Defense sets tone, Jackson powers by physical Festus squad in rowdy road test

For the first time in five weeks, Jackson football loaded up the buses and hit the road, this time to face off against a resilient and battle-tested Festus team. Despite an early back and forth, the Indians prevailed with a dominant 42-14 victory to close out the regular season.

Scoring on their first drive, taking the lead early and never trailing, the Indians piled up the points early with 28 points by halftime and chipped in another 14 in the second half.

Downing Festus on the road, the win grades out to be Jackson’s second-biggest win of the year, taking a backseat to a Week 2 defeat of a Francis Howell team that is now 7-2.

The 28-point loss is the largest suffered by Festus this year, having previously lost to Class 4 No. 2 Hillsboro by 21 at home in Week 5.

“It starts with defense,” Jackson coach Ryan Nesbitt said. “I thought they played really, really well. It's a group that’s had tremendous improvement over the course of the year. We’ve still got things to fix, there’s no doubt, but I thought we really hit tonight.

“Offensively, with [Festus’] structure, you gotta give them credit. They're strong up front. They're strong with the backers, and they're really well-coached. You’ve got to give them credit, but we did enough and still came away and found a way to score 42 and got to 1-0.”

Another balanced game for the Indian attack finished with a great passing game for quarterback Adrian Fox. With 234 passing yards, Fox looked toward the short game against a fast Tiger secondary and got some big plays out of his receivers.

Jackson junior wideout Kai Crowe hauled in seven receptions with two going for touchdowns in the win, including a 35-yard score late in the fourth to ice the game.

On top of Crowe’s 96-yard performance, senior Blayne Harris caught another six balls for 72 yards while Jaylon Hampton added another 25 on just one reception.

On the ground, Hampton led the Indians with 74 yards including two touchdowns. Adding another feather to his hat to a season full of them, the back continues to build on a strong rookie campaign for the red and black.

Despite some big numbers, Jackson struggled to fully maintain the momentum offensively, falling flat many times and being forced into a number of punts deep in its own territory. Going into a bye week before the playoff opener, the unit looks to address this.

“This next week for the bye, we're just gonna have to work on the little things,” Crowe said. “We’re pretty good all around, but it's just the little things we got to work on, you know? We’ve just gotta get stronger as a team.”

Met with a big task up front, the Jackson offensive line struggled at times but still created plenty of gaps for the run game. Even against a tough Festus defensive line, the Indians still managed to gain 4.4 yards per run.

Jackson sophomore lineman Brysen Wessell got some love from his teammates for pushing his matchup out of the end zone during a second-quarter drive.

His performance, among others from a young-but-strong Indian line kept Jackson afloat in a tense matchup between Jackson’s firepower and Festus’ run-stoppers.

“We did pretty good at some parts of the game,” Wessell said. “We haven't been working a lot of four down linemen with the other teams we’ve faced, so it was kind of a new thing for us this season.

“I think we need to work a little bit more on that, getting our blocks and getting our downs. Once we get that down, I think we’ll be pretty dominant.”

Jackson opened the game with the ball, receiving the opening kickoff after Festus deferred on the winning toss. Freshman Jaylon Hampton stormed into the end zone to put the visitors up 7-0 after just 83 seconds of game time.

Jackson freshman Blayne Reagan picked off Tigers quarterback Jeremiah Cunningham on their opening drive, the second of the year for the young cornerback to build on the Indians’ early score.

After a Jackson punt, Festus capitalized on short field position and completed a 36-yard drive with a 12-yard passing touchdown to Avery Edwards to knot the game at 7-7.

On the next drive for the Indians, they marched down the field quickly before Fox found Crowe in one-on-one coverage. The junior made the play, retaking the lead at 14-7 with a 13-yard score.

A few punts and a fourth-down stop at midfield later, Harris made a leaping catch on a screen pass and took it 21 yards to the house to up the lead to 21-7 midway through the second quarter.

On the ensuing drive, Jackson junior linebacker Cole Geiser capitalized on an errant pass over the middle, intercepting Cunningham for the second time in the first half.

Setting up the offense with a short field, Hampton punched it in from five yards out soon after for his second score of the day, giving the Indians a 28-7 lead going into the locker room.

Receiving the ball out of the half, Festus’ slow but effective running style resulted in a Tiger touchdown. Once again, Edwards hit the end zone for six on a 1-yard rushing touchdown to cut Jackson’s lead to 28-14.

Jackson’s offense stagnated during the third quarter, including a pick by Festus cornerback Trey Lacey on its first drive of the second half.

The Tigers of Festus, lauded for a hard-headed run game and a stout defense, made life tough for Jackson on both ends. The Tigers’ offensive line exposed some flaws of a Jackson defense that has recently had its way with many.

After the interception, the Tigers pushed down the field with steady gains on the ground. With a big fourth-and-6 situation inside the red zone up 14 points, Jackson’s defensive line converged on Cunningham and forced the Tigers into a big-time turnover on downs.

With two fourth-down stops in the red zone, the Indian defense controlled its own destiny by holding Festus to its lowest-scoring game since a 20-6 loss at Valle Catholic in Week 2.

“I think we performed really well,” Indians defensive lineman Reid Landers said. “We need to cut out some of the mistakes like wrapping up on tackles, letting them pass the ball with little cheap shots down the field. Once we get that fixed, those 14 points to turn into zero.”

After this stop, Jackson and Festus traded punts as neither team could establish a real offensive momentum – something of a motif for the game.

The Indians got back on track with a 35-yard pass to Crowe for a touchdown with 8:37 left in the fourth quarter to improve the score to 35-14.

On the final Indian possession of the game, Fox did some heavy lifting with his legs on multiple occasions and put the game to bed with a 2-yard rushing score, making the score 42-14 where it’d end after a few more short gains for Festus.

With the team continuing to trend upward, Jackson closes its regular season with an important victory at Festus to secure the second seed in Class 6 District 1.

For the first time since 2017, Jackson finished without the top seed, with Seckman grabbing the No. 1 position in the district after an undefeated regular season.

Moving into a bye before a district semifinal matchup at “The Pit,” Jackson looks to recoup and learn before its first playoff matchup at home against Lindbergh on Nov. 3.

“It's gonna be important to get healthy,” Nesbitt said. “No. 1, take care of our bodies. No. 2, continue to practice and practice well.

“Everything that we're doing is process-driven and all about preparation. It starts with the coaches doing our jobs over the weekend, so it's just the same process, rinse-repeat.”