Brock Netter, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
JACKSON — Fighting styles decide a winner, and Jackson had an advantage on Friday.
Despite not facing the spread offense too many times throughout the year, Jackson knew that its best advantage to limiting New Philadelphia’s chances to score was to run the football and control the clock.
Luckily, the Ironmen have arguably the top back in Southeast Ohio and fed him as such.
Behind 29 carries, 164 yards and two scores from Nolan Johnson, the Ironmen were dominant (9-2) up front and got needed, timely stops to earn a 21-14 victory over the Quakers in a Division III, Region 11 first round playoff game.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
“It’s a close final score, but to actually watch the game, it felt much further at times and our offensive line was absolutely dominant,” Jackson coach Andy Hall said. “Hunter Sites, Jeb Thompson, Jace Sturgill, Griffith Leach, Jake Allen and Colson Oyer, alongside our two tight ends, Ryan Taylor and Gaven Jones, were moving guys off the line the entire second half. Because New Philadelphia plays against a lot of spread offensive teams, it doesn’t give them a chance to see how physical of a team they are. We wanted to test that, see what they had and I couldn’t be more proud of how our kids owned the trenches.”
However, it wasn’t just the offensive line doing work in the second half.
The defensive line of Taylor, Wes Clagg and Bryce Delaney gave the Quakers’ offensive line fits, often using their speed to beat their guy and find themselves in the backfield.
Those three gave Jackson the comfort to drop back eight into coverage most of the night, blanketing the field and cutting off chances for the Quakers to move the ball.
“Those guys just caused havoc in the second half. It caused New Philadelphia to get a little rattled and threw off their rhythm,” Hall said. “They looked like a physical team on film, and they were physical early, but we slowly began to wear them down as the game continued. Those three couldn’t have done a better job tonight.”
After opening three-and-outs from each team, Jackson gave the ball to Johnson, let him put on his hardhat and he went to work.
Powering a 12-play, 67-yard drive, the FAC Player of the Year bulldozed his way through Quaker defenders to score a five-yard touchdown, putting the Ironmen ahead 7-0.
Not to be outdone though, New Philadelphia responded with a nine-play drive. With the help of two Jackson penalties, it came down to a 4th-and-1 play and Keaton Fausel scored on a one-yard plunge to tie the game at 7-7.
The Quakers (7-4) nearly had a score to end the half, but Jackson’s defense had other plans.
Facing 3rd-and-1 from Jackson’s 1-yard line, Tucker Williams shot through a gap to get the tackle and set up fourth down. The Quakers hurried, snapped the ball and threw an incomplete pass to keep things knotted up at halftime.
“That was the key turning point right there. They score, it’s 14-7 at halftime instead of 7-7 and it changes some things,” Hall said. “What a huge goal line stand. It completely changed momentum, especially after we gave up a huge catch. We opened the second half with the ball in a tie game and it was game on.”
Following punts on each team’s opening second half drive, Jackson needed a spark.
After being bottled up for most of the game, Bodhi Wolford was that spark, uncorking a deep shot and finding Ryan Seimetz for a 43-yard gain. That set up Johnson to find the end zone on the next play from four yards out, putting Jackson ahead 14-7.
New Philadelphia attempted to answer, but a deep pass was intercepted by Jackson’s Eli Ray. The Ironmen cashed in on the turnover when Wolford delivered a 23-yard touchdown strike to Gaven Jones, extending the lead to 21-7.
But the Quakers weren’t done fighting just yet.
After a 28-yard pass converted a 4th-and-17 to keep a drive alive, Fausel connected with CJ Carlisle on a 29-yard connection in the back of the end zone to bring the deficit to 21-14.
However, in the end, the Ironmen got the ball back with six minutes left and never gave it up. They meticulously chewed up clock with one carry after another, behind Johnson and Tucker Williams, to seal the deal and earn a playoff victory.
“We didn’t make a ton of plays in the first half and committed a lot of really silly penalties that really kept us from possibly blowing the game open at times,” Hall said. “There were times we missed a tackle on the quarterback or receiver, and missed a couple blocks that could have sprung our guys free. But we had a lot of great plays in the second half, and that’s what it came down to in the end, just making plays.”
Following Johnson’s statistics, Wolford went 8-of-10 passing for 114 yards and a touchdown while Jones added a 23-yard touchdown catch.
Jackson now returns to action on Friday against top-seeded Bishop Watterson. The game will be played at Ohio Dominican University.
“There’s no pressure on us because no one thinks we’re going to win. Bishop Watterson is a great team, and a talented program that was picked to win the state championship,” Hall said. “However, they have 11 guys just like we have 11 guys, and we’re no slouch. We’ve played Watterson twice in the playoffs in the last seven years, beat them once and lost to them a couple years ago by two points. If guys are intimidated by them, then don’t show up on Friday. We’re going to line up, play the game and see what happens.”
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