Week 1 - Jackson @ Wellston

[ironman02]

Thanks for posting the stats, keyser_soze78.

[JohnKnight]

I am watching scout tape of Wellston Jackson game and There is Larry Blackstone talking to the head coach after the first touchdown. No wonder they beat Jackson! LOL!

[ironman02]

Should have known this was all Larry's fault.

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

Here is Tuesday's Times-Journal report.

Ironman02...I know this won't exactly be an easy read for ya, but hang in there through it.

And I'm sure to get a critique or two or three from my good 'ole buddy John Knight who I see is on here now at the same time I am. Should make for an interesting evening.



Say see ya to ‘The Streak’

Rockets roll Ironmen to snap 19-game series slide

By PAUL BOGGS

Sports Editor

WELLSTON — For the Wellston High School football team, Saturday night was not Pearl Harbor.

However, in the documented century-long history of football at the school, August 28, 2010 is indeed a night that will live in infamy.

What became simply known as “The Streak” came to a thunderous end.

That’s because the Golden Rockets, for the first time in two decades, defeated their archrival only 10 miles to the south on the varsity gridiron.

And, not only did Wellston defeat the Jackson Ironmen, the Rockets rolled the Red and White 33-13 in front of a jam-packed, overflow and electric crowd at C.H. Jones Field in Wellston.

The contest marked the season opener for both teams, and marked the head coaching debut at Wellston for former star running back Chris Hutchinson.

In a three-hour time span, Hutchinson had become proverbial king of his hometown, and 19 straight seasons of frustration, disappointment and defeats to the Ironmen ended.

“It’s a relief and it’s just a huge win for the program and the community,” said Hutchinson. “The kids have done everything we’ve asked. They’ve worked their butts off all summer. They deserve this tonight. They were ready and they believed they could win.”

Wellston won three-of-four in the series from 1986 thru 1989, as current Wellston athletic director Jeff Hendershott quarterbacked the Rockets’ last victory over Jackson 21 years ago.

The win was Wellston’s fifth in the series since 1968, as the Rockets also won the 1978 matchup to snap a nine-game skid to the Ironmen, and again in 1986 to snap seven games worth of losses.

The two teams tied in 1973 and did not play in 1991.

But nothing was like the burden of 19 straight setbacks.

In fact, none of the current players on either roster had even been born yet when Wellston last won — when the first George Bush was President of the United States.

Hutchinson, though, could probably be elected mayor in Wellston with what happened on Saturday night.

Though he deflected much of the praise.

“It was just a great team effort. I’m so proud of our kids and our assistant coaches. The kids came out and played their hearts out. They were ready to play and they just got it done,” said Hutchinson.

And in dominating fashion.

The Rockets were in control from the opening kickoff to the victory formation kneel-down with seven seconds remaining.

As the clock expired, Wellston fans and students swarmed the field in celebration — one that likely lasted into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

In his postgame interview, Jackson head coach Andy Hall had nothing but praise for the Golden Rockets.

“It’s a credit to their staff and their kids. When you play high school football, you talk about streaks and all of this stuff, at some point that stuff is going to end. It’s not like we’re playing a Junior High team. These guys have done the same things that we’ve done in the weight room and in conditioning. They were prepared tonight and made plays, and we didn’t make plays,” said Hall. “They punted one time. Some of the option and spread stuff we thought they might do, they didn’t do. I thought they did a great job of coaching. I’ll take responsibility for this loss. We gotoutcoached and outplayed. There wasn’t one aspect of this game that we were better in than them tonight. We just never got anything established.”

The Rockets never trailed, taking their first lead in the series since 2003 and scoring the most points since their 44-33 loss in 2001.

Wellston was even playing Jackson style of football —controlling the line of scrimmage and amassing ball control, clock-consuming drives.

Of the Rockets’ five scoring marches, four of them consisted of at least six plays and half a field.

The Rockets rolled up 364 yards of total offense, including 313 rushing yards on 47 carries and four scores.

Wellston won the war up front, and even “out-Jacksoned Jackson” as it was described.

“Our offensive line handled those guys. When we had the ball, we were able to put some drives together, take some time off the clock and put points on the board,” said Hutchinson.

Hall hailed Hutchinson’s strategy.

