Jackson claims SEMO North crown

~ The Indians blasted defending champion Sikeston 49-0 at homecoming game

There's dethroning a champion, and then there's storming the castle in an outright coup.

With a scoreboard that read 49-0 at The Pit on Friday night in Jackson, it was apparent that the Indians had taken the latter route in claiming the rights from visiting Sikeston, the defending SEMO North Conference champion.

"It tells us that the offense and defense executed great, to perfection," said Jackson junior quarterback Dante Vandeven as he gazed at the lit bulbs on the scoreboard in Jackson's first shutout of the season.

Vandeven ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more in playing a major role in overthrowing Sikeston, which won a battle of 5-0 teams last year to claim the title.

Jackson students celebrate a touchdown during the Indians’ 49-0 win over the Sikeston on Friday. A photo gallery from the game can be viewed at semoball.com.

The 2012 victory was the fourth straight win by Sikeston over Jackson, a run that had a combined score of 137-44.

"This is the first time we've beat them since I've been here," said senior defensive back Ty Selsor, who had two interceptions. "We came in, this was supposed to be a pretty good game, and the offense and defense came out and we pretty much shut them down."

Selsor's picks were part of a dominating effort by Jackson's defense against a 5-0 Sikeston team that had averaged more than 300 yards offense a game. The Indians (5-1, 4-0 conference) limited the Bulldogs to 67 yards offense in the first half.

"I was hoping we'd beat them just as bad as we did," senior defensive lineman Garrett Koch said after the Indians claimed their first conference title since 2007. "I'm just happy we're conference champs. It's nice to be conference champs as a senior."

Vandeven had scoring runs of 8 and 2 yards in the first quarter, then added a 1-yard dive with less than a second left in the half. Senior Garrett Miller also had a 70-yard punt return for a TD in the second quarter, which ended with Jackson leading 28-0.

Jackson's Garrett Miller takes off on a 70-yard punt return for a touchdown during the Indians' 49-0 win over the Sikeston Bulldogs Friday, Oct. 4, at Jackson High School. Jackson moves to 5-1 for the season, clinching the conference championship for the first time since 2007. (Adam Vogler)

Vandeven had scoring passes of 55 yards to senior BJ Heuer and 11 yards to junior Ty Crowden in the third quarter to enact a running clock, which starts when a team leads by 35 points or more in the second half.

Miller capped the night with a 55-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.

"There's no surprise," Miller said. "We busted our butts throughout the whole week. I know we earned it through practices. We gave it all we got. We focused on defense this week and we achieved it."

Miller, the Indians' leading tackler for the second straight year at linebacker, is among 15 seniors on the team that enjoyed a victory over the Bulldogs for the first time.

"Sikeston is my least favorite team, and to take it to them and shut them out, means the world," Miller said with a big smile.

Jackson finished the night with 406 yards of offense to Sikeston's 152. The Indians accumulated 21 first downs to eight for the Bulldogs.

"We're kind of used to being successful and use to contending for things, and we've done that," said Sikeston coach Kent Gibbs, whose teams had won the conference title in three of the last four years. "This is just one of those cases that there was a team out there that was better than us tonight."

It was the second consecutive week the Indians, whose only loss came in Week 2 to state-ranked Vianney, have enacted the running clock against rivals.

"I felt like we've become a stronger unit as a team," said junior defensive lineman Preston Hobeck, who stymied any effort Sikeston made at running up the middle along with seniors Chris Collier and Koch. "We kind of come across relentless and keep pushing it."

Sikeston's 67 yards rushing in the first half came primarily on the edges.

"We've got to get physical," Collier said. "Me, Preston Hobeck and Koch, we're all big guys and we've been working all year and all summer, and we know we can get physical and get the job done."

Jackson scored on three of its four possessions in the first half and only allowed Sikeston to cross midfield once on its five possessions.

Selsor intercepted Sikeston quarterback Reese Porter's first pass on the game's opening possession, setting up the Indians at the Sikeston 32.

"He's really come on," said Jackson coach Brent Eckley about Selsor, who started his junior year at quarterback and finished Friday's game taking snaps in relief of Vandeven. "I couldn't be happier for that kid. He's a physical kid, a hard worker and has been committed, a great leader and unselfish. I'm really, really proud in how it turned out for him tonight."

Six plays after the pick, Vandeven scored on an 8-yard run less than three minutes into the contest. Crowden tacked on the PAT, as he did after all seven TDs, for a 7-0 lead.

Sikeston punted on its next three possessions without picking up a single first down and saw its fourth and final drive of the half end on downs at the Jackson 24.

The Indians took the second Sikeston punt at its own 44 and assembled a seven-play scoring drive to cover the 56 yards. The final six plays were all on the ground, with Vandeven keeping on the spread option five times. Vandeven's elusiveness was on full display when he faked the handoff and went over the right side of the line and cut back to the left for a 29-yard gain to move the Indians to the Sikeston 9.

