By Erin Campbell

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- For much of this year, Daytona Beach's fortune rested on the shoulders of Bo Bartik. When he suffered a car crash two weeks ago, the team was hoping he would have a quick recovery.

"God blessed me," said Bartik. "I wasn’t hurt at all. It was just my neck a little bit. The doctors were just being cautious and didn’t want me going out and playing. But coming back this week, I had a week off, so that was good. I had time to rest up. I am back, played well, we just didn’t pull it off."

His car was totalled, but he was able to see limited action in the Thunder's home finale against Columbus. Friday's game marked his return as a starter. 

Bartik and Spartans quarterback Mike Rathe each had a league-record eight touchdown passes.

Bartik has passed for 40 TDs for an average of 167.2 yards and has rushed for three TDs. He's also handled some special teams duties as a kicker.

"We had a couple of key throws to Nick Allison and a couple down here in the end zone, short balls," said Bartik about some key plays in the game.

Having eight touchdown was impressive; however, it was not quite enough to win the game because of three costly turnovers. 

"Bartik means a lot to this team," said coach Leon Bright. "When he his healthy, 100 percent, he is still not 100 percent yet, it is a different team out there on the field. ..They make some big plays at times, we still came back, he was a little rusty, but at 100 percent you will see a different person out there on the field."