Waverly (1-0) at Jackson (1-0)

[bookem13]

If everybody will remember, Jackson is the team that set the blueprint for how to stop Waverly's offense last year. They did a great job of containing with the ends, creating penetration up-front, and gang-tackling the Waverly ballcarriers. I'm sure they have a lot of confidence in having success against Roback last year. That being said, I don't know about the Ironmen b/c I haven't seen them on film, but Waverly is an improved football team. They played much better up front on both sides of the ball. We made a commitment to the run last week, which I loved. It really opened up some things in the passing game. So, tell me Ironmen fans...what can we expect from the Ironmen offense? Did they play smash-mouth Jackson football last week, or did they air it out a little more with Coach Hall? I'm also interested to hear what they're doing on defense...4-4, 4-3, 50? Who are the players to watch?

[Buckeye Faithful]

I watched the Waverly vs Piketon game last weekend and it seemed like Waverly needs to shore up the O-line a bit but Roback scrambling was able to make up just enough to get by. If they run into a team with a good D-line they may have trouble because other than the 2 bombs kinda up for grabs his passing didn't seem very accurate (The arm strength and his speed are pretty fun to watch though hughn!?! lol). Malone seemed pretty solid as expected. But I was pretty impressed with another guy they had, I think he was number 20 ..? He seemed to come up with big play after big play when they needed it! Don't know much about Jackson's team this year except coaching changes. I'd say if they have a good Line then they have a good chance!!

[ironman02]

bookem13,

Jackson did run the football last week against Wellston, but they also mixed in the pass nicely. Wandling was 8-12 for 122 yards and a TD. I liked that efficiency a lot. The Ironmen have several ball carriers who can get the job done, so you're not going to see a gameplan like last year where Huff carried the ball 40+ times. I expect Jackson to be pretty balanced...not necessarily 50/50, but they'll throw the ball more than past Jackson teams.

The Jackson base defense is a 5-2 under Coach Hall, but they seem to be moving a lot of guys around in an attempt to create confusion for the offense. The defense was pretty aggressive in my opinion, especially in the second half against Wellston. That said, Roback and the Waverly offense present an entirely different problem. Jackson could certainly use a much different scheme this week against the Tigers. They'll be looking to keep Roback in the pocket and apply pressure to affect the timing of Waverly's offense.

Buckeye Faithful,

Jackson has an entirely new offensive line this year due to graduation and also losing a player due to academic ineligibility. The boys up front are still getting used to pass blocking a little more, but they are improving each week. Probably not your typical Jackson offensive line at this point, but they have the potential to be pretty good in my opinion. The defensive line returns two players who started last season in Klingaman and Mapes. The D-line put a lot of pressure on Wellston's QB last week with 8 sacks. They'll need a repeat performance of that, or something close to it, against Roback. On the whole, the D-line is a little smaller and quicker this season.

[Buckeye Faithful]

That's pretty much what I had heard... graduated a lot of the starters. If they can put pressure on Roback like that though, I think they will be just fine. In last weeks game when he was pressured his passes weren't even close. But they also have to account for him taking off running.... very quick! Anyways Good Luck to both!

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

Here is the Waverly at Jackson preview piece per Thursday's Times-Journal.


Tigers, Roback and company invade Ironmen

By PAUL BOGGS

Sports Editor

First-year Jackson High School head football coach Andy Hall often dons a golf visor.

But, the Waverly Tigers are old hat to him.

“I’ve played and coached against Waverly for 20-some years,” he said, referring to his days at Wheelersburg and Valley among other schools.

While his first-ever Wellston week as the Ironmen head coach was a new experience, facing the Tigers is not, as Waverly and Jackson renew their annual week two acquaintances this Friday night at Jackson’s Alumni Stadium.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Both teams enter the contest off Saturday night victories, and triumphs over county archrivals by identical final scores.

While Jackson captured its 19th straight victory over Wellston, the Tigers took care of Piketon at Raidiger Field in Waverly.

Both final scores stood at 21-7.

For Hall, winning over Wellston — and keeping that infamous streak intact — “was a sense of relief for the kids and the coaches.”

“The rivalry game with Wellston gets talked about all spring and all summer. It was nice to get that win and start off 1-0,” he said in his weekly media interview.

The Ironmen snapped a 7-7 halftime tie by scoring twice and stymieing Wellston to -7 total yards in the second half.

