Maudie's big night helps Jackson football team earn big win over Battle

No one really expected Ben Maudie to have the game that he did Friday.

Jackson coach Brent Eckley didn't expect it. Senior quarterback Dante Vandeven didn't expect it.

Not even the senior receiver himself, who admitted he thought he might score a touchdown or two, expected that he'd score four touchdowns in the team's season-opener against Class 5 opponent Battle.

But the unexpected happened, and Maudie's efforts on offense helped solidify a 62-34 Jackson home victory at The Pit.

"Holy cow," Vandeven said when asked about Maudie's performance as a smile spread across his face. "Came out of nowhere. Holy cow. He stepped up, made some great plays, caught the ball -- I'm really happy with him. Definitely an asset that I'm going to be looking at a lot more. He's awesome."

Maudie's first touchdown opened up the high-scoring affair. The Indians faced third-and-16 on their opening drive, but Vandeven hit Maudie for a 53-yard touchdown reception with 11 minutes, 2 seconds to go in the first quarter.

The Spartans' offense responded quickly, scoring on a 3-yard carry up the middle by Marshall Willingham a minute and a half later, but a missed PAT left them trailing 7-6.

Battle took a 13-7 lead on a 60-yard touchdown from sophomore quarterback Brevinn Tyler to Jaevon McQuitty with 6:38 left in the first quarter. Tyler completed 6 of 18 passes for 150 yards in the game.

Jackson's Dante Vandeven, runs the ball in for a first quarter touchdown against Battle High School of Columbia, Friday, Aug. 22, 2014, in Jackson. (GLENN LANDBERG)

Maudie's second touchdown was a 47-yard reception with 4:34 remaining in the opening quarter. Ty Crowden's PAT put the Indian's up one.

Battle was forced to punt on its next drive, and the Spartan's 16-yard punt put the Indians at the 38-yard line. Vandeven completed 3 of 4 passes in the series, and a couple of short runs by Gabriel Dudley and Ethan Isaksen set up a 6-yard touchdown run for Vandeven with 37.6 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Battle would pull within one again -- 21-20 with 8:13 left in the half -- on a one-yard rush by Nash Sutherlin.

But Maudie scored his third and fourth touchdowns on a 7-yard run and 5-yard reception to send the Indians into halftime with a 35-20 lead.

"It built throughout that whole entire game," Vandeven said of his connection with Maudie. "If I looked up and I saw Ben Maudie running somewhere I knew he was going to be open. I was a little bashful about it. All the other receivers were like, 'Why aren't you passing to me?' and I had to be like, 'I'm sorry, he's wide open.'"

Vandeven also connected with Isaksen on a 5-yard pass to give Jackson a 42-20 lead with 3:52 remaining in the third. Eckley is hopeful that Maudie's big night will free up other players as the season goes on.

"He had a great night tonight, and for us that's really good because we've got two or three or four inside receivers that are rotating in there, and it's good that he has a big night because someone will key on him next week and hopefully one of our other receivers will be able to come through," Eckley said. "For the most part Xominique Davis has been our feature guy, and so with Ben having some big plays tonight that really helps us balance-wise."

Jackson's Xominique Davis runs downfield for a third-quarter touchdown against Battle High School of Columbia, Friday, Aug. 22, 2014, in Jackson. (GLENN LANDBERG)

Willingham rushed up the middle from 11 yards out for a score with about two minutes remaining in the third, but Davis returned the ensuing kickoff about 80 yards to give Jackson a 21 point lead after three quarters.

"We always had that foot on top of the bug," Maudie said, "we just had to put that smash on, and we got it in the second half."

Vandeven and Maudie both said they believed that their conditioning held up better than their opponents throughout the game, and allowed them to maintain their uptempo offense, but Battle coach Justin Conyers felt it was just the inexperience of a program that's only in it's second year of existence.

"Once again, you know, I think it's the lack of experience on our end," Conyers said. "You don't want to go to that, but these guys, this is their second year starting as varsity and a lot of them it was their first year last year.

"So for us to expect for us to come in and beat a Class 5 quarterfinalist team, that's a big deal, but we thought we could hang. And I think early on we showed that -- (now) we've got to be able to finish games, and that's what we're going to talk about this week hopefully get better with is finishing four quarters of football."

After Jackson extended its lead to 55-27 midway through the fourth on a shifty 8-yard run from Vandeven, Sutherlin broke free for a 60-yard touchdown run with 8:08 remaining.

Jackson's Gabriel Dudley, outruns Jerrion Nelson of Battle High School in the first quarter, Friday, Aug. 22, 2014, in Jackson. (GLENN LANDBERG)

Isaksen recovered a Battle fumble and ran it back for a touchdown with 4:12 to play for the final score.

Sutherlin finished the game with 257 yards rushing on 19 carries.

"My line was just blocking really well," Sutherlin said. "They were only playing a three front and leaving the outside open, so I took advantage of that."

Jackson coach Brent Eckley expected a big game out of Sutherlin.

"Their offensive line did a pretty good job, but he's got really good speed," Eckley said. "He's got good pop, good vision, broke tackles -- he played really well. I can't imagine that there will be too many kids that are going to be better than him at our level."

Jackson will face Vianney on Friday in a rematch of last season's Class 5 District 1 championship game, which Jackson won 14-0.

Jackson 62, Battle 34

Jackson 21 14 13 14 -- 62

Battle 13 7 7 7 -- 34

First Quarter

J -- Ben Maudie 53 pass from Dante Vandeven (Ty Crowden kick), 11:02

B -- Marshall Willingham 3 run (kick failed), 9:23

B -- Jaevon McQuitty 60 pass from Brevinn Tyler (Kahleb Adams kick), 6:38

J -- Maudie 47 pass from Vandeven (Crowden kick), 4:34

J -- Vandeven 6 run (Crowden kick), 37.6

Second Quarter

B -- Nash Sutherlin 1 run (Adams kick), 8:13

J -- Maudie 7 run (Crowden kick), 7:06

J -- Maudie 5 pass from Vandeven (Crowden kick), 4:45

Third Quarter

J -- Ethan Isaksen 5 pass from Vandeven (Crowden kick), 3:52

B -- Willingham 11 run (Adams kick), 2:13

J -- Xominique Davis 80 kickoff return (kick failed), 2:00

Fourth Quarter

J -- Vandeven 8 run (Crowden kick), 8:53

B -- Sutherlin 60 run (Adams kick), 8:08

J -- Isaksen 35 fumble recovery (Crowden kick), 4:12

First downs 10 11

Rushes-yards 32-107 40-310

Passing yards 222 158

Passes 13-20-0 6-25-0

Punts 7-48.6 6-37.8

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 4-3

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing -- Jackson, Gabriel Dudley 3-1, Ethan Isaksen 4-14, Tristan Thele 2-8, Dante Vandeven 8-50, Bryndan Reid 4-8, Ben Maudie 3-17, Xominique Davis 2-6, Jeremy Elliot 1-4; Battle, Marshall Willingham 6-31, Brevinn Tyler 5-6, Jerron Key 1-0, Trip Gibson 4-14, Hunter Smith 2-13.

PASSING -- Jackson, Vandeven 11-18-0-222; Davis 0-1-0-0, Landry Moore 0-1-0-0 Battle, Tyler 5-18-0-150, Gibson 1-7-0-8

RECEIVING -- Jackson Davis 4-33, Maudie 5-113, Lucas Hellwege 1-5, Lashone Dean 1-14, Jeremy Elliot 2-57; Battle, Quentin McHenry 3-36, Chyrome Thorpe 3-20, Jaevon McQuitty 1-60, Kelan Nagel 2-11.