Vianney football team avenges district championship loss to Jackson

It had been almost 10 months since the Vianney football team last stepped foot on the field of The Pit at Jackson High School.

The Griffins spent that time waiting for the next chance to face the team that ended their season in the district championship game.

On Friday night Vianney finally got its rematch with the Jackson Indians, who had scored 36 unanswered points in the second half of last year's postseason meeting to overcome a 32-point halftime deficit.

This time it was the Griffins who came from behind, scoring the final 38 points of the game and shutting the Indians out in the second half of a 52-28 rout.

"They had a bad taste in their mouth coming into it and I guess we kind of figured that if we gave it our all that we'd win," Jackson senior quarterback Triston Thele said. "I guess that our all wasn't enough tonight."

Thele fumbled on the third play of the opening drive on Jackson's 30-yard line, but the Indians came up with a fourth-down stop just outside the red zone.

Thele led the Indians down the field, connecting with receiver Zach Norrick for a 16-yard pass before a lucky 31-yard pass that was tipped off Jacob Starzinger's hands and ended up with Norrick at the 12. Two plays later Thele scored on a 2-yard carry to put the Indians up 7-0 with 8 minutes to go in the opening quarter.

Vianney answered with a 65-yard, 9-play drive that was capped by a 3-yard run by running back Devin Marty with 5:54 in the first to tie it.

Jackson's Tyler Brinkopf points to the fans after tackling a Vianney player in the third quarter of the Indians game against the Griffins, Friday, Aug. 28, 2015. Vianney won 52-28. (Laura Simon)

Jackson lineman Owen Leible recovered a Vianney fumble on Vianney's 46 with 2:28 remaining in the first quarter. Less than a minute and half later and Thele scored on a 20-yard run.

Jackson recovered its ensuing onside kick at midfield. The Indians ended the first quarter on the 33-yard line before a sack pushed them back 11 yards.

Thele, who also serves as the team's punter, lined up for fourth-and-20. Instead of punting the Indians were attempting a pass but when no one was open Thele faked a throw and took off, scrambling until he escaped down the right sideline for a 44-yard score that pushed their lead to 21-7 1:02 into the second.

Vianney's Marty scored on a 1-yard run with 7:49 on the clock then Jackson sophomore running back Ethan Laster ran the first play of the next drive 73 yards to the 2. Thele punched it in from four yards out two plays and 1:02 later to give the Indians a 14-point lead.

"We had a mindset of, 'They're going to be geeked up to play us since they lost it last year,' and they were," junior running back Bryndan Reid said. "It was a great game. I mean, before halftime was pretty great. We just didn't stay on them, but there's a lot of improvement. You only can learn from your mistakes.'

Jackson's Ethan Laster runs the ball in the first quarter of the Indians game against Vianney, Friday, Aug. 28, 2015. Vianney won 52-28. (Laura Simon)

It took 19 plays for the Griffins to score on a 29-yard run by Mickey Morrell, who broke several tackles on the play. The Indians were called for an offsides penalty on fourth-and-3 two plays prior that gave Vianney the first down it needed.

Jackson found itself backed up to its own 23 on fourth down a minute later, and Thele elected to attempt a pass that fell incomplete after the snap was slightly off.

"It was a snap that I could've punted, but I felt like there was too much pressure and I didn't want it to get blocked," Thele said.

Instead Vianney took over just outside the red zone with 1:05 in the half. Griffins sophomore quarterback Tionne Harris, who finished with 112 yards rushing, scrambled on fourth-and-goal from the seven before eventually running into the left side of the end zone to tie it at 28 with 8.8 seconds on the clock.

"That was a huge, huge play because if we can get out (of the half) up 28-21," Jackson coach Brent Eckley said before trailing off. "There was still time even if we punted it they had some timeouts they could've still worked it down the field and they might've still scored, but they would've had to earn it."

Vianney took the lead for good 1:41 into the second half. Marty, who rushed for a game-high 165 yards, caught a screen pass and took it 44 yards for the score.

