, who Winter Springs meets next week.

Winter Springs began their season losing to Lake Mary, Oviedo and Hagerty, who were a combined 11-1 coming into Friday (Oviedo beat Hagerty last week), but Brewington said his team needed that time to jell.

"We've been playing with four new starters because of transfers and injuries," the coach said. "I'm proud of them, they've had to learn to win on the fly."

East River (2-3, 1-1) quarterback Tanner Hearn, a Southern Illinois commit, tried repeatedly to bring the Falcons from behind after Winter Springs scored the first two touchdowns of the game, but was picked off three times and briefly left the game in the fourth quarter for unknown reasons. The senior threw for 209 yards, 107 of them coming on his two touchdown completions, completing 11-of-29 passes.

"My hat's off to our guys on defense, I told them (Hearn) would be the best passer we'll see," Brewington said. "Except for two blown coverages we played well and had our share of sacks (6)."

After a first quarter that saw no points, no first downs and three turnovers thanks to a wet field and slippery football, Frost tossed second-quarter touchdown passes to Santo Rodriguez (47 yards) and Brenton Nelson (29) to take a 15-0 lead, but Hearn would toss a perfect 41-yard pass to A.J. Seward before the half to make it a 15-7 game at the break.

Frost added to the lead when he threw up a 31-yard pass that Jordan Fate grabbed in the corner of the end zone by outjumping a defender, but one play later it was 21-14 after Hearn found Tyler Castillo behind the secondary for a 66-yard scoring strike.

East River would add a fourth-quarter safety and had the ball twice in the last eight minutes with the chance to take the lead, but two drives ended with a fumble and a Marquis Johnson sack on fourth down. The Bears iced the win with 4:33 when, on third down, Nelson threw the ball on a reverse halfback option play and found Michael Siciliano on a 35-yard socring strike.

The Falcons will try to stay in the 7A-4 race next week when they host Ocoee for Homecoming.