Dominant Jackson ground game crushes Poplar Bluff in stormy SEMO North slugfest

Hurricane season brought rapid winds and pounding rain to Jackson High School on Friday night, but the Indians persevered, and even thrived, under the lights in a 57-9 throttling of archrival Poplar Bluff.

Pulling north of the .500 mark for the first time this season, the Indians were forced to lean on their running attack and it paid off excellently, never wavering in their domination over the ground.

“Always good to win,” coach Ryan Nesbitt said. “Came out and played really well in the second half.

“Those guys answered the bell. Still too much beating ourselves in the first half, but they controlled the line of scrimmage, so those guys did a nice job.”

Scoring eight touchdowns in the victory, all eight coming over the ground, Jackson turned the Poplar Bluff defense upside down with three scores in the first two minutes and never looked back.

What’d been a slow start to the season for the sophomore turned into the Jaylon Hampton Show, scoring five total touchdowns on a 191-yard night.

Part of a Jackson running back room rivaled only by nearby seasonal superpower Cape Central, the speed back is a vital asset that the Indians need going to thrive this year.

Hampton’s breakout night saw him finally prove that he was the same guy from last year, if not better, and it’s sure to turn plenty heads moving forward.

For Hampton, that even included himself. When the postgame media scrum caught up with him and informed him of how strong his night was, he was even impressed.

He thought he had four touchdowns.

“I had five?” Hampton responded, confused.

A little while later, after some math and confirmation, Hampton settled and reflected on one of the top nights of his young career, smiling his way through even amidst an active downpour.

“I came this game hungry,” Hampton began. “I’ve got a lot stuff to prove to myself again, because I'm not that freshman anymore.

“I had to bounce back tonight.”

Bounce back he did, putting together a rushing performance up there with some of Jackson’s all-time great rushers and certainly one that he won’t forget any time soon.

That epic rushing night took a lot of pressure off Jackson’s defense, which had so notoriously struggled against the run just a week prior but looked anything but scrambled on Friday.

Quarterback Jay Edmundson was under constant pressure from the Jackson defensive line, and that made it incredibly difficult to make plays under the lights at “The Pit.”

Though the Mules did come forward to score a touchdown in the first half, punching it in after a few big gains, that momentum didn’t take them anywhere in the end.

For Jackson, that’s been a hot commodity this season, and it’ll age sweetly entering a second consecutive rivalry week.

“We'll have to watch the tape, but I thought our guys played harder tonight,” Nesbitt said. “That's that's always important.”

Jackson and Poplar Bluff exchanged punts on their first drives, but as the Indians got their second drive of the night, Hampton kicked it into gear.

A 35-yard run that ended in the sophomore barely tip-toeing out of bounds set up a 3-yard touchdown on the next play, getting Jackson on the board early.

Poplar Bluff’s punt soon thereafter was returning to midfield before a collision of Indians jammed the ball free, setting up the Mules nicely past the 50.

Devin Ferguson punched it in for Bluff to tie the game up at 7s, but two more Hampton touchdowns got Jackson into a 23-7 lead at the half.

Coming out of the half, Poplar Bluff needed a spark, but three fumbles on three consecutive plays for the Mules gave Jackson all the momentum it could possibly need.

With Hampton and senior running back Zach Crump each scoring two touchdowns in the second half, the second-string guys came in.

That included the speedy freshman understudy Memphis Mattox, who found the edge on his very first varsity run and took it all the way to the house to score Jackson’s eighth and final touchdown.

Going into the second half of the regular season, Jackson enters familiar and unfamiliar territory when marching into the home of the Cape Central Tigers.

Familiar, because Jackson has eight consecutive wins, four of which have come in that very stadium.

Unfamiliar, because it’ll be the first time in a long time that Jackson will be entering as, by many standards, the underdog.

The rivalry, for the first time in many moons, is fully alive. For Jackson, it spells keeping the streak alive. For Central, it’s staying undefeated and breaking a near-decade of anguish.

There’s nothing sweeter than a rivalry win, and Nebsitt made that clear right away after hounding Poplar Bluff for a 48-point win on Friday night.

“We'll enjoy it tonight,” Nesbitt said. “Obviously, those guys are playing incredibly well.”

For Hampton, fresh off making such a loud statement against Poplar Bluff in Week 5, knows how important the rivalry game in the Tiger’s Den will be.

Cape Central’s feeling like it’s 2015, but Jackson’s got its eyes on a ninth consecutive series win.

“Hopefully, getting a win over our rivals,” Hampton said. “That's the No. 1 goal.

“ ... and to prove a point.”