West Greene's Ben Jackson dives for a touchdown on his way to setting the WPIAL single-season rushing record against Sto-Rox in a 24-7 defeat.
West Greene’s Jackson breaks rushing record
Many eyes were on West Greene running back Ben Jackson Friday night as fans wondered if he could break the WPIAL all-time single-season rushing record in the WPIAL Class 1A semifinals against Sto-Rox.
Lost in the excitement surrounding the senior’s move past Armstrong alumnus and current Yale junior Zane Dudek was Vikings quarterback Eric Wilson, who also had a chance to make a move up the WPIAL all-time career passing list.
When the game ended, the Pioneers’ Jackson got the record, but Sto-Rox’s Wilson will have at least one more game to pad his numbers.
Wilson completed 20 of 32 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns to Amahd Parks as No. 6-seeded Sto-Rox (11-1) pulled off its second consecutive upset with a 24-7 victory against No. 2 West Greene at Trinity to earn its first WPIAL finals berth since 2013. The 290 passing yards gave him 7,742 in his career and moved him past Pine-Richland alumnus Ben DiNucci for sixth place on the all-time list.
“I’m just so completely proud of my guys,” Sto-Rox coach LaRoi Johnson said.
“They battled hard, and we talked about doing this and accomplishing our dreams and not let nobody stop us from getting there. We battled through all season, just believed in each other and stuck together and I can’t be more proud of them.”
Jackson came into the game trailing Dudek and his then-record 2,955 yards by 32 and became the all-time single-season rushing champion with a 6-yard carry on the next-to-last play from scrimmage in the first quarter. He put a stamp on the record on the next play when he capped a 67-yard scoring drive with a 17-yard sprint down the right sideline that put the Pioneers ahead, 7-6, with 7.8 seconds remaining in the first.
“We had a pretty good season, but obviously not the outcome that we wanted” Jackson said. “We wanted to play for a WPIAL championship and then, hopefully, get to states.”
It certainly appeared things were heading in that direction after Jackson scored late in the first quarter to give West Greene the lead. It was especially surprising considering the ease in which Sto-Rox had scored first as Wilson went 4 for 4 on the first possession and capped the drive with a 27-yard strike to Parks for a quick 6-0 lead just 2:01 into the first quarter.
“I actually did [think it was going to be easy], but I should have been calm, cool and collected and went back to the basics,” Wilson said. “It was easy, it was pitch-andcatch, then they started sending blitzes, started doing a good job disguising them, but we just had to go ahead and settle down and, when we came back, we came back on fire.”
Sto-Rox moved the ball well against West Greene, but did everything it could to give the game away to the Pioneers in the first half. The Vikings committed six penalties for 58 yards in the first quarter and eight for 85 in the first half.
As a result Sto-Rox stopped a promising drive of its own and extended West Greene’s scoring drive.
“We’ve just got to go back and shore up what we’re doing,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot of nerves, our kids are learning every single game that they play and how to handle big games. I know we can do better, but it’s just going back to the practice board.”
Jackson made his impact with a seasonhigh 29 carries for 150 yards and a touchdown to finish the season with 3,073 yards and 50 touchdowns.
“We just wanted to make it as hard as we can, clog as many gaps as we can,” Johnson said. “He’s an unbelievable, explosive player. It was just about to get in as many gaps as we can and get him before he got started.”
Even so, West Greene had the lead at the intermission and got the ball to start the second half in excellent field position after a muffed kickoff attempt by Sto-Rox was recovered by the Pioneers at their 46. That was when West Greene began making mistakes as the team was called for two penalties on the drive. A fumbled snap did not help, either.
West Greene also went for it on fourth down on its first three second-half possessions and failed each time. On the second, Sto-Rox took over at its 26 and converted it into the first of two Diontae Givens touchdown runs.
As for the third, the Vikings held on the Pioneers 30, then Givens capped the quick drive with his other touchdown to put StoRox in front, 18-7, with 8:43 left in regulation.
“It was some self-inflicted errors,” West Greene coach Brian Hanson said. “We marched the ball on them ... . You’ve got to finish off drives and you can’t shoot yourself in the foot.”