Farmington football team routs Jackson 61-19

The first 13 seconds belonged to the Jackson Indians.

The Farmington Knights owned the remaining 23 minutes, 47 seconds of Friday's first half.

Farmington feasted on a SEMO North Conference team for the second straight week as it pounded Jackson 61-19 by rolling to 401 yards of offense in the first half.

Farmington's 61-point outburst represented the second-highest total surrendered by Jackson in its 116-year history. It was the most points scored by an Indians opponent since a 70-0 loss to Central on Nov. 13, 1942.

"It's a combination of being upset and mad," Jackson senior linebacker Michael Riney said. "You never like getting beat at home, especially letting them put 60-something points on the board.

Jackson senior Ethan Ruch returns the opening kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown against Farmington during Friday's game in Jackson. (Laura Simon)

"At this point, all we can do is look forward and get ready for districts. It's the main part of the season anyway."

Jackson will enter Friday's district opener against Poplar Bluff with a four-game losing streak and a 2-5 record.

But the night could not have started better for the Indians.

Senior Ethan Ruch took Logan Bradley's game-opening kickoff on the bounce at his own 17 and returned it 83 yards for a 6-0 lead just 13 seconds into the game.

"I was like, 'Man, we're in for a fight. We better get ready to go,' and we did," Farmington senior quarterback Zach Hibbits said. "We answered pretty good, and we felt happy with that."

Farmington, using its no-huddle spread offense, needed just seven plays to cover 83 yards in about 90 seconds as it gave Jackson a sample of what was to come.

Hibbits completed both his passes on the drive, including a 29-yard scoring strike to 6-foot-3 senior receiver Jonathon Bird, who went up for the catch over the Indians' 5-7 defensive back Mark Copen on the right sideline and turned upfield for the score.

A Bradley extra point put Farmington ahead for good at the 10:03 mark of the first quarter.

Farmington, which scored a school-record 70 points a week earlier against SEMO North opponent Poplar Bluff, then breezed through the Jackson defense on its next two first-quarter possessions in taking a 19-6 lead.

The Knights covered 95 yards for their second touchdown and went 71 for the third, with running back Connor Davault taking direct snaps on touchdown runs to cap both drives.

"They have a high tempo, and if you have to make any adjustments, it's hard to make," Riney said. "You don't have much time to do it. If you're going to make any, you almost have to call timeout to run personnel on or off."

Jackson did burn a couple of timeouts to collect itself defensively but to no avail.

Farmington closed the first quarter with a 259 to 34 edge in yardage from the line of scrimmage.

The second quarter wasn't any better as the Knights covered 84 yards for their fourth consecutive touchdown and a 26-6 lead with 4:30 left in the half.

Jackson did force the Knights to punt on their fifth possession, but Farmington even executed that to perfection, downing the ball at the Indians 2.

The Knights forced a three-and-out and took possession at the Jackson 38. Roper Garrett scored on a 4-yard run five plays later to bump the lead to 33-6 with 46 seconds left in the half.

Farmington wasn't done, scoring 9 seconds later.

Jackson fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Knights needed only one play as Hibbits tossed a 20-yard pass to Doug Warren for a 40-6 lead.

"You couldn't start it for us any better, but it sure ended about as bad as it could end," Jackson coach Van Hitt said. "They're a good football team. They don't make a lot of mistakes. They didn't throw any interceptions, and we just didn't step up and play with them."

Farmington ran 47 plays for 401 yards in the first half, while Jackson ran 22 plays for 65 yards. The Knights also had 22 first downs to four for the Indians.

"We're rolling, and hopefully we can keep it up because we're going to need to," Hibbits said. "In districts we have two good opponents, Sikeston and Cape. We've got to be ready to go."

Farmington (6-1) has won five straight games and outscored its opponents 304-56 during the run.

The Knights made it touchdowns on seven of eight possessions with a 4-yard touchdown run by Chase Busenbark just 71 seconds into the second half to trigger a running clock.

Jackson scored twice in the second half and recovered onside kicks after each one.

Copen hauled in an 11-yard scoring pass in the third quarter, and Ruch had a 30-yard touchdown reception off a screen pass in the fourth quarter.

Farmington had 10 possessions for the game and scored nine touchdowns.

"We missed tackles and we didn't get off blocks, and when you face someone that's good, that's what's going to happen to you," Hitt said. "They're a good football team."

Hibbits completed 15 of 22 passes for 256 yards. Bird led the receivers with five catches for 95 yards.

"We had him covered, he'd just outjump us," Hitt said. "We were right there with him, but he's just a heck of an athlete."

Clark completed 13 of 29 passes for 190 yards, with 163 yards coming in the second half.

Ruch had five catches for a season-high 100 yards and led the ground attack with 20 carries for 65 yards.

"We've just got to put it behind us and just look ahead," Ruch said. "It's going to be hard to, but we've just got to look ahead. We've got to fix a lot of things on both sides of the ball."

Farmington 19 21 14 7 -- 61

Jackson 6 0 7 6 -- 19

First Quarter

J -- Ethan Ruch 83 kick return (kick failed), 11:47

F -- Jonathon Bird 29 pass from Zach Hibbits (Logan Bradley kick), 10:03

F -- Connor Davault 2 run (kick failed), 4:36

F -- Connor Davault 10 run (run failed), :23

Second Quarter

F -- Doug Warren 12 pass from Hibbits (Bradley kick), 4:30

F -- Roper Garrett 4 run (Bradley kick), :46

F -- Warren 20 pass from Hibbits (Bradley kick), :37

Third Quarter

F-- Chase Busenbark 4 run (Bradley kick) 1O:49

J -- Mark Copen 11 pass from Bobby Clark (Adam Brown kick), 3:02

F -- Brett Bader 3 run (Bradley kick) :57

Fourth Quarter

F -- Busenbark 5 run (Bradley kick) 7:12

J -- Ruch 30 pass from Clark (kick failed) 3:10

F J

First downs 24 12

Rushes-yards 33-226 23-65

Passing yards 256 190

Passes 15-22-0 13-29-1

Punts 1-39 3-44

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-2

Penalties-Yards 4-51 2-20

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Farmington, Davault 10-59, Hibbits 4-48, Bader 8-54, Garrett 6-56, Bradley 1-0, Busenbark 2-9, Tim Bretz 2-0; Jackson, Ruch 20-65, Clark 2-5, Copen 1-(-5)

PASSING -- Farmington, Hibbits 15-22-256-0; Jackson, Clark 13-29-190-1

RECEIVING -- Farmington, Bird 5-95, Bader 3-78, Davault 1-5, Busenbark 4-46, Warren 2-32; Jackson, Ruch 5-100, Chris Poyner 2-14, Copen 3-55, Brandon Wright 2-19, Lowgn Wren 1-2.