Jackson downs Sikeston, seals conference championship in Homecoming rout

After 9 minutes without putting points on the board, quarterback Adrian Fox weaved through a tough Sikeston defense for Jackson’s first score of the game. Never looking back, the Indians held the Bulldogs scoreless in a 56-0 victory on Homecoming at “The Pit.”

While Jackson (5-1) marched to a big win, the visiting Bulldogs (0-6) didn’t make it easy from the jump. Sikeston forced a turnover on downs on the first drive of the game, then forced Fox into his third interception of the year on the ensuing drive.

However, after locking in and breaking in a run defense that started near-impenetrable, Jackson scored of all of its remaining possessions in the first half and cruised to another lopsided win, its fourth multi-score win of the season.

“We came out really slow. I think nerves were up a little bit,” Fox said. “Once we got into it, the nerves started to settle down, and we started really doing our thing.”

Sikeston’s Trey Gorman made the first big play of the game, marching up and intercepting an underthrown ball from Fox. The Bulldogs generated some heavy momentum to begin the game, but their offense ran into a too-tough-to-tame Jackson defense.

Backing up a slow-to-ignite offense, the Jackson defense emerged in a big spot and continued its hot streak. Having gone more than 10 quarters without allowing a point, the Jackson defense grabbed two interceptions and forced a big turnover on downs on the first Sikeston drive.

Senior TJ Altenthal grabbed the first interception for the Indians on the final play of the first half, with the Bulldogs going deep. Later on, freshman Blayne Reagan found himself staying with a Bulldog deep on a go. He butted into the pass and got a bobbling interception in the third quarter to put his stamp on the game.

“We've learned to come out less flat and just have more fun with each other,” Altenthal said. “Just take part in your role and everybody else's role to not do too much at once, and just take it one down at a time. It's impacted a lot.”

With such a dominant offense, it helps in a big way to finally have a cohesive defense that has locked down the SEMO North Conference. With a scoreless streak reaching nearly 130 minutes dating back to Week 4 against Poplar Bluff, the Indians have emerged as one of the top units in the region on the back side of the ball.

“It starts up front,” Jackson coach Ryan Nesbitt said. “We thought it was an area of strength coming into the year, and it continues to be. It's been really coachable. We've got some good, young athletes, and they run to the ball well and are getting better every time out.”

Jackson took the reins from this point, with Fox driving the ball down and punching it in from short with 2:41 left in the first quarter to take the lead, holding it until the very end.

Indians freshman Jaylon Hampton scored back-to-back touchdowns on the ground over Jackson’s next two possessions. Then, for the next two possessions, Fox found receivers Blayne Harris and Kai Crowe, respectively, to up the lead to 35.

With less than two minutes remaining in the first half, Fox put the exclamation point on a rowdy first half with a scrambling score to take a 42-point lead into the locker room in the Indians’ SEMO North Conference finale.

Coming out of the half, Jackson junior running back Zach Crump scored on the ground, with freshman Jory Thoma soon following in his footsteps with a touchdown of his own to up Jackson’s lead to 56.

With the win, Jackson officially puts a bow on its sixth consecutive SEMO North Conference championship, now having won 25 straight conference games dating back to 2017. While the Indians have big aspirations for the season, they’ll take some time to acknowledge another conference championship in a tough league.

“A conference championship is the yearly goal, so it's always good to achieve that,” Nesbitt said. “It's the first one for me after playing in a tough league up there with Francis Howell, so I'm really excited about it, to be honest. But I’m excited for our guys.”