SHORELINE — Converting six Shorecrest turnovers into 31 points and strong running from senior Shawn Klaus powered the Jackson Timberwolves past the Shorecrest Scots 45-30 in a Western Conference South Division match-up Oct. 8 at Shoreline Stadium.
“Fortunately we were on the favorable end on most of those,” Wolfpack coach Joel Vincent said.
On the first play from scrimmage, Klaus found a hole up the middle and sprinted 80 yards to put the Timberwolves (4-2) ahead 7-0.
The Scots (2-4) answered back as tailback Jesse Hoffman blasted through the Jackson defense. The 13-play, 63-yard drive was capped off by a Hoffman 1-yard touchdown run.
With 2:07 left in the first quarter, Klaus exploded again, this time for 56 yards down the right sideline. On second and 16, sophomore quarterback Jake Gelakoska found senior wideout Mustafa Majeed on a 31-yard touchdown play.
On what would become an omen of things to come, Jackson defensive lineman Ryan Brown recovered a Shorecrest fumble on the Scots’ next series. Capitalizing on the turnover, senior Nathin Bruns nailed a 39-yard field goal to increase the Timberwolves’ lead to 17-7.
Starting on its own 20-yard line, Shorecrest turned the ball over when quarterback Jon Glancy’s pass was picked off by defensive back Majeed. On Jackson’s first play, Klaus scored his second touchdown on a 21-yard run to put the Timberwolves up 24-7.
Shorecrest moved the ball again, utilizing the talents of Hoffman via the pass and run. However another Glancy pass was intercepted, this time by senior Chris Bowen, who returned it 35 yards to the Scots’ 30-yard line. On fourth and one from the 4-yard line, newly inserted quarterback Bowen rolled to his left and found senior tight end Rory Wilson wide open for the easy score and a 31-7 lead.
The Scots countered with a 15-play, 80-yard drive, culminating in a Glancy to Trevor McFarlane 7-yard touchdown pass with nine seconds left in the second quarter. With the two-point conversion, the halftime score was 31-15.
To start the second half, Jackson’s Bruns recovered his own kickoff to give Jackson possession on the Scots 23.
“That’s a first for me,” Bruns said. “I just ran down and saw the guy cutting outside, beat him there and made a good hit.”
Gelokoska fired a bullet to senior tight end Andrew Rochon who danced down the sidelines for the 22-yard touchdown play. The big momentum swing extended the Timberwolves’ lead to 38-15.
Without the services of Hoffman, who suffered an injury in the second quarter, the Scots tweaked their offense and drove 67 yards down the field in 10 plays. Ramos ran 14 yards around the left side and tightened the margin to 38-22.
“Obviously we had to make some adjustments with Jesse hurt,” Shorecrest coach Mike Wollan said. “We scrambled, came up with something and the guys responded.”
Starting the fourth quarter, Glancy led the Scots on a 13-play, 77-yard scoring drive culminating with the quarterback’s 1-yard touchdown run. The score narrowed to 38-30 after the two-point conversion.
With 4:58 left in the game, Jackson fumbled to give the Scots one more chance. However the Scots returned the favor as Jackson lineman Corey Tupling fell on the third Shorecrest fumble, giving the Wolfpack the ball on the Scots’ 10.
Klaus scored his third touchdown of the night with a 6-yard run, shutting the door on Shorecrest.
“Our offensive line did a good job, made it easy to run through holes,” Klaus said. “We worked on it a lot in practice this week, focusing on our blocks, and it paid off.”
Klaus finished his gigantic night with 224 of Jackson’s 245 rushing yards.
Glancy was 10 for 30 with 143 yards passing and three intereceptions. Gelakoska and Bowen completed three passes for Jackson, all for touchdowns.
“The goal of our defense every time we step on the field has to be how fast we can get off, three and out,” Vincent said. “We didn’t do that tonight, we just have to figure how to make plays and not let teams convert third downs.”
Though pleased with the final score, Vincent was also quick to point out the 30 points his defense gave up.
“We’ve got to find a way to eliminate mistakes, especially defensively,” he said. “We’ve got kids in the right spots. They just need to make plays.”
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