“Their gameplan worked to perfection tonight,” said Hall. “They were able to ball control us and keep our big guys off the field. They didn’t snap the ball until there was like two seconds left on the play clock in an attempt to shorten the game. When you are outmatched up front, that is what you do. It turns out though, they weren’t outmatched. They kicked our butts on both sides of the ball. Their offensive and defensive lines overpowered us. We have the bigger kids, but we didn’t look bigger tonight. Wellston did a really good job up front of handling the situations and the bottom line is, we didn’t make plays.”

Wellston sure did, though.

Of the Rockets’ five touchdowns, three were of 22 yards or more, including an early fourth-quarter screen pass from juniors Jaylen Prater to Austin Osborne which went for 22 yards on a 4th-down-and-9.

Osborne escaped the defense untouched for Wellston’s fourth touchdown of the night, and one which stunningly ballooned the lead to 26-7 with 10 minutes remaining.

“When we had to make plays, we made them,” said Hutchinson. “We run out of a lot of formations, trying to get mismatches here and there. We don’t run a lot of different plays, but we throw a lot of formations at you. We used that to our advantage tonight.”

No matter what the formation, though, Osborne and Prater played major roles for the Rockets.

Prater piled up 148 rushing yards and a hat trick of touchdowns on 13 carries, and completed 3-of-5 passes for 51 yards — all but one of which went to Osborne (two receptions for 50 yards).

Osborne added 101 yards on 22 totes.

“Every snap of the ball, they were getting five yards a carry. When you are ball controlling people, and playing the clock, five yards at a time keeps the chains moving. Coach Hutchinson’sgameplan was to keep the ball in either Austin Osborne’s or Jaylen Prater’s hands. And guess who made plays tonight? Prater and Osborne,” said Hall. “We knew we couldn’t let those two guys bounce outside on us, we knew we couldn’t let them make plays. Osborne did what he was supposed to do and Prater picked his spots.”

Osborne also overcame a stretched MCL and a quad injury earlier in the week to not only play, but arguably be the best player on the field on Saturday night.

“Austin just played a great game. He’s tough to bring down and always seems to make the first guy miss. He’s shifty, but he’s got some power too,” said Hutchinson. “He’s a good back, but the offensive line also opened up some holes for him.”

Osborne actually opened the fireworks for Wellston with a 39-yard opening kickoff return to midfield.

Four first downs later, the Rockets were in the end zone following a nine-play drive.

Senior fullback Brad Miller mustered the final 10 yards for a 6-0 Wellston lead just five minutes into the contest.

Jackson tried to immediately answer, and converted two third downs in 11 plays, marching all the way to the Wellston 9-yard-line.

Facing another third down, though, the Ironmen exchange on the handoff resulted in a fumble, and Wellston recovered.

The Ironmen only lost one fumble all of last season.

“We won the turnovers 3-0, we got the breaks in our favor tonight,” said Hutchinson. “It’s always seemed like we were the ones turning the ball over and getting bad breaks, things of that nature.”

The Golden Rockets responded to the turnover in three quick plays — two of which were the same quarterback keeper-up-the-middle call with Prater in the shotgun.

He took the direct snap, ran into the heart of the line, and then broke free into the Ironmen secondary.

The first went for 24 yards.

The second ended with Prater going to paydirt — a 65-yard scamper and a sudden 12-0 advantage early in the second period.

Osborne added an extra-point run to make it 14-0 just 43 seconds in.

“I’m very disappointed on defense,” said Hall. “We really felt like we had a good gameplan going in. We just didn’t make any plays. They knocked us off the ball. We didn’t make any plays in the secondary. We didn’t make any plays with our linebackers. They probably had two negative runs the entire night.”

Jackson sliced the deficit in half on the ensuing possession, and in just two-and-a-half minutes, going 63 yards in seven plays and scoring on aKlay Arthur 4-yard run.

Luke Eisnaugle added the extra-point kick, pulling Jackson to within a touchdown with 8:41 remaining before halftime.

The Ironmen had two other opportunities to tie the game in the first half, but poor field position resulted in a three-and-out series before quarterback Kip Winchester was intercepted by Ernest Brown in Rocket territory at the 40.

“Offensively, we played hard and we moved the ball. But then all of the sudden, we get a penalty or something that sets us back. We just could not get over the hump and field position really was key,” said Hall. “We had two turnovers in the first half, and then the second half, they never punted and we never got the ball enough.”

When the Ironmen did have the ball in the second half, they took over outside their own 35-yard-line each time.

“Field position killed us the whole game. In the second half, we got the ball on our own 10 and on our own 6,” said Hall. “When you talk about ball control, it’s all about field position.”

