Indians dominate Tigers

By early in the fourth quarter the sea of orange and black Central football fans packed into the visitors stands at Jackson on Friday night were making their way to the exit.

It turned out about 40 minutes of watching the Tigers get dominated by rival Jackson was all some Central fans could take. Jackson took care of Central 35-6 in the 91st meeting between the two rivals.

"It was a total team effort," Jackson coach Carl Gross said. "We executed. That's just huge."

From the opening drive Jackson was in charge. Austin Bock had some good runs, and quarterback Joey Starke did the rest. Starke completed a 10-yard pass on a fourth down deep in Central territory to keep the drive alive, and then hit Brad Crader on a 21-yard touchdown pass to put the Indians ahead 6-0. The extra point was blocked.

"That first one we faked them on the run and he was wide open," Starke said.

Garrett Stevens came out firing for Central on its first possession, throwing a 26-yard strike to Tyrone Reece on Central's first offensive play. Stevens' next pass was picked off though, one of three interceptions on the night.

Central got the ball back on the next play when Marcus Rice picked up a Jason Meystedt fumble. Central could not take advantage of the rare Jackson miscue and was forced to punt after Jackson got a big sack on a second and short.

"Cape Central has to stop making mental mistakes," Central coach Lawrence Brookins said.

Jackson went to the air on its next possession, with similar success to its first drive. Starke hooked up with Neal Grossheider for a 54-yard touchdown pass deep down the sideline.

"He threw the deep ball real well tonight," Gross said of Starke. "He wasn't cute with it."

Central's mistakes kept coming in the opening half. After forcing Jackson's only punt in the half, Stevens was picked off for the second time. The interception led to another Jackson touchdown, with Grossheider hauling in a 21-yard pass from Starke with 1:44 remaining.

Just when it looked like the Tigers would go into the half down three scores, Jackson forced another mistake from Central's freshman quarterback. Jordan Sneathen grabbed Jackson's third interception of the half close to midfield and returned the ball to Central's 12 with 45 seconds remaining.

It didn't take long for the Indians to capitalize on the mistake. Starke hit Brandon Back out of the backfield for a 12-yard touchdown pass to give the Indians a 28-0 halftime lead. Starke finished the half 7-of-8 passing for 136 yards and four touchdowns. Austin Bock added 78 yards on the ground in the half.

"Coach Gross wanted to execute the passing game as well as the running game. I think we did a pretty good job of both," Grossheider said.

The Tigers were not able to duplicate Jackson's balance in the opening half. Brandon Twiggs led Central with five yards rushing in the half. Stevens completed 7-of-13 passes for 101 yards.

"More than anything else they physically dominated us," Brookins said.

Reece gave the Tigers good field position to start the second half with a kickoff return to the Jackson 40-yard line. Central picked up a couple of first downs after the return, but the Tigers failed to convert on a fourth down play deep in Indian territory.

Jackson went back to its bread and butter on its first second-half possession, staying on the ground throughout the drive. Thirteen rushes later Meystedt went in from five yards out to put Jackson ahead 35-0 with 1:26 remaining in the third quarter.

Meystedt ran for 66 yards on the drive on 11 carries, and Crader added two carried for 21 yards. Jackson ran off nearly eight minutes of clock on the drive.

Central picked up its only score on a 1-yard run by Twiggs with 1:07 remaining in the game. A 42-yard pass to Reece at the 1-yard line set up the touchdown.