Jessieville ground game too strong for Bismarck
JESSIEVILLE — A high scoring affair between two Lions teams saw Jessieville rush past Bismarck 51-42 at Don Phillips Field Friday night.
Jessieville (2-2, 1-1 3A-5) used its high powered rushing attack to dominate Bismarck (4-1, 1-1) on the ground. Quarterback Carson Hair carried the ball 31 times for 300 yards and five touchdowns, and running back Matthew Huff rushed for 213 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries.
“I mean, I was kind of at a loss on who to give the ball to,” Jessieville head coach T.j.burk said. “We’re going to miss those two when they’re gone. They’re dynamic football players, and (I’m) just proud of how hard they ran, protecting the football. We didn’t turn it over. We didn’t fumble the ball so, I mean, hats off to those two guys, but a lot of that comes from the guys in front of them, too. We had gap- ing holes at times, and our offensive line played an extremely good football game.”
Leading 44-42, Jessieville found itself in a fourth-and-goal situation at the Bismarck 1-yard line late in the fourth quarter.
Bismarck called a timeout, and Burk had a chance to call a play that would seal the game. Out of the timeout, Hair powered forward on a quarterback keeper and followed his offensive line into the end zone to set the final.
“I just brought the offensive line over there, and I said, ‘Look, we’re gonna rely on you guys.
We’re gonna run this thing in,’ and they said, ‘Coach, let’s do it,’” Burk said. “There’s a lot of faith there between the coaching staff and our offensive line. We believe we can run the football, so it’s a great job of executing and getting the football in the end zone kind of sealing the deal right there.”
Jessieville’s defense forced three turnovers including two in the first half that came when Bismarck was driving into the home team’s territory.
“It was gritty all the way around — offense and defense,” Burk said. “There were times where things didn’t go our way for one reason or another, and I feel like we fought back every time. We try to preach that, and we try to teach that every day in practice, so I think we did a good job with that.”
Bismarck’s first fumble came on a play at the Jessieville 25-yard line, and the visitor’s second fumble happened on a botched toss just 10 yards away from the end zone.
“Oh, they’re huge,” Bismarck head coach Daniel Keithley said. “It was something we kind of saw as we started. Whoever makes the most turnovers in this game, because neither defense was stopping anybody, and we made the most turnovers.
One turnover was on a play that if we handle the ball, it goes for 6 points.”
One of the biggest sequences of the game came at the end of the second quarter just before halftime.
Bismarck, trailing 21-14, drove into Jessieville territory again, and the visiting Lions found themselves in a fourth-and-2 situation from the 6-yard line. A rush by Justin York was stuffed at the 8, and Jessieville had just around a minute to drive the length of the field for points.
Later in the drive, Burk managed to call a timeout with one second left on the clock after a 31-yard pass found Drake Reid at the 4-yard line. Then, Alisson Quinonez sent his field goal between the uprights for a 24-14 halftime Jessieville lead.
“It was huge; I think the ball game was won right there,” Keithley said. “When they stopped us right there and then they went down there and by kicking the field goal they made it a two possession ball game. You could tell right there that was the biggest momentum shift and the deciding factor in the ball game.”
Burk echoed Keithley’s statement about the final sequence of the first half.
“We felt like if we could get it to a two possession game and keep scoring it was going to be hard for them to catch up,” Burk said. “Great credit to our guys, but a lot of credit goes to them, too. They played extremely hard.”
Even with three turnovers, Bismarck’s offense produced plenty of big plays during the contest to keep the game close.
“Well, the defense forced two turnovers in the first half, and we didn’t do a good job of executing on offense; we got no points off of those turnovers,” Burk said. “Part of that’s on me. … But we’ve got to cut down on the big plays. We’ve just got one or two guys out of assignments, or we have a guy there and miss a tackle, and we can’t do that against good football teams.”
The king of big plays on the night, Bismarck’s Braden Efird tallied 164 yards and two touchdowns on just two carries.
Efird’s first touchdown carry was an 88-yarder that saw him break all sorts of tackles on the way to the goalline to pull within 31-28 after a 2-point conversion in the third quarter.
Efird’s second house call came after a sack by Jax Shellnut appeared to put Bismarck in trouble at the vistors’ own 24-yard line. However, a reverse handoff saw Efird run 76 yards to the end zone and another 2-point coversion made the game 44-42 to set up the exciting finish.
Bismarck quarterback Ian Smith finished 9-for-14 passing for 147 and added 14 carries for 93 yards on the night.
Despite a potent offensive performance from the visitors, their comeback fell just short.
“I was a little embarrassed to be honest,” Keithley said. “I thought we came out flat and just never could recover. Defensively, we had guys in position, so the game plan was there we just couldn’t tackle. … We’ve got to sit on this this weekend. We’ve got to make it hurt. We’ve got to feel every bit of this loss, and it’s got to hurt all weekend. When we come back on Monday, we’ve got to understand we’re not going to do that again.”
After the game, Burk emphasized just how important earning that first conference win was for his team.
“We say all the time in this conference, there’s not a week that you can afford to slip up and lose one,” he said. “So this is a big one.”
Jessieville continues 3A-5 play when the Lions host Genoa Central Friday. Bismarck hosts Glen Rose.