Senior Elijah Reed rushed for 3 Touchdowns and the Jones defense held Chisholm to 126 total yards as the Jones Longhorns defeated the Chisholm Longhorns 41-8 in the opening round of the OSSAA Class 2A Playoffs. Jones will travel to Luther on Friday November 20, 2020 to take on the Luther Lions.
Head Coach Dave Martin was pleased after the victory, “playoff wins are hard to come by, but we are equipped to go and make a run at this thing.”
Jones went three and out on their first possession of the game, however, three plays later Chisholm Quarterback Bryce Patton’s backward pass was recovered by Jones at the Chisholm 26 yard line. Junior Quarterback Carson May would connect with Junior Wideout Emmet Murphy 5 plays later to put Jones up 8-0. Chisholm would fumble on the very first play of the next drive. Five plays later, Elijah Reed would score on a 21 yard run. After a three-and-out, Elijah Reed returned the Chisholm punt 38 yards to the Chisholm 30 yard line. Four plays later, May would rush for a 9 yard score. This would put Jones up 22-0 at the end of the first.
The field position battle ended up being extremely significant in the game, as Jones scored 22 point off only 78 yards in the first quarter. Two turnovers and a great special teams play gave Jones the ball inside the Chisholm 30 yard line on all three first quarter scoring drives.
The only scoring in the second quarter came on a 58 yard reception by Junior Wideout Cadyn Karl. Karl would finish the evening with 107 yards on 9 receptions and a Touchdown. This put Jones up 28-0 heading into the locker room.
Chisholm received the ball to begin the third quarter. After a promising drive that put Chisholm on the Jones side of the field stalled, Chisholm again punted to Reed, who returned the punt 51 yards to the Chisholm 34 yard line. Two plays later Reed would score on a 17 yard run. This was the fourth Jones TD drive that started on the Chisholm side of the field. Later in the third, Jones had a 15 play, 86 yard drive capped off by Elijah Reed’s third rushing Touchdown of the evening. This put Jones up 41-0 at the end of the third.
Jones would rest their starters for the rest of the evening. The only other scoring would come on a Chisholm TD run on 4th and goal with :02 left in the game. After a successful two point conversion, the game would end with a 41-8 Jones victory.
There are a lot of things to highlight. Carson May had another stellar performance on the evening, going 14-25 for 198 yards and two TDs and one rushing TD. Elijah Reed was spectacular, gaining 92 yards on 15 carries and scoring 3 TDs. Reed was also dangerous in the return game, with two punt returns for 89 yards. But the star of the evening might be the Jones defense. Jones held Chisholm to 126 yards on 49 plays. Chisholm only managed 8 yards through the air. Jones also forced four turnovers (two interceptions, two fumbles).
“Defense was really strong and stubborn, got a few takeaways.”
While there are certainly things to fix, overall Coach Martin was pleased with the trajectory of his team, “A lot of times this time of year, teams will flatten out, they are what they are, I think this group is going to continue to get better.”
Martin was especially excited about his offense and defense peaking at the right times, “with the offense that we have, if you couple it with a very strong defense that goes out there and gets a lot of takeaways, it gives you a chance to make a deep run at this thing and win it.”
Coach Martin and the Longhorns will be on the field again next Friday against the Luther Lions. Luther and Jones met on September 11, a contest the Longhorns won 40-16.