Jackson’s defense dominated the Golden Rockets, grounding the Blue and Gold to -32 rushing yards and sacking quarterback Cody Wilkett eight times.

But now, the Ironmen aim to apply the vice grips to Derek Roback, the outstanding Waverly quarterback who has already committed to playing football at the University of Toledo.

Roback, at six-foot-three inches tall and 220 pounds, is already a two-time Division IV all-Southeast District first-teamer — as a receiver as a sophomore and as the Tiger signal-caller as a junior.

Two of Roback’s best career games are against the Ironmen, including Jackson’s 27-20 victory at Waverly last season.

He threw for over 200 yards and two touchdowns, but Jackson jumped out to a 21-6 halftime lead and caged the Tigers to 20 total yards at halftime.

Hall is well aware of how dangerous Roback is running, throwing and even receiving on gadget plays.

“Roback is the focal point and makes the whole thing go. He’s one of the fastest kids in the state, he’s a Division I athlete going to Toledo, and he makes plays,” he said. “When things break down, then he directs traffic, sends receivers where they need to be, and he throws it to them. Against Piketon the other night, he made two great throws to receivers on broken plays more than anything else. He is definitely the key to their whole offense. We have to know where he is at at all times.”

Roback completed 9-of-19 attempts for 165 yards against the Redstreaks, along with two touchdowns and one interception.

Hall was asked about the Ironmen’s plan to put the clamps on Roback and company.

“We’re going to change things up defensively. We will change our fronts up this week, and give him multiple looks in the secondary,” he said. “I think if you just sit in one defense or in one coverage, he will pick you apart. They like to change things at the line of scrimmage, they like to audible, and they will check off to different plays as they see what we are doing. We have to adjust to what they are doing, but we want to dictate to him what plays to run. Not the other way around. Pressure is going to be a key, we want people coming from everywhere, but it’s going to be contain and pressure. We have to force him to get rid of the ball quickly, but we can’t have him running down the sidelines either. He’s most dangerous when he has a chance to scramble and run around.”

But Roback isn’t alone.

The Ironmen can expect a dose of two more all-district Tigers — senior running back Kevin Malone (6-0, 200) and wide receiver Jake Kretzer.

Kretzer, an all-district first-team wideout, gives Roback a tall target a six-foot-five.

“Waverly is notorious for having two or three superb athletes, and revolving their offensive and defensive schemes around those players,” said Hall. “They do a good job of getting their best kids in situations where they can make plays.”

Malone carried 16 times for 73 yards and scored once, as did Kretzer who had three catches for 60 yards against Piketon.

Malone also caught three passes for 17 yards.

Look for the Tigers to also utilize Levi Underwood, who carried five times for 54 yards and caught two balls for 70 yards against Piketon.

In all, Waverly racked up 301 total yards of offense.

Jackson, meanwhile, amassed 308 yards, scoring the same amount of touchdowns and points as the Tigers did in their opener.

But Hall said “Waverly is a lot bigger up front on both sides of the ball than what we saw last week.”

And, the Ironmen “offensive line, each week, is going to be a work in progress,” Hall admitted.

“We want to get guys improving as the game speed and game experience increases. We’ll try to rotate more guys along the offensive line this week, try to keep guys fresh and keep the competition going,” he said. “Like anything else, the guys up front dictate a lot of what happens in the game.”

So too does penalties, and the Ironmen can ill-afford to commit the 11 they were guilty of against Wellston.

A few were even of the 15-yard variety, although most were five-yarders or often the 10-yard holding flag.

“We really had two or three more scoring opportunities in that game that we did not capitalize on because of penalties. One of my biggest fears in the first game is turnovers and penalties. We didn’t turn the ball over, but we had 11 penalties of different varieties too,” said Hall. “We have to be more conscious on our technique, especially on pass blocking where we got called for holding several times. With the experience of each game, that’s something we can improve upon.”

Indeed, the Ironmen aim to improve each week in Hall’s first season.

A second-straight win over Waverly, which won four straight meetings over three seasons before last year, would be a huge feather in Hall’s cap.

Or, rather his hat, or even his golf visor.

