Jefferson scored on the final play before its game at Herculaneum was postponed at 7:16 p.m. on Friday because of lightning. Senior Andrew Graves scored on a 31-yard touchdown gallop before the delay.
The Blue Jays also scored on the first play at 3:04 p.m. Sunday as the game resumed, when Graves ran in the two-point conversion.
A weather delay was about the only resistance the Blackcats could muster against the unbeaten Blue Jays in a 60-0 rout. Herculaneum (1-2) was powerless to stop Jefferson’s vaunted jet sweep.
The Blue Jays rolled up 395 yards rushing. Graves led the way with 102 yards on just seven carries.
“They didn’t miss a beat from Friday,” Jefferson head coach Alex Rouggly said of his team. “I made sure we had a normal routine, went to church and ate good meals. They played the way we expected them to.”
Graves missed part of last season after injuring a knee. He took up yoga during the summer to increase his flexibility and he had Herky in the downward dog all night, either carrying the ball, or popping Blackcats at linebacker.
Graves topped 5,000 career rushing yards this season and was given a rest in the second half on Sunday after scoring three touchdowns.
“He has completely sold out,” Rouggly said. “He works out twice a day, his academics are phenomenal. He’s so locked in it’s scary and it’s good he’s on our team. He’s playing with a lot of pizzazz on defense and we’re going to enjoy him while we have him.”
Herculaneum quarterback Jordan Duncan had a miserable day, throwing four interceptions, two to sophomore linebacker Dawson Jakoubek, whose older brother, Dakota, a 2018 Jefferson graduate, played his first college football game for Westminster College in Fulton last weekend.
“I’m just trying to make my team better and listen to my coaches,” Dawson said. “I was following the quarterback’s eyes when he dropped back.”
“I know Dakota’s tough. Their dad’s tough. Their mom’s tough. And I know Dawson’s tough. I’m so proud of what he did today,” Rouggly said.
Senior Erik Eisenbeis and sophomore Colby Ott also snared interceptions. Ott had two TD runs and gained 97 yards on the ground.
After beating Cuba in its opener, Herculaneum has lost two straight. First-year head coach Cody Hunter said his team practiced all week to stop Jefferson’s sweep.
“Up front they were super physical and they controlled the line of scrimmage and pushed us around,” Hunter said. “They are doing what we want to be doing, which is hitting the weight room. I wish the game would have been closer.”
Duncan had tossed four TD passes in the first two games, and Hunter said one bad outing won’t hurt the young QB’s future. Duncan didn’t play football last year.
“Jordan is a young quarterback and very talented,” Hunter said. “We have a lot of confidence, but he gets locked on to his guys and isn’t reading the defense. He’ll get better and this will make him better in the long run.”
Leading 46-0 at halftime, Rouggly substituted freely in the final two quarters.
“We rolled in kids like crazy and our JV kids scored a couple of touchdowns in the second half,” Rouggly said. “We were taking a page out of Valle Catholic’s playbook. A lot of times they’re up big in the second half and can get their young kids in.”
The Blue Jays travel to St. Pius X on Friday to take on the unbeaten Lancers (3-0) who finished off Grandview 49-13 in another game postponed on Friday that finished on Monday.
Festus pulls away from
North County in second half
After a few false starts, Festus finally moved into its newly remodeled stadium in style with a 42-20 win against North County on Monday.
The Tigers improved to 2-1 with a bruising running game that wore the Raiders down in the second half. The game was moved from Friday to Monday because of lightning. Construction delays prohibited Festus from taking its field against Sullivan on Aug. 31, and the game was moved to Crystal City.
Junior running back Jack Robinson sprinted for a 69-yard touchdown with 7:45 left in the game to give the Tigers a 34-20 lead against their Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division rival. Robinson broke a couple of tackles at the line of scrimmage and bolted to the end zone.
“I saw the line had a good block up front, I saw grass and I took off,” Robinson said. “The offensive line stepped up in the second half.”
The new grandstands were full of people on Monday. Robinson was impressed with how the stadium turned out.
“It’s overwhelming. I love it. We had a good opening night,” he said.
The game was close until Robinson’s long jaunt and it was marred by several personal foul penalties on both sides of the ball. Three touchdowns were negated by penalties. Festus head coach Russ Schmidt said the penalties weren’t indicative of the relationship between the conference rivals.
“None of those flags are typical of this matchup,” Schmidt said. “We have the utmost respect for North County and its coaching staff.”
North County quarterback Kolten Poorman was last year’s all-conference first team quarterback, but the Tigers made Poorman’s life miserable, sacking him three times and tackling him for losses on several runs. Jaylan Watson intercepted Poorman in the second quarter.
“He’ll make you come off your receiver and dink the ball over your head,” Schmidt said of Poorman. “The five or six guys in the box had to contain him. I don’t think (Poorman) saw that kind of pressure this year.
“We had a rough first half and we got better in the second half. We talked about what adversity would look like before the game. They’ve got a great quarterback who is a playmaker. Our job was to contain him and I thought our defense did that tonight.”
After senior Zach Liles recovered a fumble by North County senior Carson Hughes, the Tigers took over at the Raiders 31-yard line with 4:11 to play in the first. Six plays later, junior Chalmer Brickhaus scored from seven yards, the two-point conversion failed and Festus led 6-0.
