State champions
Huskies beat Staples-Motley for 2A title
Friday was a day the Jackson County Central football team had been looking forward to for 53 weeks.
In the semifinals of the 2023 state Class 2A football tournament, the Huskies fell behind Barnesville but seemed to have the train back on the track early in the second half and were looking as if they might be able to find their way back into the game against a talented Trojans team.
Then came a difficult injury to watch as quarterback Roman Voss sustained a concussion that sent him out of the game and would ultimately keep him out of the boys basketball lineup for a portion of that season.
On that day the Huskies obviously sustained a physical setback as Voss is the top-rated player in the state for the Class of 2026. The team had difficulty getting focused mentally for a while after seeing Voss leave not just the game but the stadium for medical attention at a nearby hospital.
JCC would go on to lose in the semifinal round for the second straight year.
Fast forward to Friday at the same site, U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis.
Voss was again missing from the lineup, this time suffering a broken ankle in the state quarterfinals two weeks earlier.
Unfortunately, he had company on the sideline as tackle Kasey Storm was already out of the lineup and wide receiver-cornerback Ben Gallagher broke his ankle later in the same game Voss was injured.
The Huskies would face some on field trouble early in Friday’s championship game vs. Staples-Motley. The Cardinals’ Luke Bjerga intercepted a Grant Freking pass and took it 38 yards for a touchdown, and they had a 6-0 lead less than three minutes into the game.
But if this resilient pack of Huskies wasn’t going to let three outstanding players roaming the sideline (as best as they could anyway) during a state championship game slow it down, a six-point deficit with 45 minutes to play was a low bar to clear.
JCC would score the game’s next 28 points to lead 28-6 less than four minutes into the second quarter and the Huskies would go on to win 42-26.
It was not an easy win by any means as the Huskies were facing a Staples-Motley program that has also dealt with some tough times. The Cardinals were only two years removed from an 0-9 season in 2023.
“We learned we could weather adversity,” JCC coach Tom Schuller said at the postgame press conference.
“We thought we were in really good shape to win the state title last year, not to downplay who did (Eden Valley-Watkins), and then to have (an injury to Voss) happen again.
“We talked previously about it after the Norwood game,” he continued. “it was tough to enjoy that game because of what happened.”
That’s when a group text message from Voss to the coaching staff set the tone for the final two weeks of the season and a run to the school’s second state football championship.
“Roman sent a text to the coaches, saying, ‘Hey, it's going to be okay. Don't use this as an excuse. We still have a really good football team.’ “: Schuller said.
“That helped me personally, and I think the kids got up off the deck after you lose a player like him. We’ve got other great players, but Roman is the top-rated junior in the state and I want to see the seniors that are better than him because there can't be but a handful of them.”
Schuller, an unapologetic lifelong Detroit Lions fan sitting in front of a purple and gold backdrop in the Vikings Media Room, had four senior players with him on the podium.
“These guys are a special group,” he said, referring to Thomas Liepold, Clay Malchow, Ben Dahlin and Ian Titterington and all 19 of the team’s seniors.
“It was a road filled with adversity,” Schuller said. “The guys stepped in and just did a heck of a job. These guys never blinked. They never did the ‘woe is me’ thing. They just rallied around each other. The next guy stepped in and did a heck of a job.
“It was impressive. I mean, it's one of the most impressive things I've experienced. And I've been coaching a long time.”
And Schuller has coached several sports and coached in state tournaments in three sports.
He was the head coach of the JCC girls basketball team that went to state in 2011 and was an assistant on the state Class 2A baseball champions in 2004. Schuller has also coached in the boys basketball program.
How did the team stay focused on the end goal with everything that was thrown at them?
“This is why we keep going. So that we can get to this point right here in our lives and win this baby,” Malchow said while emphatically tapping the table with an index finger. “We've tried this before and this was the final chance.
“We strived to be here so long and so hard. We started working last year after we lost that game. A week later, we were in the lab. We were in the workout room. We were going hard.”
That togetherness brought the team together and helped it through some difficult times, even though they weren’t necessarily reflected on the scoreboard, outscoring their 13 opponents by a margin of 47.5-9.4 per game.
“We're all so tight as a team,” said Titterington, who’s dad, Shane, played on the 2001 championship team.
“We get together and hang out all the time, all of us, no one's ever left out in team stuff. We're always at lifting together, film together, just having a great time. We all love each other so deeply, like we're almost like one person as a team, like there isn't 11 of us out there.”
Staples-Motley 6 14 0 6 - 26
Jackson County Central 22 14 0 6 - 42
Scoring plays
First quarter
SM – Luke Bjerga 38 interception return (pass failed), 9:13.
JCC – Ben Dahlin 67 pass from Grant Freking (Clay Malchow run), 8:27.
JCC – Clay Malchow 1 run (Clay Malchow run), 6:04.
JCC – Carson Pohlman 24 pass from Grant Freking (Gant Freking run), 0:22
Second quarter
JCC – Ben Dahlin 69 pass from Grant Freking (run failed), 8:04.
SM – Luke Bjerga 2 run (Colbe Tappe run), 4:29.
JCC – Clay Malchow 39 run (Tavion Diggs run), 2:46.
SM – Payton Mithun 47 pass from Alex Schultz (Benet Robinson pass from Alex Schultz (1:21.
Third quarter
No scoring
Fourth quarter
JCC – Clay Malchow 21 run (pass failed), 10:20.
SM – Benjamin Tyrell 2 run (run failed), 5:33.
Individual statistics
Offense
Rushing
SM: Colbe Tappe 15-54, Luke Bjerga 6-37, Alex Schultz 9-37, Benjamin Tyrell 7-33, Eli Rutten 2- (-3). JCC: Clay Malchow 19-123, Gage Johnson 9-26, Tavion Diggs 5-17, Ben Dahlin 2-8, Sulmalmon Olasebikan 1-3, Grant Freking 1- (-1).
Receiving
SM: Colbe Tappe 3-17, Peyton Mithun 2-51, Conner Kuhns 1-12, Turner Beachy 1-5, Alex Schultz 1-0, Benjamin Tyrell 2-0; JCC: Ben Dahlin 5-166, Carter Buhl 2-22, Carson Pohlman 1-24..
Passing
SM: Alex Schultz 5-12-1-85, Eli Rutten 3-6-1-8 JCC: Grant Freking 8-12-1-212.
Team statistics
First downs: JCC 20, SM 15.
Rushing: JCC 37-176, SM 39-158.
Passing: JCC 8-12-1-212, SM 8-18-2-93.
Fumbles-lost: SM 0-0, JCC 0-0.
Penalties: SM 10-97, JCC 10-90.
