Anyone who has spent any time talking with or at least listening to Tom Schuller knows that he can have a unique way of turning a phrase no matter what the subject.
What did he think of the first half performance of his Jackson County Central football team in its season opener vs. Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial Friday at Swearingen Field?
“I would describe it as vomitous,” said the veteran coach, who started a season with a win for the 21st time in his 25 years at the helm of the Huskies.
JCC allowed an early touchdown as the Knights scored on a 79-yard pass from Nathan Sickler to Nolan Nase and the extra point made it 7-0 LCWM less than 90 seconds into the game.
“We blew a coverage on the first series on a third and long,” Schuller said. “A a guy just ran right past our safety for a long touchdown. Not the way you want to start a game.”
JCC’s defense held LCWM down most of the remainder of the game, but the offense was having its trouble.
An eight-yard touchdown pass from Brenan Runge to Sam Brinkman after Runge had to scramble before getting the pass away got Jackson County Central on the scoreboard. Jack Sadusky kicked the extra point to tie the game at 7-7 with 4:15 left in half. That would be the halftime score.
“We needed to get into the halftime shed and try to figure out a couple of plays we could possibly run in a row,” said Schuller. “We thought if we could run two or three in a row, we might have a chance.
“We had to go into the wishbone, which I really didn’t want to do. But we had to simplify things. If we screwed those plays up, we had nowhere to go. We ran the ball down the field, got a big break on the kickoff and from there we were able to relax and get back into our offense and we were able to do some things.”
JCC scored four touchdowns in the third quarter, with the first two occurring with only one second ticking off the clock.
The Huskies took the second half kickoff and went down to score, with Runge throwing a 32-yard TD pass to Bryson Powers. Stai ran in the conversion and Jackson County Central had a 15-7 lead with 8:52 remaining in the third.
On the ensuing kickoff, LCWM was not able to cover the ball and after a Knights played touched it, Clay Malchow fell on the ball in the end zone for a JCC touchdown. Sadusky’s PAT made it 22-7 with 8:51 to play in the third.
Powers and Runge combined for a touchdown for the second time with 5:56 remaining in the third to make it 35-7 after three.
Tavion Diggs scored from four yards out with 7:11 to play and Sadusky’s kick gave Jackson County Central 42 consecutive points and a 42-7 lead.
Isaiah Hernandez scored from one yard out for LCWM to complete the scoring.
Jackson County Central had 333 yards offense, 184 rushing and 149 passing. Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial had 209 yards, 107 on the ground and 102 in the air.
Dahlin led JCC in rushing with 77 yards on two carries while Stai gained 75 yards on eight tries.
Runge was 13-for-21 passing for 149 yards and three TDs.
Brinkman had four catches for 51 yards, Powers 3-33, Dahlin 3-25 and Malchow caught two balls for 33 yards.
“There were good things too, but it was a very disappointing first half and it cost us by playing a few kids a little longer than we would have liked,” Schuller commented. “We have guys that need the time and tonight proved that. We’ll have to play better than that to beat Worthington.”
The Huskies and Trojans play at 7 p.m. Friday on the turf field at Trojan Field in Worthington.