Jackson, Oakville set to clash in district football semis

The Jackson Indians' postseason is getting off to a late start.

The Indians received a much-needed week of rest after locking up the top seed in the Class 5 District 1 tournament, where they'll face the fifth-seeded Oakville Tigers at 7 p.m. today at The Pit.

"We were able to make some good use of the time," Jackson coach Brent Eckley said about the bye week. "We were able to get a couple kids healthy, so it was a good deal for us."

The Indians (8-1) enter the playoffs on a three-game winning streak, including a 28-14 win over Miller Career Academy in the regular-season finale. Jackson also defeated Sikeston and Seckman by a combined score of 97-0 during the streak, which Eckley believes has given his team momentum heading into the postseason.

"I think it's always good to get momentum going in and to play well coming into the bye [week]," Eckley said. "Last year, we were coming off two losses. That made it kind of rough for us to get ready. We definitely did not have the confidence that we'd hoped to have, so it was better this year playing well at the tail end."

The Indians are led by signal caller Dante Vandeven, who has completed 62 percent of his 168 pass attempts for 1,479 yards, 15 touchdowns and four interceptions. Jackson's dual-threat senior quarterback has also rushed for 648 yards and 19 touchdowns on 107 carries.

The leading recipient in the Indians' passing game is senior wide receiver Xominique Davis, who has 26 receptions for a team-high 521 yards and five scores.

Eckley said the Tigers (4-5) have a quarterback comparable to Vandeven's skill set in senior Carvon Robinson.

"Their quarterback is very similar to our quarterback, an athletic kid that's a physical runner," Eckley said. "He runs the ball well.

"Their offensive line is not overly big, but they're very scrappy. Their running back runs hard. Their receivers go up and make plays. They've got a good tight end. Defensively, they're very multiple and do a lot of different things on defense. It'll be a challenge for us. The bottom line is we want to play great. If we play great, we feel like we'll be OK. If you don't, you just never know what happens."

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound Robinson is 83 of 151 passing (53 percent) for 1,499 yards, 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions this season, according to stltoday.com. He also has 859 rushing yards and nine touchdowns, averaging 7.3 yards per carry.

Eckley believes going against a quarterback similar to Vandeven could be an advantage for his defense.

"I think that helps our defense because we're always going against each other in practice, so I think that's a benefit," he said.

Oakville's Arsante Conners and Kobe Allen lead the team in receiving. They've combined for 989 receiving yards and 11 scores and average more than 15 yards per reception.

Sophomore Connor Bartow has 391 rushing yards and five touchdowns for the Tigers, who avenged a season-opening loss to Parkway South by defeating the Patriots 31-19 in the first round of the district playoffs last week.

Eckley said junior linebacker Gabriel Dudley will not play -- he sustained a knee injury against Miller Career -- along with receiver Lucas Helwege. Defensive back/receiver/kicker Ty Crowden and offensive lineman Brandon Simpher are both expected to play after leaving the Week 9 contest with injuries.

"I don't think we're overly confident, but I think our kids feel good about where they're at," Eckley said of his team, which is averaging 392 yards per game. "We feel good about what we can do. I think everyone in the program knows that if we're focused, we have a chance of playing really good football, and that's our goal."