Indians roll: Jackson shuts out Cape Central for third straight year

The Indians' Tony Williams (15) celebrates with his teammates in the end zone after scoring a touchdown against Cape Central on Friday night at The Pit.

Sarah Yenesel ~ Southeast Missourian

JACKSON, Mo. — Cape Central fought valiantly in the first quarter against the defending Class 5 state champion Jackson Indians.

The Tigers drove down the field and appeared to score a touchdown to cut the score to 14-7 early in the second quarter when quarterback Adrian Fox found receiver Clayton McClard in the end zone. That play, however, would be called back for holding.

"I thought our kids competed hard," Cape Central coach Kent Gibbs said. "We told them before the game look you know you're playing the state champions a great program, a great team what we're looking for is effort and honestly I thought our kids gave good effort all the way through, would like to get a touchdown there when we had a chance and a nice long drive and that quarter there but at the end of the day I thought it was good we competed well"

It was all Jackson after that.

The Indians scored four touchdowns in the second quarter en route to a 48-0 victory on Friday night in The Pit.

"I think a lot of kids contributed for us," Jackson coach Brent Eckley said. "I believe that our defense played better than we did last week, we were a little more sound. I thought our kids played physical. I thought our offense took care of the ball and felt our offensive line played relatively well."

Running back Tony Williams was electric on the ground, rushing for three touchdowns in the first half — a two-yard run, a three-yard run and an 11-yard run late in the second quarter — and had two more touchdowns in the second quarter called back for penalties.

In addition to his touchdowns, Williams finished with 89 yards on 12 carries.

Backup running back Josh Wehrenberg — who received more carries against the Tigers with the loss of Jason Goodman last week — scored his first touchdown of the season on a 49-yard run with 9:47 remaining in the first half. The senior back led the Indians in yards Friday night with 99 on five carries.

"We had eight different kids that carried the ball, which is good," Eckley said. "There's not too many other ones that we could have had in the mix."

Senior Flint Guilliams returned his first punt for a touchdown this season with 6:33 remaining in the second quarter. He muffed a punt near the end of the half that was recovered by Central, but cornerback T.J. Altenthal picked off Fox on the very next play.

"He did a good job catching that one," Eckley said of Guilliams' punt return, "and he's got really great vision when he catches it. He's able to kind of slither through when he gets it, and he's a fast kid. You look at him, he's really long and you think, 'That's not very fast turnover.' Man, he gets a lot of mileage out of those strides. He'll take off on you. Right now he's not getting caught, so we're pleased with that."

Senior Gavin Guilliams blocked a Cape Central punt that Jackson recovered on the nine-yard line, and Williams punched it in the end zone on an 11-yard run.

Indians quarterback Cameron Marchi found all-state receiver Kannen Turley on a 36-yard touchdown strike to put Jackson up 42-0 entering the half. Marchi was 7-for-9 on the night with 94 yards and a score.

The Indians committed 11 penalties on the night, costing Jackson 105 yards.

"We only had two in the second half," Eckley said. "But with that said, we know it was going fast and one of them was on me on moving the offensive line around a couple of different spots. I have to kind of own that one.

"Just wasn't very disciplined, and sometimes kids sometimes kids will get a little bit loosey-goosey when they feel the confidence like they're going to win."

The Tigers had some young players step up in the absence of others Friday night.

Barring the interception, Fox had a respectable game at quarterback on short notice, going 7-for-15 with 40 yards.

Freshman running back Zai’Aire Thomas carried the ball 12 times for 40 yards before going down with an ankle injury in the second quarter.

"It's a little early to know what's going on with him," Gibbs said. "It's an ankle issue and what that means, we don't really know yet. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

Jackson (4-0) will face the visiting Sikeston Bulldogs next Friday, while Cape Central (0-3) will host Farmington on the Tigers’ senior night.