Jackson football team's offense awakens in time for 14-7 victory

BONNE TERRE, Mo. -- Three consecutive halves of offensive futility haunted the Jackson Indians as they traipsed to the locker room for halftime Friday.

They entered halftime down a touchdown to host North County after running 18 plays and gaining zero yards. Ten of Jackson's 18 first-half offensive plays against the Raiders either lost yards or were stopped for no gain. That came a week after finishing with negative 4 yards on offense against Parkway South.

"I go in and kind of thought to myself there has to be a turning point somewhere," Jackson quarterback Lowgn Wren said about his attitude at halftime. "So I talked to our O line and told them either we can get it done or we can keep up with the seasons we've been having."

The Indians needed something, anything to spark the offense.

There wasn't much chatter from the Jackson bench, and the Indians fans who journeyed to Bonne Terre quietly watched the offense struggle.

Then what looked like another go-nowhere run turned into something -- the beginning of a rally that resulted in a 14-7 victory.

Wren streaked to his right and broke free for a first down. He carried a North County tackler for a couple extra yards before going down for a 15-yard gain. He popped up, pumped his fist and yelled with excitement. The Jackson sideline also started coming to life and the fans roared.

"It makes my veins burn all that adrenaline," Wren said about the run. "There's something inside me that wants to scream and yell and go crazy."

Wren carried four more times on the drive, and a personal foul on the Raiders after they'd stopped the Indians on third down prolonged the drive.

The Indians bench clapped and screamed, trying to pump up their teammates on the field. The Jackson faithful stomped their feet and joined in the cheering.

Wren made North County pay on the next play when he found Stephen Dunn in the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown. The Jackson offense finally showed life.

"All I did was act like I was blocking and I turned out and Wren threw the ball," Dunn said. "I couldn't do nothing but scream. I just screamed."

Jackson coach Van Hitt said Wren's run, which only went for 15 yards but was the Indians' longest play since Week 1, provided the needed spark for his offense.

"They had to have something good happen," Hitt said. "Lowgn broke loose on a first down, and they got a little excited and just started playing harder. I told our coach on the sideline we've got to have something happen -- a fumble, a pass. We've got to have something so we can get excited to play, and we did."

Jackson's defense delivered the next big blow. The Raiders faced fourth-and-1 from their own 41 on the first play of the fourth quarter. North County senior Matt Rion, who had gained 87 yards on the ground in the first half, took off to his left but was met by the Indians defense and thrown down for a 3-yard loss.

"Our offense just had to get some kind of spark and our defense was playing well," North County coach Jeremy McDowell said. "We kind of rolled the dice there. It's just really frustrating that the offense can't get anything going consistently and the defense is playing its butts off."

The Indians' offense, suddenly full of energy, wasted little time. Wren rushed for 7 yards then Colten Proffer carried for 5. Proffer took the next handoff up the middle, cut around the Raiders defense and found the end zone with 11 minutes, 2 seconds left in the fourth quarter for Jackson's first lead in a game since late in the first quarter in Week 1.

"It felt great," Proffer said. "All year I haven't had a really long run. The line was just there like they always are usually, and I just broke one."

North County's offense, which had experienced success on the ground for most of the game, started rolling. The Raiders moved to the Jackson 9-yard line on a 14-yard run by Rion. He gained another 2 yards on third-and-goal from the 4, setting up fourth-and-goal from the 2.

The Raiders (1-2) again tried attacking on the ground, but the Indians' defense stiffened and stopped the play short of the goal line with 2:43 left.

"I thought they was going to score," Dunn said. "But we stopped them. It was butterflies head to toe."

Hitt credited his defense's technique for the stop.

"We played it correctly on defense," he said. "Our down people penetrated, got underneath them. Then our linebackers could play over the top. ... We didn't stand up and get driven off the ball. We played our technique well and got the stop."

Jackson's offense took over at its own 1 and gained some breathing room on a pair of runs. But two penalties and a run that lost 2 yards resulted in fourth-and-10 from the 1 with 1:26 left.

Hitt considered taking an intentional safety to avoid the possibility of a blocked punt or some other disaster.

"It did cross my mind, and I did talk to the other coaches about it," he said. "We decided no, we're going to punt it because we've been punting decent -- decent snaps, good, clean punts."

Ty Selsor fielded the snap deep in his end zone and quickly got off a 32-yard punt.

A holding penalty on first down backed up the Raiders, but a completion got North County to the Jackson 37. Wyatt Compton threw two incompletions to set up fourth-and-15 from the 37. Compton again went to the air, but Selsor made a diving interception for the Jackson defense's third successful stop on fourth down in the fourth quarter.

"That's a real sign of character for your defense," Hitt said about the defense's stops on fourth down. "They know if we stop them we get the ball and get a chance to score and win the ballgame. They stepped up every time."

The Indians offense finished with 94 yards. While not impressive, it was a stark improvement from Week 2.

"We still have a lot of things to work on offensively," Wren said. "We had a few things go right, and that's great. I don't want to thrive on that. I want to move on from that and build on that, from last week having negative yards to this week having positive."

The Indians (1-2) host rival Central (2-0), which was idle Friday, in Week 4.

Jackson 0 0 7 7 -- 14

North County 0 7 0 0 -- 7

Second Quarter

NC -- Kaleb Warden 9 pass from Wyatt Compton (Justin Ruby kick), 9:51

Third Quarter

J -- Stephen Dunn 5 pass from Lowgn Wren (Adam Brown kick), 1:50

Fourth Quarter

J -- Colten Proffer 26 run (Brown kick), 11:02

J NC

First downs 7 17

Rushes-yards 32-86 58-203

Passing yards 8 99

Passes 7-9-0 11-23-1

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-1

Penalties-Yards 5-43 5-39

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Jackson, Lowgn Wren 18-26, Garrett Miller 5-19, Nick Cooper 1-3, No. 37 1-2, Colten Proffer 6-37, Team 1-(-1). North County, Matt Rion 29-121, Wyatt Compton 27-75, Ryan Gibson 2-7.

PASSING -- Jackson, Lowgn Wren 7-9-8-0. North County, Wyatt Compton 11-23-99-1.

RECEIVING -- Jackson, Brannon Wright 2-4, Garrett Miller 1-6, Nick Cooper 1-(-4), Taylor Henson 1-(-3), Stephen Dunn 1-5. North County, Trevor Mason 2-23, Isaiah Smith 4-31, Kaleb Warden 2-24, Matt Rion 1-5, Jayden Odle 2-16.