"The quarterback's a really savvy kid, who did a good job taking care of the football," Eckley said. "He ran hard, too, but the running back really was physical. We didn't do a very good job tackling tonight and that's something that we've just got to go back and work on some more. With younger guys sometimes we're not quite as good in the weight room, we're not quite as good at making tackles and so we've just got to go back and really focus on the technique of tackling in the open field."

Thele, who finished with 107 yards rushing and 140 yards passing and scored all four first-half touchdowns, fumbled on Vianney's 21 on the next drive.

The Griffins were forced to punt for the first time in the game with 5 minutes left in the third and it bounced back to the Jackson 3-yard line. A high snap eluded Thele and he was taken down in the end zone for a safety that pushed the deficit to 37-28.

Jackson coach Brent Eckley speaks with Jessy Darrow in the third quarter of the Indians home game against the Griffins, Friday, Aug. 28, 2015. Vianney won 52-28. (Laura Simon)

Jackson was playing without starting center and defensive lineman Collin Nicks -- and will be without him for the season -- after he injured his ACL and MCL on the eighth play of the Indians' season-opening loss to Battle. Jessy Darrow took over the responsibilities at center and Eckley was pleased with his performance and said the misplayed snaps could've happened to anyone.

Vianney scored twice more -- a 37-yard pass and a 15-yard pass to Cole Hensel -- while Thele was intercepted on Jackson's final two drives.

"I was surprised as well as he played last week, but coming into this game I was a little bit nervous because of all the movements that they do on defense. It makes a quarterback earn it," Eckley said. "They have to be able to see so much just like that. It's tough for a guy that hasn't been doing it and looking at it in practice and he didn't take any snaps in summer in camp against teams that rotated and moved around a lot, so that's the first time he's seen it. Any quarterback the first time they see it, it gets them. And it wasn't just him. We had some receivers not running right lane marks and we struggled a little bit up front in some spots, too. It put too much pressure on him. He made some mistakes. If he'll learn from them we'll be fine. He still made some really good plays for us."

Jackson dropped to 0-2 on the season and will host Marquette at 7 p.m. Friday.

"I'm always disappointed. It's always frustrating to lose, but then when you feel like you gave it away that's the thing that really stinks," Eckley said. "But they did a good job and they were physical. They earned the win and did a great job in the second half of continuing to run their offense and executing. I don't know how many snaps we ended up defending, but it was a bunch because we couldn't get off the field."

Vianney 52, Jackson 28

Jackson 14 14 0 0 -- 28

Vianney 7 21 9 15 -- 52

First quarter

J -- Triston Thele 2 run (Jeremy Elliot kick), 8:00

V -- Devin Marty 3 run (John Antonacci kick), 5:54

Second quarter

J -- Thele 20 run (Elliot kick), 1:24

J -- Thele 44 run (Elliot kick), 10:58

V -- Marty 1 run (Antonacci kick), 2:11

J -- Thele 4 run (Elliot kick), 6:46

V --Mickey Morrell 29 run (Antonacci kick), 2:06

V -- Harris 7 run (Antonacci kick), :08.8

Third quarter

V -- Marty 44 pass from Harris (Antonacci kick), 10:19

V -- Safety, 4:58

Fourth quarter

V -- Cole Hensel 37 pass from Harris (Marty run), 11:37

V -- Hansel 15 pass from Harris (Antonacci kick), 8:01

J V

First downs 15 30

Rushes-yards 31-260 54-336

Passing yards 140 267

Punts 2-39.5 3-43.7

Fumbles-Lost 2-2 3-1

Penalties-Yards 7-38 13-110

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing -- Jackson, Bryndan Reid 12-37, Thele 13-107, Ethan Laster 6-116; Vianney, Marty 26-165, Harris 21-112, Cam Coleman 2-17, Mickey Morrell 4-42.

Passing -- Jackson, Thele 10-21-2-140; Vianney, Harris 22-41-0-267.

Receiving -- Jackson, Zach Norrick 4-60, Quentin Kent 3-32, Drew Moran 1-16, Elliot 2-32; Vianney, Kyren Williams 4-39, Zach Zerwig 2-11, Cam Coleman 7-56, Marty 3-66, Cole Hensel 3-66, Nick Voorhees 1-19, Morrell 1-2.