“Waverly is another quality opponent, and probably one of the most athletic teams on our schedule this year. A lot of their kids have played and this is a big senior class for them as well some juniors mixed in,” said Hall. “This is a local rivalry too. I know people don’t talk about Waverly as adamantly as Wellston-Jackson, but Waverly and Jackson are only 35 minutes apart on Route 32. Waverly has a long tradition of good football.”

Close contests

With the exception of Waverly’s 42-7 rout of the Ironmen two years ago, the other four meetings in the past four years have been decided by a touchdown or less.

Those included the Waverly win in 2005 (17-16 at Jackson) and two Tiger triumphs in 2006 (28-21 and 26-20 in overtime in the Division III, Region 12 playoffs).

“There have been some great games, some last-minute heroic plays, and I think this game could come down to one of those,” said Hall.

Kicking around options

If Friday night’s contest is indeed one of those close ones, it may came down to the foot of Jackson senior all-district placekicker Ryan Mullins.

That is if Mullins can play.

Mullins missed the Wellston win with a knee injury to his plant leg, and “is a game-time decision” according to Hall.

“There is a chance Ryan may play, and it may be just kicking field goals and extra points,” said the coach. “He’s responding well to the rehabilitation, but it will still be a game-time decision on him. And I won’t make that decision. I’ll let our medical personnel handle that. We’re going to bring him back slowly. I’m not going to rush him back because I don’t want to jeopardize the remainder of his high school career or his opportunity for possibly a college career.”

Mullins’ brother, Justin Mullins, is already a college placekicker at Morehead State.

In Mullins’ absence on Saturday, first-year kicker Luke Eisnaugle booted a perfect 3-for-3 extra points.

Eisnaugle is already a member of the Ironmen soccer squad, but “did a great job for us” on Saturday said Hall.

“Luke made all three extra points and he kicked the ball off well too,” he said. “He was a pleasant surprise. And he was tickled to death to be a part of this. So even if Ryan can’t go, I think Luke will do a fine job. On Saturday night, there were probably three different times where we would have kicked field goals in positions where we went for it on fourth down. We were in between a lot of situations of punting or kicking field goals. With Ryan, we’re kicking field goals in those situations. Eventually we’ll get that with Luke once we get more comfortable with him and he gets better.”

Winning at the gate too

The Ironmen didn’t just win on the field over Wellston.

They won big at the gate as well.

Jackson High School athletic director Bob Kight said the school took in $16,248 in gate receipts.

It was the first time that Alumni Stadium had hosted the Wellston-Jackson game on a Saturday night.

For many seasons, the game — when played at Jackson — was held on Friday nights.

But the atmosphere, as Hall even said, was absolutely electric with ideal weather conditions.

“Saturday night’s atmosphere was the most exciting atmosphere I’ve ever been involved with in high school football. I’ve had people come up to me and say that’s the best high school football experience they’ve ever had,” said Hall. “People that had never been to a Jackson game before that came up and watched us play were absolutely enthralled with all the things that went on. They are still talking about it. We ran out of everything. The kids appreciated that and the staff did too.”

So too does the Jackson High School athletic department.

[email protected]

[ironman02]

Great read, keyser_soze78.

I think Kretzer really presents a matchup problem for the Ironmen. Anytime you have a 6'5" guy, he's likely going to have an advantage. Kretzer has great athleticism as well, which makes him that much more difficult to defend. Waverly always seems to have a bunch of really good skill players. If their line play has improved from last season, and I'm sure it has, they're going to be a difficult test for everyone on their schedule.

Waverly really gets up for the Jackson game. The Ironmen need to match that intensity and play with a sense of urgency on Friday night. I look for another big crowd at Alumni Stadium this week and another electric atmosphere, even for a Friday night rather than Saturday.

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

ironman02....Thank you for the kind words on the article.

Should be another good game at Alumni Stadium Friday night.

[Crazy Legs]

With jackson's kicker hurt, extra points might just decide this game. I heard the kicker from saturdays game tweaked something at the soccer game?
Tressel is right the kicking game in the most important play in football!!

[ironman02]

Which soccer game? Luke was fine last night at practice from what I could see.

Mullins is a game-time decision. Hopefully both he and Luke are available tomorrow night.

Good luck to the Ironmen tomorrow night. BEAT WAVERLY!!!

