Jackson closes out regular season with big win

The Jackson Indians cruised to an 8-0 win over the Sikeston Bulldogs on Monday in the regular season finale in Jackson.

Jackson would jump out to a quick 4-0 lead just over 15 minutes into the contest.

“We were fine-tuning some things,” Indians coach Justin McMullen said. “I thought we were pretty good offensively tonight.”

The Indians would lead 7-0 at halftime behind a pair of goals from Rilee Monighan. Lauren Marchi, Justi Nelson, Maya Domian, Maddie Stelling and Rudi Klund.

It didn’t take the Indians long to end the game due to mercy rule as Justi Nelson would dash by the Sikeston defense just 40 seconds into the second half to bury her second goal of the game.

After wrapping up the regular season with a record of 14-1, the Indians will now point their focus to the Class 4 District 1 Tournament that will be hosted by Jackson beginning on Saturday.

The Indians will open as the No. 1 seed and they will take on Poplar Bluff at 12:45 p.m. The two teams met on April 24 and the Indians bested the Mules 6-0.

“I’ve seen every team in our district play,” McMullen said. “But, we’re focused on a very talented Poplar Bluff team. They’re coming to take us out and we’re very aware of that. We’re not going to overlook anybody.”

As they get set for Saturday’s matchup, McMullen is hoping to see his team jump out to a fast start to open district play.

“It’s not something that we’ve done very well all year,” McMullen said. “In the last couple of games what we’ve emphasized is a quick start and we were fortunate enough to do that tonight.”

Jackson enters the district tournament having won its last seven games, with the Indians’ last loss coming on April 15 at the hands of Glendale.