Jackson football team blasts Farmington in SEMO conference opener

~ The Indians improved to a perfect 4-0 with a 55-7 victory over the Knights

Jackson football fans will make sure they grab a program before the next home game.

If ever a program was needed, it was Friday night as the Indians, ranked No. 2 in Class 5, applied their full roster to a 55-7 dismantling of Farmington in its homecoming victory at The Pit in Jackson.

Among the players wearing the squad's new all-red uniforms on the field were a parade of quarterbacks -- four in all.

"I didn't know until tonight," said Jackson senior starting quarterback Dante Vandeven about the fact that his team has four signal-callers. "I didn't know it was that deep."

It was a democratic representation that followed Vandeven, who threw two touchdown passes in a 28-point first quarter. Junior Landry Moore followed and threw his first varsity touchdown pass, sophomore Payne Guilliams took a few snaps, and even freshman Cooper Callis got in on the act, appearing as early as the second quarter.

The Indians eight touchdowns in the game were scored by seven players; 12 Indians carried the ball; and nine players were included in the team's 14 total receptions.

It was all part of an unfurling of depth by Jackson coach Brent Eckley, who saw his team score on its first six possessions of the game in improving to 4-0.

"Dante's taken every snap, except for maybe one or two this season," Eckley said. "I was really happy the other guys could get in there and get in the first half and do some good things when they were in there."

No matter who was at the control, the Indians seemed to pick up yardage. They gained 365 yards in the first half alone and ended with 492 yards on the night.

"It was cool that everybody got to get in," said Moore, who threw a 24-yard TD pass to fellow junior Jeremy Elliot to conclude the scoring in the fourth quarter. "Three of us had completions and two had touchdown throws."

Moore and Callis have split the JV duties pretty evenly this year.

Callis was a bit stunned to get his first taste of varsity against Farmington, which lost for the third straight year to the Indians and fell to 2-2 on the season.

"I was pretty surprised, yeah," said Callis with a big grin. "I've been playing JV or freshmen. There's always hope you'll get in -- I've been dressing out since the first game."

The offensive onslaught came against a Knights team that posted a shutout a week earlier against Poplar Bluff and after the Indians had posted season-low totals of 22 points and 276 yards of offense in a comeback win against Marquette.

"We were ready to go," said junior running back Gabriel Dudley, who started the offensive explosion with a 24-yard touchdown run on the Indians' second play from scrimmage less than three minutes into the game. "We had a chip on our shoulder from that last Marquette game. We weren't happy with how our offense performed."

Ben Maudie followed with a 2-yard scoring run on the next possession, and Vandeven confirmed the rout when he connected on a 36-yard touchdown pass to Lashone Dean after losing the handle on the football as he rolled out to his right. He gathered the ball near midfield and found Dean backtracking on the same side of the field.

Eckley wasn't pleased that Vandeven fumbled, but he liked the events that ensued.

"The good thing about it was he had the wherewithal to scoop it and then get his eyes downfield, and another thing is we had receivers see him moving and move with him like they're coached to do," Eckley said.

The touchdown and Ty Crowden's third PAT gave the Indians a 21-0 lead with 3 minutes, 49 seconds left in the first quarter.

Jackson’s Tristan Thele skirts up the sideline after catching an interception against Farmington in the first quarter Friday, Sept. 12, 2014 at Jackson High School. (GLENN LANDBERG)

Tristan Thele provided the fourth score of the period when he scored on a 52-yard pass play with 1:09 left for a 28-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Thele was part of a defense that did not allow the Knights a first down on their first six possessions of the game, which ended in five punts and an interception. Thele, who also plays in the defensive secondary, turned in the interception that gave possession to the Indians for their fifth straight touchdown.

"Touchdowns get all the glory, but interceptions get the team going," said Thele, who also scored on 4-yard run in the third quarter.

Jackson finished the first quarter with 242 yards of offense on 19 plays, while Farmington had 24 yards on 14 plays.

"All I was thinking was, hit them hard and hit them low and make sure they don't get any yardage on us," Thele said about his attitude coming into the game. "We had a goal to keep them under 200 yards rushing and passing, and I think we did that pretty good tonight."

Farmington finished the first half with 72 yards and had 145 yards on the night.

After Ethan Isaksen upped the lead to 35-0 with a 13-yard run in the second quarter, Farmington turned the Indians' lone turnover -- a fumbled punt -- into a 47-yard touchdown drive for its only points. Jackson countered on its next possession with a 13-yard scoring run by senior Xominique Davis.

"The offense couldn't get anything going last week, and coach told us to play with a chip, play with an attitude, and that's what we did," Davis said.

Jackson ended with 288 yards rushing and 204 passing. Vandeven, who had a light evening of work, completed 7 of 11 passes for 149 yards.

Dudley collected 60 of his team-high 76 yards rushing in the first quarter.

"Everyone has been criticizing our run game and we just had to show them we could run the ball proficiently," Dudley said. "We ran downhill and hard tonight."

Isaksen, who was crowned homecoming king at halftime, finished with 64 yards on four carries.

Sophomore Bryndan Reid finished with 47 yards on 11 carries.

"The game plan was just for the offense to put some points up on the board, and he went with the run and we did what he wants us to do," Vandeven said. "It all worked well. The line blocked great."

Jackson will play at home again next week against Poplar Bluff.

Farmington 0 7 0 0 -- 7

Jackson 28 13 7 7 -- 55

First Quarter

J -- Gabriel Dudley 24 run (Ty Crowden kick), 9:33

J -- Ben Maudie 2 run (Crowden kick), 6:37

J -- Lashone Dean 36 pass from Dante Vandeven (Crowden kick), 3:49

J -- Tristan Thele 52 pass from Vandeven (Crowden kick), 1:09

Second Quarter

J -- Ethan Isaksen 13 run (Crowden kick), 10:10

F -- Brayden Bohn 4 run (Brayden Krause kick), 6:21

J -- Xominique Davis 13 run (kick failed), 4:01

Third Quarter

J -- Thele 4 run (Crowden kick), 9:37

Fourth Quarter

J -- Jeremy Elliot 24 pass from Landry Moore (Crowden kick), 9:34

F J

First downs 11 28

Rushes-yards 30-57 40-288

Passing yards 88 214

Passes 14-24-2 14-21-0

Punts 8-37.3 1-36

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 3-1

Penalties-Yards 5-45 6-57

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Farmington, Bohn 9-5, Brandt Busenbark 13-10, Gavin Duncan 5-28, Cody Friedmeyer 3-14; Jackson, Dudley 7-76, Isakson 4-64, Maudie 2-18, Elliot 1-3, Moore 2-(-12), Vandeven 5-30, Thele 4-28, Dean 1-13, Bryndan Reid 11-47, Davis 1-13, Quentin Kent 1-3, Landon Pehle 1-5

PASSING -- Farmington, Busenbark 11-20-2-70, Friedmeyer 3-4-0-18; Jackson, Vandeven 7-11-0-149, Moore 3-5-0-33, Cooper Callis 4-4-0-32

RECEIVING -- Farmington, Ken Pham 1-24, Brendan Clark 1-9, Krause 4-17, Bohn 1-0, Trevor Keith 1-11, Tyler Finch 3-17, Michael Wright 1-3, William Seibert 1-10, Dillon Hallin 1-5; Jackson, Lucas Helwege 2-14, Crowden 2-47, Dean 1-36, Thele 2-59, Davis 1-7, Isakson 1-9, Ried 2-0, Elliot 2-37, Maudie 1-10.