O’Keefe leads Jackson past Kamiak

Published 10:48 pm Sunday, September 26, 2010

EVERETT

His teammates dubbed him the snake.

Jackson’s football team has had plenty of talent the past few years, but no snakes of note. That is until Sept. 24 at Everett Memorial Stadium when tight end Austin O’Keefe slithered through the Kamiak defense at will on the way to a 31-21 Wesco South victory for the Timberwolves.

Jackson quarterback Sam Brown found O’Keefe open in the end zone for a 28-yard score that proved to be the game-winner with just less than six minutes remaining in the game.

The 6-foot-5 O’Keefe snagged eight catches for 192 yards and two scores.

“Everything was a (career) high for me tonight,” O’Keefe said. “I had a corner on me and I had a size advantage, so we took advantage of that. It just kept coming to me. I kept getting open and it kept working.”

With just a 24-21 advantage and the defense struggling to stop the Knights rushing attack, the game was far from over. On the night, Kamiak’s Nic Cooper carried the ball 20 times for 129 yards and quarterback Anthony Berg added 78 yards on the ground with two touchdowns.

On 3rd-and-6, Kamiak had the ball at its own 38-yard line. The Knights ran an option play and Berg pitched to Cooper only to be stuffed for a 5-yard loss by a swarm of Jackson linebackers. It was one of the few big plays by the Timberwolves defense, but it came at the most important time.

“We made stops when we needed to,” Jackson coach Joel Vincent said. “I credit the kids. They kept fighting and fighting. It would have been very easy to get frustrated watching Kamiak move the ball down the field and move the chains. Our kids didn’t give up and they made big plays when they needed to.”

On the fourth down, Berg was intercepted by Kyle Olson to virtually end the Knights chances.

Despite the success on the ground, Berg and the Kamiak air attack were ineffective. He finished 7-for-15 for just 61 yards.

On the next play after the interception, Jackson came out in its “big” formation with Trai Patrick taking the snap instead of Brown, which virtually always means a run. Patrick dropped back and hit a streaking John Wilde, who ran under the floater and into the end zone for a 45-yard score that iced the game.

“You always want to win that first one and get off to a good start in conference play,” Vincent said. “We struggled at times tonight. Kids kept fighting and found a way to win the game. We’ve got to takes some things away from this game and learn from it.”

In just his fourth start under center, Brown completed 15 of 26 for 300 yards and three scores.

Vincent was proud of his junior quarterback, who was held out of practice for much of the week with a head cold. He wasn’t quite as proud of the ground game, which gained negative 5 yards mostly due to four Kamiak sacks that cost 37 yards.

“We gotta get better in the run game,” Vincent said. “We believe in balance. We have to be able to run and throw.”

Success in the Wesco South will depend on it, but after a shaky 1-2 start in nonleague play, Jackson sits tied atop the league.

“It’s huge,” O’Keefe said.

Their position will be put to the test next week at Edmonds-Woodway, a loser to Mariner Friday.

Jon Saperstein writes for the Herald in Everett.