Jefferson 28, Jackson Co. 6: Dragons rebound with rivalry win

Jefferson (1-1) scored the last 21 points of the contest to turn a 7-6 game in the second quarter into a comfortable win in this crosstown series. Click here for photos.

Dragon linebacker Wesley Simonton said he and his teammates took the field Friday with a renewed focus following the previous week’s “wake-up call.”

“That (losing to Commerce) might have been the worst thing that could happen but the best thing that could happen to us, because we came out here as a new team and I don’t think anybody expected this,” said Simonton, who had a monster game with 14 tackles and four sacks.

Jefferson, which improved to 5-0 all-time against Jackson County (1-1), put up 377 total yards in its bounce-back win.

Bryant Shirreffs threw for 173 yards on 12-of-20 passing with a touchdown. He also ran for another score. Sammy Williams romped for a career-high 119 yards and one touchdown.

McKay Dickens and Trent Sorrells both had touchdown receptions, with Sorrells catching a 21-yard scoring strike from Shirreffs in the fourth quarter and Dickens catching a 21-yard halfback pass from Isaiah Blake in the first quarter.

Defensively, Jefferson shutdown the Panthers’ spread offense over the last three-and-a-half quarters. In addition to Simonton’s huge night, Kody McDonald had 12 tackles and two sacks.

“I was proud of the defense,” Jefferson coach T. McFerrin said. “That’s tough to defend, all that spread stuff, so I thought our defense played well.”

The coach said his team did some good things on offense, too.

“We had a lot of yardage, I know that, more than 28-points worth,” McFerrin said. “It’s just great to get a win.”

McFerrin said his team beat a much-improved Jackson County squad.

“They’ve got 19 starters back, I think,” he said. “They’re big and strong. I was worried sick all week long. I was worried the first half, it was so close. We moved the ball, but something would happen. We’d make a mistake of some kind.”

Jefferson committed 15 penalties in the win.

“I’ve never had that many penalties in my life,” he said. “We’ve got to get that corrected. Overall, though, we played hard and we played well. I was proud of them.”

First-year Jackson County coach Benji Harrison couldn’t fault his team’s effort as he suffered his first head-coaching loss.

“I was proud of our kids the first half,” Harrison said. “I thought we came out and battled with them. We let the game get away from us a little bit in the second half. I thought our kids fought.”

Jefferson struck early, driving 68 yards on the game’s opening drive and getting the Blake-to-Dickens touchdown pass on a trick play.

“We practiced it and practiced it this week,” said Dickens, who finished with 43 yards receiving. “He (Isaiah Blake) threw it perfect. We couldn’t have called it at a better time and it couldn’t have been executed better.”

Not to be outdone, Jackson County scored its lone touchdown on its first play from scrimmage when Kyle Daniel threw a screen pass to Dustin Scott, who took it 80 yards for a score. The PAT was no good.

“Oh, that was a great start,” Harrison said. “You can’t ask for anything more out of the first play of the game. We were hoping it would get us a little momentum. We couldn’t sustain it. Bottom line, we couldn’t sustain the momentum offensively.”

Simonton said the Dragon defense settled down after that play.

“That first play when they scored that touchdown, we just weren’t focused,” Simonton said. “After that, I think all our young boys, we got together as a team and just went from there and they couldn’t stop us.”

Jefferson didn’t score again until very late in the first half. The Dragons, aided by a pass interference penalty, drove 55 yards and scored when Shirreffs dived in from one yard out with 24 seconds left to go up 14-6.

“That was big,” McFerring said. “That gave us some momentum going in. Every touchdown is big.”

Jefferson recovered an onside kick to start the second half and drove for another score. Aided this time by a roughing-the-punter penalty and two offsides in fractions from Jackson County, the Dragons moved 43 yards and got an eight-yard touchdown from Williams with 7:00 left in the third quarter.

The Dragons’ final touchdown came on Shirreffs’ touchdown strike to Sorrells at the 11:18 mark in the fourth quarter.

Overall, Harrison said his team didn’t make enough big plays and made too many mistakes to win the game.

“Obviously, we don’t like the score at all,” he said. “But I thought we had a chance. We gave ourselves a chance at halftime. I think our kids believed we could win it.”

Meanwhile, Jefferson left the field feeling a lot better than it did the previous week.

“Words can’t describe how much better it feels,” Dickens said. “I think everybody knows that. It’s the complete opposite.”