Hazelwood East capitalizes on Jackson's miscues

FLORISSANT -- A perfect football game might have given the Jackson Indians a shot in Saturday's Class 5 state semifinal game.

But five turnovers and four costly special teams plays doomed any chance Jackson had of knocking off host Hazelwood East.

Add in a 164-yard, four-touchdown performance by senior running back DeJuan Owens, and the Spartans had all the elements they needed for a 33-6 thrashing of Jackson.

"You can't give a good football team a short field to score on after muffed punts, interceptions and fumbles," Jackson coach Van Hitt said. "We did all of that today."

As a result, Hazelwood East's longest scoring drive was a 57-yard, two-play backbreaker just before halftime.

ELIZABETH DODD ~ edodd@semissourian.comRenee Hinkebein, left, and Patty Schwab, mother of Jerrett Schwab, welcome Jackson onto the field for its Class 5 state semifinal game Saturday.

The Indians, trailing 13-0 after two punting unit miscues, had an opportunity to do something just before halftime after linebacker Cole Rodgers recovered Owens' fumble at midfield. But on the second play, Spartans defensive back Christopher Weaver jumped in front of a Jackson receiver to intercept Marcus Harris' pass and returned it to the East 48-yard line with 1:03 to play in the half.

The Spartans were content with running the ball, and Owens broke the second play of the drive for a 52-yard scoring run with just 20 seconds to go in the half. Tarrell Downing's kick made the score 20-0.

"The story all year was that if we didn't win, it's usually our fault, not theirs," Harris, the Indians' senior quarterback, said. "They didn't show us anything we haven't seen. We just didn't get it done today."

Jackson finished the year 8-6 after a 2-4 start, while Hazelwood East (10-3) will play 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Class 5 title game at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis against Raytown South.

Jackson had just 192 yards of offense, including 150 rushing, while Hazelwood East racked up 286 total yards, including 209 on the ground.

"We didn't move the ball very well at first," Hitt said. "We did finally start moving the ball, but by then it was too late and the game was out of hand."

Jackson's leading rusher, Adam Zweigart, was limited to 56 yards on 20 carries with one fumble. He had just 21 yards in the first half when Jackson had only 64 yards of offense.

"He's a heck of a football player," Hazelwood East coach Mike Jones said. "We knew he was the kind of player that can beat you, and for the most part we did a good job."

"They whipped us up front," Jackson senior guard Blake Peiffer said.

In addition to that, Jackson made costly special teams errors.

A bad snap on the Indians' second punt from their own 44 midway through the first quarter allowed the Spartans to take control of field position.

And after Bobby Clark's next punt partially was blocked by Walter Powell, the Spartans were in business from Jackson's 41. Owens ran for 27 yards on his first carry of the game. He was in the end zone soon after with an 11-yard run on the first play of the second quarter.

Jackson's next possession ended with Clark hitting a 13-yard punt off the side of his foot out of bounds at Jackson's 48. The Spartans' nine-play scoring drive ended with quarterback Eric Brown sneaking for the final yard and a 13-0 lead.

Owens' impressive jaunt through the Jackson defense just before halftime all but sealed the deal.

"Coach told us we have been 20 points down but we're still in the game," Jackson senior Kevin Pridemore said. "If they could put up 20 points in a half, then we can surely put up 21."

But Zweigart fumbled on Jackson's first possession of the second half, and Hazelwood East needed just three plays to go 45 yards. Owens ran the final 26 for the touchdown to make it 26-0.

Hazelwood East's last touchdown came after Powell blocked another punt and it ended up at Jackson' 26-yard line. Owens ran 5 yards for the score.

"It hurts, but you can't point a finger at the special teams," Harris said, "because defensively we missed a lot of tackles, and offensively we didn't move the ball and didn't do what we needed to do either."

Harris ended up 4 of 10 for 42 yards and two interceptions.

"We don't really have that complex of a passing attack, so when you've just got guys covering one-on-one that are that good, it's tough to pass the ball," Harris said.

He did manage a 6-yard scoring pass to Rodgers that capped a 58-yard drive in the third period.

Zweigart had consecutive runs of 12, 9 and 14 yards on that drive before Drew Bucher took the ball down to the 6 with three straight carries totaling 10 yards. Bucher led Jackson with 72 yards on 16 carries.

"My hat's off to our kids," Hitt said. "They played hard from start to finish. We just played a better football team."