EDMONDS
The Jackson football team continued its mid-season surge.
Junior running back Taylor Cox ran for 178 yards on 22 carries and scored two touchdowns as the Timberwolves beat Mountlake Terrace 38-7 for their third straight victory in a Western Conference South Division game Oct. 5 at Edmonds Stadium.
Jackson (3-2 in the league, 3-3 overall) hosts Kamiak (4-1, 5-1) in a key showdown at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 12, at Everett Stadium. The Knights are one of three teams ahead of Jackson in the league. Edmonds-Woodway (6-0, 6-0) and Mariner (4-1, 5-2), which beat the Wolfpack earlier in the season, are the other two teams.
The Timberwolves opened the season with two league losses.
“I told our guys when we got off to that rough start we had no margin for error,” Jackson head coach Joel Vincent said. “Every game from this point on was a playoff game. We had to treat it as such. Being able to win three in a row … sets up a pretty big game next week against Kamiak.
“It’s pretty big to stay with those top three (teams) that are ahead of us.”
Jackson was feeling pretty good about the victory over Mountlake Terrace, but the players know Kamiak will be a stiff test, Cox said.
“(The win) gets our morale up,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do if we want to make it to the postseason.”
Vincent saw progress on several fronts. The defense, in particular, put forth a solid performance.
“I thought this might have been our best game in terms of our level of physical play,” Vincent said. “Our guys were flying around. They were hitting people. We were doing things defensively that I think frustrated them. … Our guys were doing their jobs and making it hard for them.”
The offensive line also played well and missed only a few assignments the entire game, Vincent added.
The opening kickoff foreshadowed the success Jackson experienced against Mountlake Terrace.
The Hawks fumbled away the ball on the opening kickoff and Brandon Bell recovered for the Timberwolves, who took advantage of the turnover with a quick march down the field, as sophomore Riley Carr scored on a 1-yard run.
The Mountlake Terrace backfield suffered another blow when starting quarterback Tony Ellersick was knocked out of the game with a concussion midway through the first quarter. Mountlake Terrace lost running back Casey Finnicum before the start of the season and running back Casey Ellersick during the team’s first game, both to leg injuries.
Jackson’s Mason Hagen intercepted a pass on Mountlake Terrace’s second offensive series and the turnover led to a 23-yard touchdown run by Cox and a 14-0 Wolfpack lead.
The Hawks’ third drive produced their only touchdown, a 5-yard run by junior running back Billy Lechtenberg.
Jackson responded with an 18-yard scoring strike from sophomore quarterback Andy Gay to wide receiver Jordan Kellington to boost the lead to 21-7.
The loss of Ellersick made life a little easier for the Jackson defense.
“When Ellersick went down, it really allowed our defense to focus on 21, Lechtenberg, and I think that made it hard for their offense,” Vincent said.
A Jackson fumble recovery led to a 31-yard field goal by Alex Taylor. The kick hit the crossbar of the goalpost and bounced over as the Wolfpack took a 24-7 lead into halftime.
“Anytime a team turns the ball over, you want to make the most out of that and score and we did that tonight,” Vincent said. “Obviously it factored pretty large into that final score.”
Cox added a 2-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and Kellington ran for a 3-yard score in the fourth quarter.
“We just executed better this week,” Cox said. “We took advantages of their turnover. We needed to come up with a key victory.
“We need to polish up and be mistake free next game to beat a good Kamiak team.”
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