A deceptive fake handoff to senior running Colten Proffer on a fourth-and-goal from the 2 left a wide open lane up the middle for Vandeven for a TD with 50 seconds left in the first quarter for a 14-0 lead.

"That's one thing we work hard on in practice, and that's carrying out our fakes, and it helps all the way around," Vandeven said.

Sikeston's following possession ended in a punt, and Miller took it at his own 30 and flew past the Bulldogs unit down the left side, eluding a last-ditch attempt by the punter along the sideline near the Sikeston 30 to push the lead to 21-0.

Jackson then stopped Sikeston on downs and put together a 14-play drive that traveled 76 yards over the remainder of the second quarter. The Indians converted on a fourth-and-2 play on a Vandeven 9-yard scramble for a first-and-goal at the 5 with 48 seconds left.

On second down from the 3, with 18 seconds left, Jackson ran extra linemen onto the field to try to overpower the Bulldogs but only reached the 1. With no timeouts remaining, the oversized group realigned and Vandeven scored with one-tenth of a second showing on the clock.

"We ran on about three extra guys there, and the guys did a great job of executing," Eckley said about the special lineman package. "We didn't have a whole lot of clock there. We ran it and didn't get in, and they got back on the ball and ran it again and stuck it in with about a second left. I'm real pleased with composure the kids had in that two-minute situation.

"We practice the two-minute every week, but it's never the last play of the half on the 1. It's always with a minute and an half from the 50-yard line with two timeouts. So it was an interesting scenario.

"I also told the guys they saved me there because that wasn't the smartest personnel move or play selection that I could of done when I was out of timeouts. They saved me there by executing and making it work."

Vandeven hooked up with his receivers for two TDs in the third quarter, showing poise and precision on both passes.

He pump-faked and found a wide-open Heuer in stride deep down the right sideline with 9:40 left in the quarter, and later dropped an 11-yard pass over the outstreched hand of a Sikeston defender to Crowden in the back of the end zone for a 42-0 lead.

"As the year goes on I'm getting a lot more comfortable, and it's helping," Vandeven said. "It's awesome. Our line is being grade A perfect blocking for me and I'm getting in the pocket and feeling good."

Miller added the final points, and all that was left was for Jackson's backups was to complete the shutout.

Vandeven finished with 116 yards rushing on 17 carries and completed 11 of 15 passes for 131 yards. Miller added 62 yards on three carries, while Proffer had 53 yards on eight carries. The Indians finished with 258 yards rushing, averaging 7.4 yards a carry.

Sophomore Ernest Fobbs led Sikeston with 53 yards on nine carries. The Bulldogs averaged 3.4 per carry and had 14 passing yards.

"They've got a really good football team, and we knew that," Gibbs said. "We understood what we had in front of us. And my hat's off to them. They're a good football team. They're physical and they play hard, and they were just better than us."

Jackson return to action Friday against Battle in Columbia, Mo.

Sikeston 0 0 0 0 -- 0

Jackson 14 14 14 7 -- 49

First Quarter

J -- Dante Vandeven 8 run (Ty Crowden kick), 9:22

J -- Vandeven 2 run (Crowden kick), :50

Second Quarter

J -- Garrett Miller 70 punt return (Crowden kick), 11:07

J -- Vandeven 1 run (Crowden kick), :01

Third Quarter

J -- BJ Heuer 55 pass from Vandeven (Crowden kick), 9:40

J -- Crowden 11 pass from Vandeven (Crowden kick), 4:00

Fourth Quarter

J -- Miller 55 run (Crowden kick), 5:36

S J

First downs 8 21

Rushes-yards 40-136 35-258

Passing yards 14 148

Passes 4-8-2 12-16-0

Punts 2-32.5 2-39.5

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-0

Penalties-Yards 3-15 6-40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Sikeston, Reese Porter 12-17, Chris Word 11-26, Ernest Fobbs 5-21, Victwon Riley 9-53, Nathan Hampton 3-20; Jackson, Xominique Davis 5-27, Vandeven 17-116, Taylor Henson 1-0, Colten Proffer 8-53, Miller 3-62, Tristan Thele 1-0.

PASSING -- Sikeston, Porter 3-6-1-8, Hampton 1-2-1-8; Jackson, Vandeven 11-15-0-131, Ty Selsor 1-1-0-17.

RECEIVING -- Sikeston, Garrick Madison 1-0, Austin Lott 1-8, Courtney Hawkins 1-8, Austin Brown 1-(-2); Jackson, Proffer 2-16, Jacob Starzinger 1-1, Taylor Hneson 1-(-3), Lucas Helwege 2-28, Davis 1-16, Miller 2-9, Crowden 2-26, Heuer 1-55.