A Jackson County Central defense playing without any of its three starting linebackers held Windom to one touchdown as the Huskies defeated the Eagles 50-6 in a South Central Silver District football game Friday night at Swearingen Field.
It was another win in the 'Battle for the Paddle' series for JCC, which has won 15 straight over Windom dating back to 2009.
"Going in without your three starting linebackers you're battling every single possession to try and stop people," JCC coach Tom Schuller said on the postgame show on 106.5 Lakes FM. "We put in a big week of trying to get those kids ready. Considering that I thought they did pretty good. We didn't stop them cold, that's for sure."
While the final margin was decisive, the Huskies let some opportunities to put the game away sooner get away.
"We talked about needing to get more plays for our offense and that's somewhat on the defense," Schuller commented. "We haven't been getting many three and outs and we didn't get a lot of them tonight and then we did and we roughed the kicker on the punt. Then we got a touchdown return on an interception and clipped a guy in the back.
"We fumbled a snap from center. We were coming off a big stop and then we lay an egg on our 20. We're too prone to that kind of stuff right now. We're not going to beat good football teams doing that. It's a work in progress, but it was a big win for us. Everybody got to play and that's awesome."
The Huskies had two running backs gain more than 100 yards and their quarterback throw the first two touchdown passes of his career.
Will Freking gained 149 yards on 11 carries, including touchdowns from 30 and 1 yards out. Gabe Wolff carried the ball 14 times for 112 yards.
Roman Voss was 7-for-11 passing for 95 yards and two TDs, both to Tanner Harr on plays covering 29 and 11 yards.
Payton Handevidt scored on a 17-yard run, Seth Stai on a 9-yard run and Noah Thompson went in from 1 yard out.
The Huskies had 409 yards rushing and 95 passing for 504 total yards, while the Eagles had 104 on the ground and 62 in the air for 166 yards.
Jackson County Central, now 2-2, is at Redwood Valley next Friday.
"We've got a real test coming in a good Redwood team," Schuller said. "It's a big game for us to try and hang a loss on a section team in Redwood and I'm really looking forward to going there and trying to do that."
South Central Silver District
Friday
Jackson County Central 50, Windom 6
Pipestone 14, Redwood Valley 7
Saturday
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial at Maple River
Section 3AA
JCC is a member for Section 3AA for postseason play. Here's this week's results for section teams. Records are in parenthesis.
Jackson County Central (2-2): Beat Windom 50-6.
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial (1-2): at Maple River (Saturday)
Minnesota Valley Lutheran (2-2): Beat Wabasso 38-6.
Pipestone (4-0): Beat Redwood Valley 14-7
Redwood Valley (3-1): Lost to Pipestone 14-7
St. James Area (0-3): at Murray County Central (Saturday)
Sibley East (1-2): at Norwood Young America (Saturday)
Windom (0-4): Lost to Jackson County Central 50-6
JCC football schedule
Thurs., Sept. 2 - Maple River, L 35-8
Fri., Sept. 10 - Luverne, W 36-16
Fri., Sept. 17 - at Blue Earth Area, L 48-14
Fri., Sept. 24 - Windom, W 50-6
Fri., Oct. 1 - at Redwood Valley, 7 p.m.
Fri., Oct. 8 - Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial, 7 p.m.
Fri., Oct. 15 - at Pipestone, 7 p.m.
Wed., Oct. 20 - at St. Peter, 7 p.m.