North County tied the game after an 11-play drive that spilled into the second quarter ended with a Poorman 9-yard TD pass to Hughes with 10:16 left. Poorman’s two-point pass failed and the game remained tied 6-6.
Watson returned Poorman’s interception to the Raiders 5, and on the next play junior Jaden Rystrom scored in a run and then caught quarterback Austin Coale’s pass for the conversion and the Tigers led 14-6 with 2:57 left in the half. Poorman quickly moved North County down the field on its next series and tied the game with an 8-yard scoring pass to sophomore Karter Kekec with 23 seconds to go before the half.
The Raiders took a 20-14 lead on a 1-yard run by senior Jaelen Reed on their first possession of the second half. But the Tigers countered with a 65-yard drive that culminated in a 2-yard TD run by Robinson. Both teams missed the conversion and the game was tied 20-20.
Brickhaus, Robinson and senior RaShaun Hyde scored the game’s remaining points on rushing touchdowns.
Festus had three days to get ready for Hillsboro on Friday. The MAFC Red game is the Tigers’ third home game in a row. The Hawks (2-1) pulled out a 36-34 win against Farmington on Saturday.
In that game, Hillsboro’s Tyler Sizemore rushed seven times for 126 yards and Hayden Voyles scored the game-winning TD for the Hawks.
High-scoring Jags beat Lions in all three phases
A game-opening touchdown drive, a forced fumble on its own goal line and a special teams TD all helped Seckman start its season 3-0.
The Jaguars scored on their opening possession against University City on Thursday when Dylan Hawk rumbled for a 26-yard touchdown run with 9:52 left in the first quarter. Sam Sattley kicked his first of six extra points and Seckman led 7-0. It was the second straight game Hawk scored the first TD.
The Lions rallied to take a brief first-quarter lead, but the Jaguars rolled the rest of the way to a 50-16 home victory that was played with a running clock in the fourth quarter.
Hawk had one of three 26-yard scoring runs for Seckman; Jacob Reynolds and backup quarterback Joe Stuckmeyer had the other two.
“I’m happy for our kids, our community and our school and now we have to get ready for Northwest,” Seckman head coach Doug Baker said. “Being 3-0 means we need to be 1-0 next week. That’s the base of our goal pyramid.”
Following Hawk’s TD, the Lions took over at midfield, converted two fourth downs and quarterback Darion Reed gained 13 yards on fourth-and-11. One play later, running back Lamarq Murphy seemed headed into the end zone, but junior linebacker Braden Briggs ripped the ball out of Murphy’s hands at the goal line.
“(Murphy) was right around the one-inch line and I stuck my nose in there and grabbed the football from him,” Briggs said. “That was a very, very important time for us. Our defense has been incredibly strong. Everyone’s been doing their job.”
The Jaguars couldn’t get past their own 10, punted and senior Givion Crawford returned the ball to the Seckman 12. Crawford scored on an 8-yard run with 2:09 left in the first and then added the two-point conversion on a run to give the Lions an 8-7 lead.
Senior Blake Fritz fumbled on the Jaguars’ next series and Reed recovered at the University City 42. Reed was sacked on third-and-5 on the Lions’ next drive and after a punt, Seckman started at its own 18. A 20-yard run by Hawk and 29-yard pass from quarterback Seth Lounsbury to Hawk moved the Jaguars into scoring position. Drew Campbell capped the drive with a 12-yard scoring run. Two Lions penalties on the PAT moved the ball inside the 1 and Baker took Sattley off the field and went for two points. Lounsbury plowed into the end zone for a 15-8 lead.
Stuckmeyer replaced Lounsbury in the third quarter after the starter was shaken up on the Jaguars’ previous scoring drive. Seckman head coach Doug Baker said after the game that Lounsbury should be good to go this week.
Campbell had a pair of rushing touchdowns for the Jaguars, who also scored on special teams when Jacob Thomas blocked Darion Reed’s punt and Miles McPheeters recovered it in the end zone with 7:14 to play before intermission. Campbell rushed 19 times for 132 yards.
Reynolds scored a TD on the last play of the first half and the Jaguars led 29-7 at the break. Hawk flipped the ball to Reynolds on a reverse. Hawk had 153 yards of total offense.
The Lions reached midfield on their first series of the second half, but on fourth-and-6, Reed was tackled for no gain by sophomore Colton Critchlow, who had two sacks.
Fritz ran a perfect post pattern and Lounsbury hit him in stride for a 33-yard gain. Lounsbury was sacked for a 12-yard loss on the next play and gained 10 yards on fourth-and-9. Reynolds scored from 1 yard out to make it 36-8 with 6:50 left in the third.
Senior Bryce McKinnon intercepted Reed on fourth-and-5 minutes later and the Jaguars milked the clock and methodically moved the ball downfield before Stuckmeyer’s TD run 8 seconds into the fourth quarter upped the advantage to 43-8.
Down 50-8, the Lions scored their second TD against the Jags’ second stringers.
After finishing 1-9 last year and 0-10 in 2016, Seckman has already scored more points (124) this season than it did in all of 2017 (108).
“I have a lot of confidence in this team and I believe in everyone in that locker room and we’re not done yet,” Briggs said.
OTHER COUNTY SCORES: (Monday) De Soto 36, Windsor 13; Principia 14, Crystal City 7; St. Pius X 49, Grandview 13.