Friday Football: Jays use quick start in win against SLUH

Jason Strickland/News Tribune
Jays linebacker Bryant Gipe intercepts a pass during Friday night’s game against St. Louis University High in St. Louis.
Jason Strickland/News Tribune Jays linebacker Bryant Gipe intercepts a pass during Friday night’s game against St. Louis University High in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS - The Jefferson City Jays may be 3-1 and have won three straight games for the first time since starting the 2016 season 3-0, but coach Terry Walker made sure the team knows he expects more than just a favorable score in the end.

"What I tell the kids all the time it's not about winning or losing, it's about playing the game the right way," Walker said following Friday night's 34-13 victory against St. Louis University High. "I know if we dedicate ourselves to the preparation, we dedicate ourselves to the process, the wins will come in boat loads."

What came in boat loads Friday night were rushing yards from Jays running back Maleek Jackson and Junior Bills running back Kellen Porter.

Both ended with more than 160 yards, but how each one got to that total were at opposite ends of the spectrum.

On back-to-back touches in the second quarter, Jackson racked up nearly 70 percent of his rushing yards. The first was a 45-yard touchdown with 5:01 left in the first half. Ben Folz added the PAT for a 20-6 lead.

On the first play of the Jays' next drive, Jackson broke away from the Junior Bills for a 92-yard score with 1:49 left in the half. Folz once again added the PAT and the 27-6 lead held at halftime.

"Maleek is running behind his pads better and he's improving, but we've got to figure out how to play a full game, all 48 minutes start to finish," Walker said.

Jackson actually scored touchdowns on three straight touches in the second quarter as he took a kickoff return 91 yards to the house to break a tie at 6 with 9:23 left in the quarter. Folz booted the PAT to make it 13-6 Jays.

As far as rushing yards, Jackson came up four yards short of reaching 200 for the second straight week. He got 196 yards on just 17 carries.

"We had some explosive plays," Walker said. "Maleek had two or three really nice explosive plays, but again there's times in the second half where we have an opportunity - just one or two scores - and we're really going to put some serious pressure in them. That attitude really kind of eludes us."

For the second straight week, the Jays struggled to carry over first-half success into the final 24 minutes. They had three punts and a turnover on downs before eventually finishing off SLUH with a six-play, 51-yard drive that took nearly four minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter.

Devin Roberson crossed the goal line for his second quarterback sneak touchdown of the game with :39 left on the clock. Folz added his fourth PAT.

Roberson's first touchdown came with 3:16 left in the first quarter to make it 6-0 Jays. The 2-point conversion failed.

The second-half struggles still didn't allow SLUH to mount a comeback even with Porter's success on the ground.

Porter's first of two touchdowns tied the game at 6 early in the second quarter, but he didn't reach the end zone again until he zig-zagged his way to a 48-yard touchdown with 4:31 left in the game. Porter finished with 162 yards on 22 carries. Unlike Jackson, Porter used smaller chunks of yardage at a time. Twelve of his runs were between 4 and 12 yards.

"I didn't think we were as gap some as we were last week and we'll look at the film to get an assessment as far as where some of the breakdowns were," Walker said. "But we've got to execute a lot better than that."

What hurt SLUH were stalled out drives. The Junior Bills punted twice in Jefferson City territory in the first half and turned it over on downs 23 yards from the end zone early in the fourth quarter.

SLUH also tried a fake punt on its second drive of the game. Steven Mack looked for someone to pass to but Alex Burkhead quickly got to him for a loss of eight yards on the fourth-and-3 from the Junior Bills' 48-yard line.

"There were times where we had some real nice plays defensively and there were times where we had nice pursuit," Walker said. "But there were also times where our backside pursuit was not quite matching our frontside pursuit and we're giving up too many big plays. It's great that our points allowed was 13 because we shoot for 12 or less, but we've got to figure out how to be more efficient defensively."

Roberson made an immediate impact from his defensive end spot with a sack on the Junior Bills' opening drive for force a punt.

Burkhead sacked Brendan Hannah on a second-and-17 in the second quarter to help force a punt. Jackson's 45-yard score came on the ensuing drive.

On SLUH's second drive of the second half, defensive end Corey Suttle brought down Porter for a 7-yard loss on the first play and SLUH couldn't recover and punted.

Jefferson City will be in search of a fourth straight victory when it takes on Chaminade (1-3) on Friday in St. Louis. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. The Jays haven't won four in a row since reaching eight consecutive victories in 2015.

Chaminade will be coming off its third straight loss as it fell 49-35 at Vianney in Week 4.