The first two possessions — which actually started on the 16 and 7-yard-lines respectively — resulted in punts following five plays, while Wellston’s two tries turned into two scoring drives and a commanding 26-7 advantage.

The first of those scoring situations covered six plays of all positive yardage for 66 yards, capped off by Prater keeping up the middle for the final 26.

With seven minutes and seven seconds remaining in the third, Wellston was ahead 20-7.

Just nine minutes later, Wellston was up 26-7 — and in complete control — on Osborne’s touchdown reception.

Hutchinson said it was a matter of being in shape.

“I felt we outconditioned them to be honest with you,” he said. “It went back and forth for a while, but toward the end, I think we started to wear on them a little. They had some big guys, but I thought the advantage started to go our way, especially in the second half.”

Wellston demonstrated balance in both halves actually.

The Rockets rushed for 158 yards in the first and 155 in the second, part of 187 total in the first and 177 in the second.

A final nine-play, 52-yard drive — following an Ironmen onside kick — put the game out of reach with only one minute and 25 seconds to play.

Prater punched in his final touchdown from a yard out, and D.J. Young’s extra-point kick made it 33-13.

Winchester, who capped off a 9-play, 80-yard drive with a 6-yard run on the possession prior, was intercepted by Brown on the final Ironmen snap with 10 tics to play.

“We had three turnovers and they had none. Last year, we turned the ball over five times the entire year and caused turnovers instead. Tonight, that didn’t happen for us,” said Hall.

With the score 26-7, Jackson drove to near midfield before turning the ball over on downs.

“We were prepared for a lot of different things from them. But the bottom line is we just never made plays. It wasn’t like they did anything that we weren’t prepared for. We just didn’t execute anything. Other than playing hard, there is not one aspect of this game that was positive for us,” said Hall.

Arthur amassed 77 yards on 11 carries, while Winchester wound up with 53 yards on a dozen attempts.

In his first varsity game under center, Winchester was 7-of-16 passing for one yard shy of 100.

Ty McNelly made three receptions for 65 yards to lead the Ironmen, which is now recovering from a season-opening loss for the first time in two decades.

“This is the first time in 20 that Jackson has been on the other side of this coin with Wellston,” said Hall. “So how do we handle adversity moving forward? I think with our senior leadership and our captains, we should be okay. But we’re going to be tested this week. We’re going to find kids that are going to keep working hard, and I do believe we will. The season is not over. All of our goals are still in front of us. But we have to get over this loss tonight. It’s going to be hard and there’s going to be a lot of hurt feelings. Hopefully, the community won’t get down on these kids.”

Just 10 miles to the north, though, it’s an entirely different feeling.

“It’s just a huge win for the kids and the program,” said Hutchinson. “That’s all I can say.”

Both teams face non-league Southern Ohio Conference Division II opponents this week — with week one records not experienced in 20 years.

In a battle of 0-1 clubs, Jackson travels to Waverly.

In a contest of 1-0 squads, Wellston will host Minford.

[email protected]

[ironman02]

Great write-up, keyser_soze78. Painful for me to read, but very well done. Thanks for posting it.

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

ironman02...Thanks for the kind words

[boy of summer]

Keyser_soze 78 does a truly outstanding job in covering high school sports in the area. Southeast Ohio, and particularly Jackson and Vinton Counties, are very fortunate to have him covering the local sports teams. Keep up the great work!

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

boy of summer.....Thank you for the kind words.

I also have a good group of coaches that either email or send in information when I can't be there in person. That makes my job much easier.

[OST]

Really nice post. Well done

[KINGheat]

Look where everything has gona Jackson 9-1 and Wellston 4-6. haha

[footballfanatic1]

as i was walking out of wellstons stadium after the game a guy was telling his wife how great wellston was and they would kick jhs but every year from know on out............. where are you playing this week?????

[pigskinguru]

as i was walking out of wellstons stadium after the game a guy was telling his wife how great wellston was and they would kick jhs but every year from know on out............. where are you playing this week?????

Like or not, accept it or not, on that night Wellston was better than Jackson( and it wasn't really a close game). It was proven on the field. Do I think Wellston would win now? Nope. I believe there has been years Jackson benefited playing Wellston the first game of the year. I believe this was one year when Wellston actually benefited from getting Jackson game one. Jackson improved greatly throughout the year, but that night Wellston was better.