Saturday, September 2, 2006
The Warriors didn't have an easy time against the Bluejays.
By JOHN BASSETTI
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BROOKFIELD -- Brookfield's Dave Nehlen and Jarvis Bills are names you'll hear a lot about, but the opponents of Jackson-Milton will feel a lot of the effects of the Bluejays throughout the season.
Seemingly ready for the bus ride back to North Jackson after Brookfield increased its lead to 28-6 early in the third quarter, Jackson-Milton gave the Warriors a lesson in hard-nosed football.
Not that Brookfield (2-0) lacks passion, but the Division VI Bluejays (0-2) did it with only 19 players dressed.
"Even with that small roster, it was a very hard-hitting team," Brookfield coach Randy Clark said after his team won, 41-14. "It was a great game for them and an eye-opener for us."
Bills leads way
Bills, a senior, scored three touchdowns and gained 214 yards on 16 carries, while Nehlen, a junior quarterback, completed 10-of-16 passes for 141 yards.
"We'll exploit whatever the defense will give us," Clark said. "Nehlen didn't have the best game, but we're going to get better at that and penalties didn't help us either."
Clark was referring to Nehlen's three interceptions, two of which were returned for Jackson-Milton's only touchdowns, by Derek Cox and Matt Shields.
He was also disgusted at his team's 137 penalty yards.
A.K. Livingston had six catches for 96 yards and Garrett McMullin had three for 44 yards.
Both had a TD catch, too, while Brookfield's other tally came when defensive tackle Alie Ruheim ran with a blocked punt caused by defensive end Jeff Hansen.
Jackson-Milton coach Mark Assion said that the Warriors have his team's love and respect, but he also believes that they're feeling the effects.
"Even though we did get defeated, they're hurting right now. Our kids hit really hard the entire ball game. I'm kind of proud of our boys because, coming over here, one of our boys was saying that they're supposed to beat us by 40 or 55 points. They didn't do that. We hung in there until the end of the game."
Assion explained why the Bills and Brookfield had success offensively.
"We went into two different defensive schemes. We thought they would try to go to their pro set where they have two backs in the backfield to run their dive scheme. But they ran off tackle and we didn't have anybody there. They brought everybody down on our guys elsewhere and then they went outside."
Bills' first TD run covering 36 yards was on a trap play.
Hansen kicked five extra points.