JACKSON PUTS A 55-0 SHELLACKING ON SOLDAN

JACKSON -- There are dozens of statistics that tell exactly how dominant Jackson was over Soldan Friday night in the Indians' 55-0 win.

But perhaps none of them are more glaring than this: Soldan quarterback Jordan Keys had more yards from scrimmage than any other Tiger with 41.

Forty-one yards backward.

Aaron Hawkins had the most positive yards of any other Soldan player with 30.

Jackson (6-1), though, had four running backs with at least 57 yards even without its most explosive player, Mario Whitney, who didn't play because of a cut near his eye.

Soldan dropped to 0-7 on the campaign and now has been outscored 410-32.

While Jackson senior tailback Chris Freeman earned his second 100-yard game of the season and led the team with 101 yards on nine carries, the backups put up most of the numbers once the game was put out of the way early in the second quarter.

Joe Walter, a junior, looked impressive in the backfield, sprinting and shifting his way to 92 yards and two touchdowns. Brad Berry, a sophomore fullback, ran the ball eight times for 69 yards and a touchdown; and promising sophomore tailback James Love had the longest run of the night, 51 yards, and finished with 57 yards on four carries, including a touchdown and a two-point conversion.

Though most of the starters came out midway through the second quarter, Jackson coach Carl Gross wasn't too concerned with the lack of repetitions.

"I don't think it hurt us," Gross said of the lopsided game heading into district action. "We knew this game would be like this so we practiced really hard this week. We'll have our starters wake up (today) not so sore. Hopefully, that will translate into better practices again next week."

Jackson, which outgained Soldan 494 to 62 in total yardage, scored its first touchdown just 58 seconds into the game when quarterback Chris Stockton hit Tory Meyr from 23 yards out.

Stockton hit tight end Kevin Brunke from 8 yards out to put Jackson up 14-0 late in the first quarter.

Stockton was a perfect 3-for-3 for 77 yards and two touchdowns. Meyr, the region's leading receiver this year, caught two passes for 62 yards and had a 65-yard touchdown catch called back on an illegal block.

Early in the second quarter, Freeman scored on a 9-yard run to put Jackson up 20-0, but the point after kick was missed.

It was all downhill from there.

Jackson scored 28 points in the second quarter -- capped off by a 31-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Bryan Austin to Seth McDowell -- and led 42-0 at halftime.

The Indians managed only two touchdowns in the second half as the mercy rule went into effect.