Yellow Jackets top Indians 17-14

Jeff Davis High’s football team got its second straight win last week with a 17-14 victory over Dodge County in Eastman.
The game was not as close as the final scored indicates as Dodge County scored a late touchdown to get to 14 points.
The Jacket defense played outstandingly as the Indians had trouble operating against Jeff Davis’ stifling defense.
The Indians got a quick taste of what was to come as, on the first play from scrimmage, Jacket linebacker Carter Mullis ended a sweep attempt to down the Indian runner for a 1-yd. loss. Two plays later, Kace Galbreath shed a blocker and led a host of tacklers to down a Dodge runner for a 5-yd. loss. But a 15-yd. penalty nullified the loss and Dodge had a new set of downs at the Jacket 45.
On 3rd-and-5, Josh Worthington almost nailed the Dodge quarterback for a 12-yd. sack but the Indian got away and completed a pass for a first down at the Jacket 35. The Indians went backward from there and punted the ball away on 4th-and-24.
Starting at their own five yard line, the Jackets’ first play was almost a disaster. A Dodge tackler dislodged the football and it sailed into the end zone. But quarterback Colby Beach alertly scooped up the ball and got it out of the end zone at the JD one yard line.
Two plays later, Beach scrambled out of the end zone to pick up 11 yards and a first down.
But Conner Munsayac had to punt the ball away from the 15.
Neither team could get its offense going and on the last play of the first quarter, Mullis stripped the ball from the ball carrier and Christian McDaniel pounced on the fumble at the Dodge 32. But the Jackets couldn’t capitalize.
Midway through the second quarter, Dodge finally got their offense on track with a 52-yd. pass completion to the JD 12. Two plays later, a 5-yd. pass got Dodge on the scoreboard. The P.A.T. kick made it 7-0.
The Jackets took the ensuing kickoff and got their offense clicking with a 14-play drive from their own 31 to the Dodge 2. With a mixture of Beach at quarterback and Kyrice Hunt deep in a wildcat formation, the Jackets marched down the field. Big plays in the drive were a 10-yd. run up the middle by Hunt, a 12-yd. pass from Beach to M.J. Hankerson and a 16-yd. scramble by Beach.
But the Jackets couldn’t push the ball across the goal line and had to settle for a 22-yd. Fernando Vega field goal to make it 7-3.
Following the Jackets’ kickoff, the Indian quarterback scrambled and went well across the line of scrimmage to complete a pass for 26 yards to the Jacket 29. But the officials didn’t throw a flag on the play and the completion stood.
On the next play, Mullis and Jonathan Bohannon sacked the quarterback for a 7-yd. loss. Then defensive lineman Uriel Ortega Silva crashed through to nail the Dodge quarterback for a 21-yd. sack. And the half came to an end.
On the Jackets’ second possession of the second half, they took the lead for good, marching 55 yards. The drive was helped along on a 13-yd. Beach scramble when an Indian defender hit Beach after he went out of bounds. That put the ball at the Dodge 25.
On 4th-and-4 from the 19, Jacket Coach Lance Helton elected to go for the first down. Beach took the snap rolled right and then left, and threw a strike to a wide-open Jude Worthington in the end zone, for a 9-7 Jacket lead. Then Beach threw to La’Trell Sellers for the 2-pt conversion and Mullis gave him a push from behind into the end zone and JD led 11-7.
Later in the quarter, Sellers leapt high into the air to intercept a Dodge pass at the Jacket 26 and ran the ball all the way to the Dodge seven before he was dragged down from behind. Hunt got five and Beach carried the ball into the end zone on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 17-7. Vega’s extra point attempt was blocked.
Dodge marched into Jacket territory on the next possession but the JD defense held and Jeff Davis took over on downs at the Jeff Davis 27.
A series of flags backed up the Jackets to the Jacket three and Munsayac punted the ball out to the 23 from where a block in the back backed them to the 33. A 17-yd. completion moved the ball to the 16. A quarterback scramble got the ball to the three. On 4th-and-goal at the one, Dodge finally got their second TD. But they had to work hard for it. The extra point kick made it 17-14 with only two minutes left to play.
After a failed onside kick, the Jackets ran off most of the time on the clock and Munsayac had to punt. Dodge tried a couple of passes, the second of which was picked off as the game came to an end.