[bookem13]

Ironman,

Thanks for the info. I knew I could count on you for some good info. Wow, a 5-2. Besides Ironton, you don't see that defense much these days. That's what we played back in the old days at Waverly. I love the defense, but it does place a premium on the your down-lineman to be able to read pressure and play both gaps. If your front three can play two gaps...look out. It really frees those LB's up to run around and make plays. I didn't know if Larry would go back to the 50, or he would run some sort of 40 defense with the Ironmen knowing that system well. I should have known he would stick to what's got him here.

As far as the Ironmen offense, I know our primary concern is the QB (that's unusual for this game). It sounds like he really did a nice job of running the offense, making plays through the air and with his feet. I'm sure as the season progresses and all involved get more comfortable in the system, they will expand the playbook and give teams even more to worry about. Not that it means we're going to get the W, but I'm glad we play you guys in week 2 instead of 10.

[sleepy floyd]

Waverly has more talent but how can they compare with monti and lane kiffin on Jackson sidelines. Jackson gets 2nd win of the year.

[jm2022]

Waverly 10
Jackson 0

Waverly 2 drives of 60+ to start the game. Roback with 24 yard field goal and Malone with 11 yard td run. Waverly converted a 4th and 16 with a 28 yard completion from Roback to Kretzer from the 40 on the td drive.

Late 1st quarter

[jm2022]

Not sure what happened. I do know Jackson scored on an 80 yard pass.

Waverly 10
Jackson 13

8:53 2nd Quarter

[BorntobeLOM]

Jackson 33
Waverly 25 Final

Waverly scored with 16 seconds to go and got the two-point conversion to make it a one-score game, then had the on-side kick go out of bounds

[pigskinguru]

Jackson's kids played very well. Hard to ask for much more from them. Much improvement on the O and D lines since the final scrimmage. Impressed by how well the secondary covered for much of the game. Jackson just seemed to be the hungrier football team tonight.

I was really disappointed in Waverly. Expected them to be a much better, and crisper football team. They couldn't seem to get out of their own way. They made so many mistakes, but give Jackson credit for causing many of those mistakes.

[ironman02]

Spectacular effort from the Jackson Ironmen tonight!

Waverly looked VERY good in the 1st quarter. Roback and company were able to move the ball well and open up the 10-0 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, Derrick Meredith had a huge return and the Ironmen quickly punched one in to get back in the game at 10-6. After that, Jackson exploded with big play after big play and took a 27-10 advantage into the locker room. Waverly made the run in the second half that I knew they would make, but with the score at 27-17, Jackson's Ryan Klingaman forced a fumbled that was returned for a TD by Paul Simon to make the score 33-17. The Tigers would score a late TD and get the 2-point conversion, but they were unable to get the onside kick and Jackson sealed the win.

Waverly has a TON of great athletes who are nearly impossible to tackle in space. They're going to win a lot of games this season in my opinion. Good luck to them the rest of the way.

Jackson had countless players step up and make big plays all night. The intensity, desire, and swagger that I saw from this Jackson team is something that I haven't seen in a while. They REALLY wanted this game and it showed. The Ironmen are improving every week and they have the potential to become a VERY good football team. Tough schedule ahead, but I love what I'm seeing from these boys. Great win, Ironmen!

[Ironman92]

I love the variety of players being used on offense.

Landrum, Meredith, Ervin, Authur, Wandling, Winchester.....a very nicely called game IMO

Ervin has a look of a former Ironmen great.....I'm not going to put that on him but has many similarities.

[pigskinguru]

a very nicely called game

I hope you are referring to the coaches. I thought the Jackson staff had a great game plan too, but I thought the officials were lost at times. The crew seemed to take forever to make calls. They almost seemed bored out there at times.

[G&B from huddle]

Waverly did almost the same thing they did in Week 1. They didn't cash in on opportunities. Jackson did and give them some credit, but Waverly had every break go against them in the first half. On the opening drive, Waverly had an open receiver in the end zone who couldn't bring it in and fumbled the touchdown at the end of the half.
Waverly gets both of those they win the game, if Waverly gets the one at the end of the half it could have been overtime. Roback had a great fantasy night 300+ yards but Jackson did just enough to get the win and Kudos to the Ironmen.
How bout a rematch in the playoffs?
The refs didn't have a clue!

[pigskinguru]

How bout a rematch in the playoffs?

Let's not get carried away now! Nice win, but don't think either one of these teams can think playoffs at this point.