Logan topples Jay County but might have lost two stars

PORTLAND — Depth has been a strength all year for the Logansport football team.

That depth was put to the test Friday night at Jay County as despite being down one of their best players, the Berries eventually overwhelmed an opponent in the second half for a second straight game in a 49-22 win.

The Class 4A No. 10 Berries moved to 11-0 for the first time in program history. They travel to Muncie Central (8-3) next Friday for the Sectional 20 final. Jay County finishes 4-7.

The Berries’ depth will be put to the test for the sectional championship game at Muncie Central, as the Berries could possibly be down two of their stars: Jaxsyn Walker who missed most of the Jay County game with an injury and Karsen Jackson who was ejected from the contest late and will have to serve a one-game suspention.

Walker left the game in the first quarter with a calf injury which shook up the lineup on both sides of the ball. Jackson Wicker moved from wide receiver to running back, Hudson Shank filled in at wide receiver and Isaias Vazquez filled in at cornerback.

Wicker ran the ball four times for 61 yards and had touchdown runs of 8 and 19 yards. He had an 80-yard TD run called back by a penalty. He also had one catch for 15 yards.

He also recovered a kickoff to Jay County in the first quarter that led to a score and had an interception in the second quarter that led to another score.

“Walker was been nursing a calf all week. It kind of flared up I think after the Delta game,” Logan coach Troy Hudson said. “We knew going in it was gonna be very limited with him. We were going to see how he was. He’s a warrior and he wants to play. He never wants to come off the field. But I could tell it was bothering him and I just felt like he was gonna hurt himself more or we were putting him in a position where he could hurt the team. So we went with Isaias Vasquez at corner who did a really good job. And then Jackson Wicker came in from split end and did a really good job there at halfback and probably had his best game as a varsity player.”

The Berries led just 20-14 at halftime as they were having issues stopping Jay County’s run game in the first half.

“Jay County came out in the first half and ran some stuff we just hadn’t seen them run at all year in preparation for them,” Hudson said. “We had not prepped for anything like that all week. They just came out and then they got into a tight bunch formation and did a lot of changing and switching and we were able to figure it out by halftime. But it just took us a minute to get it all figured out. The boys came out the second half I felt like and just played with a kind of little bit of a edge to them and I thought we played a lot better in the second half.”

The two head coaches exchanged words and there was a commotion between the teams at halftime when they went back to their respective locker rooms which are located near to each other with the setup at Jay County.

“There was a disagreement with the coaches and it could have been handled better on both sides,” Hudson said.

For a second straight week the Berries dominated their opponent in the second half. They made some adjustments and seemed to wear down the Patriots.

Elliot Baldini got on the board with a 3-yard TD run less than two minutes into the third quarter. Greyson Cottrell recovered a Jay County fumble. Wicker scored his second touchdown of the night to make it 34-14. The Berries got a goal line stand when Vazquez batted away a fourth-and-goal pass from the 3-yard line. The Berries drove the length of the field as Baldini scored from 70 yards out. Christopher Curry recovered a fumble. Quincy Jackson scored from 17 yards out to make it a 49-14 game with 3:09 as the Berries avalanched a second straight opponent in the second half and this time started a running clock.

The Hopper twins have become a weapon as the team’s place kickers as both Josiah and Elijah have the ability to kick long field goals and their kickoffs are difficult to recover by the opposition. Wicker recovered one of their kickoffs in the first half and the Berries had three or four other kickoffs they came close to getting. But on their final kickoff of the game Karsen Jackson and the ball arrived nearly at the same time. Jackson delivered a big hit which drew a penalty as he was called for targeting on a defenseless receiver. The officials identified Reynaldo Hyppolite for the ejection but Jackson did not play another snap. But Jackson will have to sit out a one-game suspension due to the ejection, Hudson said.

“He’s a good ballplayer and we’ll miss him if he’s unable to play,” Hudson said Friday night. Hudson confirmed Saturday that Jackson will have to serve a one-game suspension for the Muncie game.

Baldini ran the ball 14 times for 145 yards and two touchdowns for the Berries. Karsen Jackson had eight carries for 70 yards which included a 2-yard TD run in the first half. Wicker had four carries for 61 yards and two TDs. Quincy Jackson had 48 yards on five carries and two TDs. He had an 8-yard TD run in the first quarter that gave the Berries a 13-0 lead. He also caught a 2-point conversion pass after his TD run in the fourth quarter to get the running clock started.

Kuper Jones was 3 of 8 passing for 66 yards. He had a 49-yard completion to Hudson Shank that set up the Berries’ first score of the game. He also had a 15-yard pass to Wicker.

“I think we came out not too bad, came out a little slow just like last week,” Jones said. “I think we need to calm the emotions a little bit, let them do the talking and just come out, play our football and win a game and avoid all the contact that happened.

“Wick did well running the football, running routes, catching the football, missed that one pass, but it’s all right. We’re all gonna have ups and downs. Defense especially, he’s filling gaps well, playing safety like he always does. Wick had a pretty good game. Yeah, I’m proud of him.”

Jones added the Berries responded well in the second half for a second straight week.

“We got punched in the mouth a little bit. I think we came out with a little bit of fight and grit to come back and show them Logansport football,” he said.

Hudson is hoping Walker will able to return for the Muncie game.

“I don’t really know what’s going on with his calf. He made improvements throughout the week, so even tonight he was better than he was earlier this week. So my hope is another week of rest and recovery will hopefully get him back,” Hudson said. “He said he felt like he was about 70% tonight, and so maybe we can try to get him hopefully to 90 in another week.”

Sophomore quarterback Brady Millspaugh ran the ball 25 times for 153 yards and two TDs to lead Jay County. He was 5 of 10 passing for 116 yards and a TD. The Berries held leading rusher Leighton Brown to 18 yards on 12 attempts.

Millspaugh had 14 carries for 98 yards in the first half but was held to 11 carries for 55 yards in the second. His touchdown pass came late against the Berries’ JV defense.

“We made some good adjustments there,” Hudson said. “(Defensive coordinator) Carson Loposser made some really good adjustments in what they were trying to do to us and we were able to stop them. I think we really pretty much shut them down that second half. I know they had a score against our JV, but we really shut them down for the most part. And offensively we knew what was working for us. We were really moving the ball pretty well all night on it.

“They had a good game plan in place to be able to try to get their little chunks of four to five yards and try to bleed the clock and they would take it down to about five seconds. They thought that was how they were going to be able to beat us and they were very successful on that in the first half. But again, the adjustments were there and good adjustments on our end of making it happen. So yeah, it was a good win overall. We had to go two hours, it’s a long haul.”

Karsen Jackson led the Berries with 12 tackles and Cottrell added 10 tackles.

Karsen Jackson has been a tackling machine all year for the Berries but they’ll be without one of their starting inside linebackers for the sectional final.

Muncie Central upset Yorktown 28-27, turning around a 24-7 loss in Week 2. Yorktown missed a 38-yard field goal at the end of the game.