Jeff-Morgan rolls over Geibel Catholic
JEFFERSON-During their two non-conference games, the Jefferson-Morgan Rockets flat out could not run the football. In those two contests, both losses, J-M managed just 84 yards on the ground and averaged just a hair more than two yards a run.
So, heading into their conference opener against the Geibel Gators, the Rockets realized that their top priority was clear; establish the run.
Mission accomplished.
Against the Gators, J-M exploded for a whopping 270 yards on the ground and won their Tri-County South opener by the score of 40-14 Friday night.
“This win feels real good,” Jefferson-Morgan head coach Jan Haiden said. “Running the football is what we like to do.”
Through their first two weeks, Haiden said that his team’s biggest problem was simply making too many mistakes. Against Geibel, the veteran head coach didn’t notice any major miscues for his team until their second team offense came in with around seven minutes remaining in the contest.
“We made a big improvement tonight in just not making mistakes,” Haiden said. “But, we’re still not where we need to be.”
Despite the lopsided final score, this game began as a tight one, with Jefferson scoring the game’s first points when quarterback Josh Lawrence hooked up with junior running back Jarrod Moskola on a 34-yard scoring play. After tacking on the extra point, the home team jumped out to a 7-0 lead with just over five minutes to go in the opening period.
However, the Gators came back on the very next drive to close the gap when running back Mike Vamish ran in an eight-yard score to cut the lead to 7-6. However, the extra point was missed and the Rockets remained in the lead, and would extend it on the ensuing kick off.
Again, it would be Moskola doing the damage as he took the kick and slashed his way 75 yards through the Geibel kick coverage unit to pay dirt, upping Jefferson’s lead to 13-6 after a missed extra point.
That return seemed to deflate the Gators as they went on to allow 20-straight unanswered points, giving the Rockets a 33-6 lead before Geibel senior Durrell West-Scott pounded in a five-yard touchdown late in the game.
During the scoring run, Jefferson’s defense provided nearly constant pressure on Gators quarterback Mitch Erdely. The senior was constantly harassed into hurried throws and never really got into a rhythm.
After one more Jefferson score by sophomore Terry Lawrence, the Rockets could sit back and celebrate the impressive win.
After the contest, a dejected Angelo Dippolito had very little to say about his team’s performance.
“There’s really not much to say about this game and how we played,” the Geibel head coach said. “We didn’t block up front and we didn’t tackle well on defense. Those are the basics and we didn’t do them.”
What made Jefferson’s suddenly potent running attack even harder to defend was the balance they showed in distributing the carries. More than five different Rockets got touches in the attack.
Leading the way was sophomore Justin Falcon’s 13 carries for 62 yards. J.W. Popierlarcheck was the team’s second-leading rusher with nine carries for 56 yards.
Rockets’ quarterback, Josh Lawrence threw for more than 100 yards for the third-straight contest as he hit on seven of 11 attempts for 101 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Lawrence’s favorite target on the night was Cody Ketchem, who hauled in four balls for 56 yards.
Next week, both the Rockets (1-0, 1-2) and Gators (0-1,0-3) will face stiff tests as Jefferson travels to Mapletown to battle the Maples on Friday night, and Geibel is home for a 2 p.m. Saturday game against Monessen.